Apocalypse Now
Set during the horrors of the Vietnam War, Apocalypse Now tells the story of a soldier who is pulled out of R&R and dragged back into action; this time on a top secret mission. As the war continues to unfold around him, Captain Benjamin Willard is assigned the job of tracking down a military hero who has gone AWOL and formed a cult in the heart of the Cambodian jungle. Willard hitches a ride on a Navy patrol boat with the hopes of making it to Cambodia alive. The film features Marlon Brando in the iconic role of Colonel Kurtz and a young Martin Sheen as Captain Willard.
Apocalypse Now is a chilling nightmare that was born out of an absolutely gruelling on-location movie shoot. It’s a film that embodies the genuine feeling of weariness, disorientation, and nausea that a soldier must feel during wartime and it exudes a madness that feels all too real at times. It’s a movie that takes its time in presenting the genuine horrors of war and one that plans its story out via a simple journey into the heart of the jungle; with every scene adding another piece of the puzzle to its predecessor.
The type of savagery and madness that can be found in Apocalypse Now is the result of the very real hysteria that plagued the film’s disastrous shoot; a schedule that was so compact and challenging that Martin Sheen suffered a near fatal heart attack during filming. The beauty of the movie is in Francis Ford Coppola’s ability to scrape together something so raw out of his footage and mould a film that so clearly translates the irreversible effects of being exposed to all-out war.
Focusing on characters who are already damaged from their experiences in Vietnam, Apocalypse Now explores the institutionalization of military men who are like prisoners that have forgotten how to function away from their post. These men crave the adventure as much as they despise it and this is something that Colonel Kurtz himself later embodies as the film creeps into its final, unforgettable act.
Most importantly, Apocalypse Now is about a complete loss of morality and it’s a wonderful story about the perverse nature of war and how it is impossible to come back from fighting with the same morals or understanding of the world as you once had. The film is an absolute masterwork both within its genre and all of film history.
We are absolute fans of classics and this one is a classic on our eyes. We give this movie a 10 out of 10!
