Haunting...

Rating: 9/10 (20 July 2015)

Apocalypse Now is unique among the many films depicting Vietnam. In fact, it isn't explicitly a war film. Rather, the war in Vietnam serves as context through which the much deeper, uglier themes of the human condition are exposed and analysed.
Martin Sheen is arguably at his best portraying Willard, a man who we see struggling at the edge of his sanity from the beginning. Sheen narrates the film with haunting tones of depression and world-weariness, and through his narration, the viewer very much experiences the film's events as Willard does. Through his eyes, we learn that war is merely a key that unlocks the inner, primordial workings of the human psyche. The picture's characters react to this in various ways, but in so doing, Francis Ford Coppola doesn't create a movie about war as much as one about the depths of the soul. Apocalypse Now is a masterpiece in this regard alone.
But equally reflective of this is the movie's use of symbolism and metaphor. Close viewing will reveal the light levels fading as the boat progresses further down-river, symbolising the possibility for human descent into madness and chaos. This develops until we finally meet Kurtz (the insane soldier whom Willard is sent to kill), who is shrouded almost entirely in darkness for the duration of the scenes in which he features. Marlon Brando is outstanding in his portrayal of Kurtz... he gives a truly sobering impression of a man pushed over the edge by grief, insanity and an inability to rationally process what he has witnessed during his tours. Coppola's essential climax is that of our meeting with Kurtz. This is done masterfully through the escalating events of madness encountered by Willard and his team as they progress down-river.
Only more poignant is the script of Apocalypse Now, which does a perfect job of exploring how each of the characters' minds and souls are affected differently by what they witness. Willard, for example, is clearly conflicted by his experience: he's so traumatised that normal life is an impossible return for him to make, and so he views war as the only drug that might keep him sane. Yet on the other hand, he admits and realises that the extent of his distress has pushed him to the brink, and that the only thing keeping him from insanity is his acceptance of war as an unbearable thing. For others, the war is a liberation of sorts through which moral restrictions and responsibility for one's actions are blurred. And for some, like Kurtz, war is a completely unhinging experience that leaves people tortured and broken by the duality present in both judgement and morals.
Understand this: Apocalypse Now is not an "easy watch". It's an extremely potent, meticulous exploration of the soul; of what it means to be human, and of how civilised human beings attempt to grapple with war's ability to unlock the primal instincts that we try so hard to repress out of daily life. Francis Ford Coppola has created a vision in which the very soul of a person is under the spotlight, and his actors are instrumental in helping him achieve this. Whether it's through this, the excellent soundtrack or the pervading use of symbolism present, viewers will be left numbed in awe by the haunting poignancy of Apocalypse Now.