Apocalypse Then

Rating: 5/10 (10 March 2011)

Viewed in retrospect, Coppola's ambitious, sprawling, statement on the Vietnam war, has the appearance of a crack-smoker's nightmare. It certainly doesn't live up to the hype of yesteryear.
The intro is now surely one of the most boring in movie history, depicting what appears to be a dream sequence in the hero's head as the credits come and go. Youthful Martin Sheen is Captain Willard, wishing he was back in the war. Alternately we glimpse a montage of helicopters and pyrotechnics, interspaced by images of his troubled, staring eyes. It's over-long. Already I'm impatient.
We eventually learn that he has been selected for a mission to assassinate some rogue Colonel. So; off he goes.
The core of the movie takes us through a fairly typical series of set-piece 'Nam clichés. Contempt for authority, loss of mission belief, disobedience, paranoia, psychosis, military blundering, slaughter of the innocents, disconnected officers; all the recurrent themes of the genre are addressed with a suitably heavy hand. If US forces really are so dysfunctional; it's hardly surprising that they lost. For much of the time Sheen's voice narrates his thoughts about the mission, its renegade target, and the world about him. That also is the stuff of cliché.
None of the characters excite our particular sympathy. They are all largely 2-dimensional; their inclusion simply fits a predetermined scenario. And when they die, we don't really care. Even Sheen's Willard is coldly unappealing.
Eventually, after yet more set-piece - and frankly ridiculous phantasmagoria - we are face to face with Colonel Kurtz: Willard's nemesis. This character is 'played' by Marlon Brando, who was already a fast-fading legend. We only ever see him in half-light because he was, by now, and quite rightly, so self-conscious about his appearance that it was a condition of his involvement in the movie. He babbles slowly and incoherently as lunatics are apt to do. The encounter is such a darkly plodding and tedious experience that it's almost a book-end to the beginning. Eventually, the deed is done and it's time to go.
Accolades were heaped upon this movie. Perhaps in its day they were deserved. I think they had more to do with the inclusion of that Lord God Of Stardom (read preposterous fat clown) Brando, than anything else. He had already assumed such a cult status, almost any movie in which he featured was deemed to be a classic. But fans who remember that hungry young cannibal on the waterfront, will find him a contender for nothing more than 'Booby of The Year' in this production.
It is sumptuously filmed in vibrant colour and has a stellar cast who pop up and vanish like gooks, including a make-tea-and-miss Harrison Ford just 2 years after a dominant role in 'Star Wars'. The script is likewise below par. That so-oft-repeated 'I love the smell of napalm in the morning' courtesy of a fleeting Robert Duvall is memorable for no other reason than being the only line worth quoting.
If you're high on something at time of viewing then you may connect with the imagery and 'message', but by any sober evaluation, it's meandering, over-blown and pompous. Not recommended. I actually gave more points to John Wayne's uber-simplistic but at least coherent 'Green Berets'.