"What do you call it when the assassins accuse the assassin?"

Rating: 10/10 (15 October 2009)

Back during the Viet Nam War, a friend of mine from my home town returned from the war and described his first day in combat. He was dropped from a helicopter in the middle of a jungle clearing, while simultaneously realizing that the rifle fire coming his way was from enemies that wanted to kill him. I'm not sure how a sane person filters that type of insanity through any kind of rational prism. Perhaps that's what "Apocalypse Now" is meant to convey, as virtually every situation presented makes no sense in a rational world. The surreal takes center stage from beginning to end, with river surfing set to a napalm barrage and playboy bunnies appearing out of the night sky aboard a helicopter. For a generation of movie watchers born after the Viet Nam era, scenes like those might seem like the fevered nightmares of a troubled film maker, but for those who lived it, they were all too real. I guess that's why Viet vets referred to 'The World' as anyplace BUT Viet Nam; in today's experience, one might compare that war to a virtual reality video game, except that you could really die in it.
I recall back in the day how Marlon Brando's presence in the film was highly regarded and anticipated, yet for all that he's in it for only a relatively short time. It's Martin Sheen's picture pretty much all the way, with a supporting cast that while watching today, surprised me with the likes of Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishbourne, Harrison Ford and Dennis Hopper. Robert Duvall on the other hand, might have cemented his growing reputation here with his 'napalm smell of victory' declaration early in the picture. His portrayal of Big Duke Six Kilgore is the one I remember best from thirty years ago, even though he winds up merely a marginal character.
Interestingly, if one were to remove the context of Viet Nam, the picture would still hold up amazingly well, given the universal oxymoron of military intelligence in a Catch 22 world. Captain Willard's thoughts and actions turn conventional thinking on it's head, while forcing the viewer to re-examine one's own ideas about good and evil, right and wrong, humanity and inhumanity. It's not a comfortable picture to watch, and one which defies the generally accepted definition of entertainment. Nevertheless it's almost certainly a must see picture that challenges one's perceptions about war and it's consequences.