One of the most harrowing film experiences...

Rating: 10/10 (3 September 2006)

It's rare that you watch a film, and from the opening shot you are dragged in, and can't let go until the last frame. Even, as the credits began to roll at the end, I was transfixed, I sat through them all as if still under the spell of perhaps one of the best films I've ever seen. I'm not usually one who is so quickly to judge, but there are certain movies that get you that first time, and this is it.
Set during the Vietnam war, this is the story of a Captain Willard(Martin Sheen) who has been given a mission to assassinate an American commander, who they believe has lost his mind. There is little story to this film, it reminds me greatly of Aguirre: The Wrath of God. They follow the river, looking for a Holy city. When Willard finally finds Kurtz, he has come across a seemingly ancient city, where Kurtz has been deified and is worshiped. Also like Aguirre, we see human self destruction... but unlike Aguirre this time it's not necessarily stemmed by greed, but in uncertainty and anarchy.
Visually, one of the most stunning films I've ever seen. It's beautiful and grotesque all at once. Smoke is almost always looming, hiding behind the trees, seeping down to the water, hiding what should be clear as day. It's like looking at the biblical art of the middle ages, and early Renaissance. Eerily beautiful, almost surreal...unsettling devout, truthful and lying all at once. The use of music is also one of the best examples I've ever come across. I always feel as though many soundtracks feel so forced, but this one... it just works. The opening scene with "The End", is incredible. It's almost as if The Doors had this film in mind when they composed it. It's not just this scene though, it always works... this film seems to almost have created itself.
Finally, as a war film... it's still hard to decipher what it has to say. It's easy enough to say "this is an anti-war film", but it's really so much more. This film does so much more than point out the faults of the Vietnam war, and war on a universal level. It strips away at humanity itself, our own impulses and moral natures. One of the best films I've ever seen, honestly, good thing I started this project or who knows how long it would have taken me to get around to seeing this masterpiece.