A long journey through the gates of hell.

Rating: 9/10 (5 May 2012)

I saw the redux version of Apocalypse now the day before yesterday and it's stuck in my mind since. I had already seen it, nevertheless the experience of watching it again was (as it always is) very refreshing! It's like admiring a painting by Michelangelo or DaVinci for a second time and being mesmerized by every detail, every color, every line.
For a bit of plot summary, the movie follows captain Willard (Sheen) who during the Vietnam war is given the mission of killing a highly decorate Colonel, Kurtz (Brando). Kurtz has retrieved deep within the Cambodjian forest, exercising his command without any restrains and leading a group of native followers who constitute "his" army. So Willard must pick up his track and get to him by hitchhiking a ride with a patrol boat crew up the river and into the heart of the forest, or more fittingly into the heart of darkness.
This movie should not be viewed as a docudrama from the GI's point of view, shedding some light on the horrors of the War in Vietnam, or of war in general. Apocalypse now is more of a soul searching experience within a war background, a war whose worse aspects provide the elements needed to create the canvas in which the story evolves. If I'm allowed to indulge in some free interpretation, the movie is an exercise on the worst side within the human psyche, its darkest side, and the path leading to it, a path that Sheen's character is forced to pursue as he searches for Kurtz. As he begins to understand him he also starts to get closer to that darkness within him. So the whole journey up the river can be understood as an allegory for a journey into the soul, into that dark side where Kurtz supposedly has reached and which is very well suggested in the narrative by his encroaching in the heart of the jungle. As a matter of fact there are enough suggestions and key moments in the movie to support this (possible) interpretation. It's as if John Millius and Francis Ford Coppola tried to adapt Joseph Conrad's book ("The heart of darkness"), as a kind of Dante's Inferno blended in the Vietnam war.
But this abstract and stylistic journey isn't brought fourth by merit of the script alone. The visual style, the editing, the score, all contribute to this complex canvas as I called it: Vittorio Storaro's cinematography alternates between a pale daylight and the dark night photography, sprinkled with only a few bright lights giving a sense of otherworldly atmosphere to the whole movie. That along with Carmine Coppola's eerie score ultimately emphasizes Willard's psychedelic journey.
I must say that although I haven't seen the original version for over ten years, I think the redux version is better. The biggest throwback in this version might be the French plantation scene in which Coppola indulges in considerations about colonialism and patriotism. And although its subject is not devoid of merit (or mishandled for that matter), the fact is that this scene completely stops the movie just as Willard's journey is near the end. However the scene itself can be appreciated for its worth as it doesn't play down all the other inserts in the movie which add a little more depth in secondary characters (like Willards boat companions) alluding to the fact that they too join Willard in his human hellish descent.
It wouldn't be fare to go without mentioning the acting: the trio Sheen, Brando and Duvall stand out! Martin Sheen is very convincing, as a man that doesn't fit in society. A soldier aware of his terrible part in the war and a perfect Dantesque character for the journey ahead; Brando and Duvall impersonate the characters already gone that far "up the river", which highlights the hypocrisy of the generals who condemn Kurtz yet condone Colonel Kilgore's (Duvall) equally unsound warfare. As for Marlon Brando well, he always distinguished himself portraying characters on the edge of a strait razor, and here he paints yet another wonderful performance in the history of cinema, despite his short screen time.
Aside for this a note worth mention: the arduous work by Francis Ford Coppola in making this masterpiece possible is documented in "the hearts of darkness", a documentary about the already known troubles that plagued the shooting and production of this movie. But that, is for another review I hope my words have been of some help to you!