Started strong, and went downhill from there...

Rating: 3/10 (29 October 2019)

I watched this film, as I am currently working through a lot of the films that you are meant to have seen before you die. I was very excited about this title, but must say I was very disappointed.
A bizarre tale about an assassin in the Vietnam war, a large portion of the story takes place on a boat that's ambling down rivers, encountering oddballs and little else.
It makes the American Military at the time seem like a heap of buffoons at best, with a commanding officer insisting on trying to surf in the midst of a land invasion in one of the most surreal war scenes I've ever seen. Very unrealistic and completely broke my immersion.
Performances are non-compelling, all Martin Sheen had to do throughout the films over 3 hours duration was stare into the middle distance, and it was still poorly acted. None of the characters have a compelling arc, with most being downright annoying, so when one of them dies, you find yourself all but thankful.
I would say at least 90% of the film is pure irrelevancy, having nothing to do with the plot, making it very verbose and a struggle to see through to the end, which turned out to be an overwrought monologue by Marlon Brando, before he is hacked apart, with images interspersed of a cow being pointlessly mutilated.
All I took away from the film was some facts about Ray Dolby, as I got bored, and started reading articles on Wikipedia.
I gave it three stars, as I thought there was some interesting imagery, and the sounds was actually quite good.