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Best war film and the best of 1979. The direction was amazing by Coppola, it's his best work besides The Godfather films. The screenplay was amazing and the ending had a good twist to it. The acting by Sheen, Brando, Duvall, a young Fishburne, Hopper, Forrest, and Glenn was amazing. This film made Martin Sheen a notable actor, was one of Duvall's best performance and started Fishburne's acting career.

Did they really kill that water buffalo near the end?? Over all great movie though1

Apocalypse Now Redux (1979) Strange I rented this movie a few months ago and now n/ flix says unavailable. I put off seeing this film when it premiered in 1979. I was against the Vietnam war ----not wanting to remember America's shame by seeing this movie. I saw it on dvd in the early 90s and again on my 65 inch DLP at home Oct 2007. Now I cannot believe I missed this Coppola film on the big screen. I have been doing some reading about both films (orig and Redux) I guess I am glad to see the redux version due to the film and soundtrack restoration. The story concerns a journey upriver by Capt. Willard (Martin Sheen), who commands a patrol boat to penetrate behind enemy lines and discover the secret redoubt of the almost mythical Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) -- one of the Army's most decorated soldiers, now leading his own band of tribesmen. The story is based on Conrad's Heart of Darkness, but replaces the implacable mystery of the upper reaches of the Congo with the equally unfathomable mystery of the American venture in Vietnam. Willard (Sheen) is on a mission to terminate "with extreme prejudice" a crazed Green Beret colonel (Brando) who presides over a bizarre jungle compound where he acts the role of savage messiah to a group of tribesmen. The trip upriver is a metaphor for Willard's inner journey, and the Brando character is an extreme version of Willard: a cautionary figure who represents primitive impulses and the horrible toll of combat. This film is certainly the best film of 1979 and one of the if not the best film of the 1970s. It is a modern masterpiece. I have queue the documentary now about the making of this film. Coppola hocked everything he owned to make this film. Normal filming is 55 days. They filmed 238 days on this film again great failures and horrendous acts of weather. If you have not read it be sure and read the Wikipedia entry about this film. There is great amount of info there and be sure and read Ebert's review. There were many negative reviews of the film also. five stars highest rating

In the special features of APOCALYPSE NOW, Coppola mentions that he imagined his film as the only movie made about the war. With that in mind, he aspired to create a film that encompassed all facets of the Vietnam War. The end result, a dark two and a half hour long movie, does just that.

After THE GODFATHER, Coppola was riding high- executives were willing to pay any amount of money for his next feature. And that's readily apparent with APOCALYPSE, with war scenes that seem indistinguishable from the real thing. From scenes surreal in absurdity ("Charlie don't surf" and the USO show) to scenes depicting hell in the "asshole of the world", APOCALYPSE NOW is probably the best all around film made about the hell that was Vietnam.

The first time I've watched this one is like reading a 500 pages fiction book. The main thing is that, I really liked the concept of the film and the closeness and sharpness of its message to reality. The hell with them anyway. The draft of the production and the multi-screen shots are really essential in spicing up the film with great appreciation. Even though it is really sort of story-telling, the thing there is, it is undoubtfully entertaining, striking everyone with the pain of humanity undertaking the darkness of cruelty. Great work to Coppola.

One of the things about this film is that it's really two movies. there's the Pre-Brando and there's the Brando. one of the strangest movies I have ever seen (along with Watchmen,Coraline,and Dr.Strangelove:or how I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb). I have always been a fan of Marlon Brando but this is by far the oddest role i have seen him play. but this suits him because he does as well in the Role of Colonel Kurtz as in any other role I have seen him play. he whole thing was just an example of directing brilliance. I would have no reservations from taking Best Picture away from Kramer VS Kramer (as much as I enjoyed it) and giving it to Apocalypse Now. It was just a good move.

Take a man thirsty for a job and give him one. He's been stuck for a long time and he's been itching to take down someone or something that he can take down. He's a soldier, a good one to be exact. Now he's summoned by his superiors and they're giving him an order to take a mission. He has to terminate a fellow soldier's command. He has to terminate a Colonel. He's now has a mission. To assassinate someone again but this time it's different. He has to kill a fellow American. A fellow GI. But he has to do it. That's all he has to do.
Apocalypse Now is astounding. The best war film i have seen so far(i have yet to see Full metal jacket). Capt. Willard's struggle towards his target's position visualizes war and it's effect on individuals, countries , and the rest of humanity. War can make you turn you to the other side of your mind. It can bend you towards the dark side. War has its many faces and all of them are terrible and despicable. All of them depicted here magnificently.
From the cast to its direction, this film has perfect points. Poetic and disdainfully beautiful, this film is on my top list. And also, it was shot here in the Philippines. Now how cool is that?

A haunting dream like descent into madness. Hypnotic!

Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" is not a Vietnam War film. Do not confuse it with one. It is set to the back drop of the war, but it is a metaphorical exposition on the deteriorating effects that war has on the human psyche. It is also one of the most audacious films ever made, produced, or even conceived (second to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. To call it a masterpiece would be an understatement of proportions as ambitious as the film's production levels.

Opening with no credits and following a memorable first scene playing to the tune of the Doors "The End" as Martin Sheen's Captain Benjamin L. Willard hallucinates to images of helicopters and napalm, the plot is essentially laid out in the first 15 minutes. Willard's mission is to "terminate... with extreme prejudice" Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) who has invariably gone AWOL in the far reaches of the Cambodian jungle and, as told by his general, is "out there operating without any decent restraint, totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct. And he is still in the field commanding troops." Kurtz is a delusional Colonel now being worshipped by a large group of followers who have dubbed him a god. For Willard, this covert operation seems somewhat more manageable than actual combat, yet, the journey he is about to take will be a personal quest that will challenge the limits of his human behavior.

Teaming up with a small crew, they embark down the vast reaches of the river in a rickety boat. Along the way, Willard educates himself on all things Kurtz. During Sheen's raspy voice over, he details his thoughts on the abundance of material he reads. Kurtz was a highly decorated and respected Green Beret. He was a normal man with a family, until a part of him succumbed to the horrors of human brutality and he led himself down the path that Willard is being led. The descent into the jungle is marked by a mesmerizing aura that echoes the battles being fought not to far away. Eventually the power of the experience weights on the group as drugs and a sort of solitary confinement attacks their senses. But Willard seems unfazed and desensitized in his quest to find Kurtz. As he reads about this mythic figure, he is drawn to the man's power and why he has become what he has become. We know that Willard's slow decay will parallel that of Kurtz's.

Marlon Brando has been revered for decades. His presence: unmatchable. His genius: undeniable. But for those unacquainted with his acting prowess and unaccustomed to his physical nuance, Brando can be perceived, in the eyes of an uncompromising film-goer, as a hack. He is most certainly not. Brando was difficult to work with, hard to interpret and impossible to understand, but his talent for unintelligible rants and unparalleled monologues is irrefutable. The man obviously knew what he was doing even if we didn't. His Colonel Kurtz is a being of limitless delusions and continual profundity.

If the film is any indication of the journeys into hell than Francis Ford Coppola's actual experience with making this masterpiece is a true life account of one man's fanatical struggle to produce a movie. It is reported that during the film's 200 plus day principle photography schedule, Coppola contemplated suicide. The film was not only an undeniable struggle to make; it is a grueling film to watch. Coppola's sweat and blood seep through the pores of the steamy locals and his dedication filters through the orifices of Martin Sheen's haunted soldier Willard.

I can not help but feel a warm sense of nostalgia for this type of film. At the dawn of all that was original and unprecedented, films that challenged as well as stimulated were commonplace. Audacity aside, Apocalypse Now is pure film-making. My respect and admiration for Mr. Coppola is of the highest order. But I shudder at the return to what has become the norm for today's standards for film: a lack of innovation. It is not simply the unoriginality of the world of cinema today; it is the fact that nobody seems to care to tell a story anymore or to tell one with heart. But we still have the great ones like Coppola's masterpiece, a film which bathed in its ability to give us something deeper than that which we could comprehend.

That depth in Apocalypse Now is the step into madness. The killing can disturb. The loss of innocence can unhinge. But it is the damage from within; the countless barrages of images that distress, unnerve and detach us from our everyday world and the memories that plague our deepest thoughts that eventually segregates us from humanity and propels us into the realm of the instinctual, the savage and the animalistic. If the thought of killing does not provide sustenance, the act of killing provides man with its fundamental catharsis.

Not Coppola's finest film as some may suggest, and a perfect example of what can happen when a pet project becomes too personal and the director is given too much power. Apocalypse Now is still a great film and one of the best to deal with the Vietnam War. The performances by Brando and Duvall are excellent, and evoke two of the most important archetypes of Vietnam War cinema: the burnt out emotionally disturbed and the gun-ho "I-don't-care-anymore" solider respectively. Although Martin Sheen falls somewhat flat in his role, and often times fades into the background, the performances overall are quite strong. The cinematography is amazing and hauntingly beautiful, especially once we get to Kurtz's Cambodian lair. The film also boasts a very "trippy" look and feel to it, at some points feeling almost dream like, this adds to the effectiveness of the film and its late 60s setting. With a 2.5 hour run time the film can feel a little long, and Coppola's complete control over most aspects of the film led to some over indulgences, but these aren't necessarily as irritating and distracting as they sound. Overall, if you're looking for one of the definitive Vietnam films of all time, as well as one of the best films of the 1970s (and 1980s) Apocalypse Now is a must see.