A revelation

Rating: 9/10 (15 February 2015)

What a complete revelation when I saw Apocalypse now! It helped me to change my opinion about the Vietnam War radically. Of course I already knew it was one of the most traumatic episodes America has ever experienced, but I could not think of such brutality in conflicts, such hypocrisy of politicians and such deteriorating effects war has on the human psyche. The plot is basically very simple and brief: Willard, an officer who has lost any hope in life and humanity, is sent on secret mission to kill the renegade colonel Kurtz, who has set up his own little society in the jungle. However, it is so much more than that: it is the Willard understanding of how Kurtz discovered the reality of war to such depth that it drove him crazy. The feature also offers philosophical analysis on war and soldiers conditions.
The film's beauty comes from the remarkable visual scenes, like the one where Willard goes into the forest searching mangoes and encounters a splendid tiger. It also comes from the surrealistic atmosphere which is set up since the opening scene thanks to the world-famous tune "the end" by the Doors. Music is indeed part of the film and enhances unreality of moments; especially when Walkyries by Wagner is played through helicopters speakers during an attack in order to "scare the hell out of the Vietnamese".
As a conclusion I would highly recommend this film to whoever is tired of meaningless brutal war movies and wants to discover how Vietnam really was. As the director film once said: "the film is not about Vietnam, it is Vietnam".