Hellish journey to Heart of Darkness

Rating: Null/10 (13 August 1999)

APOCALYPSE NOW if often criticized for not being a very accurate representation of the Viet Nam war, but this misses the point. It's not really a war movie, nor is it an anti-war movie, really. It's a surreal examination of madness and evil, with the conflict in Viet Nam as a backdrop. Movies like PLATOON and FULL METAL JACKET are ABOUT the Viet Nam war, and probably more accurately portray it, but this film is more chilling, more disturbing, and more surreal.
The ending is often criticized as well, as being cerebral, confused, inconclusive and murky, but after all the madness that precedes it, what other ending would you want? John Milius' RAMBO-ish proposed teaming of Kurtz and Willard to battle the Viet Cong, shooting down the helicopter sent to rescue them? Come on. Maybe in PLATOON. But as slightly muddled as it is, the ending is just right.
Marlon Brando's enormous bulk (though relatively slender compared to the Brando of late) has been criticized as well, but in portraying a man who knows no restraint, has gone way over the edge, his girth works. Sure he's not the skeletal, etherial Kurtz Joseph Conrad envisioned, but he does look like a man who doesn't know when to stop.
Scary, exciting, funny, disturbing, APOCALYPSE NOW is quite a journey, a trippy journey into the Heart of Darkness.