Not your average "blood-and-guts" war film.

Rating: Null/10 (26 July 2004)

Caution! Spoilers within the review.
Most assuredly the best war film I have ever viewed before. Containing more than the average war flick, with the "standards" of excessive gore, poor acting, and a lack of a plot or conclusion, Apocalypse Now is something a recommend to anyone who wants to commit a few hours to a good film. The movie transcends the aspect of pure combat in a war film, and shows us not a war against an enemy, but against our inner-selves.
The movie begins in a dreary, dim-lit, motel in Saigon, with our main character, Captain Bloom, who has already been mentally stained by the trauma of war in his first tour of duty. After being "escorted" out of his room, he is briefed by command that he is to undertake a "non-existant" mission to assassinate a once top-notch colonel who went psychotic and took his troops to the middle of the Cambodian wilderness. Bloom accepts this (outlandish) mission, and after a brief run in with the care-free "Air-Calv" and a Playboy Bunny performance at a base, they proceed to spend idle hours on their river-boat, becoming increasingly edgy and ... mentally detached.
Then the most memorable part of the movie begins. They arrive at the eastern-most base on the river, and is a "hell-on-earth." Soldiers at the base attempt to swim to the boat, pleading to be taken aboard so they can return to civilization. Flares and artillery fire are sprung about, and the soldiers are psychotic, and spend their time shooting at soldiers that do not exist (AKA: air). A "carnival-like" music blares in the background, which complements the carnival lights that illuminate the bridge.
After they depart, they pass lands of mist, riverbanks with a scattered account of dead soldiers and downed aircraft. They then run into a French estate, filled with bitter Frenchmen, and soon after see their destination.
It is reminiscent of an Aztec village (without the pyramids), with scattered naked corpses about, and naked soldiers who look like tribal savages and Cambodian lackeys. The target (the Colonel played by Brando) awaits Bloom, and imprisons him, while decapitating one of his crew. They then make an incredibly long and drawn out discussion, in which Brando spews out random gibberish on the workings of life, which make no sense (remember he's psychotic). Bloom finally assassinates Brando with a machete, and walks out of the place back onto his boat, while Brando's men worship Bloom for killing Brando. Bloom and one of his crew mate (a famous L.A. surfer in the plot), are the only survivors, and sail away on their boat.
8.5/10. Not a ten because it was rather long and drawn out at times (especially if you watch the redux version).