Apocalypse Now (1979)

Apocalypse Now (1979)

1979 R 147 Minutes

War | Drama

At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a myste...

Overall Rating

8 / 10
Verdict: Good

User Review

  • BarneyNuttall

    BarneyNuttall

    9 / 10
    Napalm, drugs, and a small helping of Brando; the three ingredients you need to make your own masterpiece! Apocalypse Now transcends the war film genre and becomes a psychedelic odyssey into Hell itself.

    In fact, the similarities to Homer's Odyssey are undeniable. The way in which Martin Sheen's Captain Benjamin finds his path crossed by many strange characters from Robert Duvall's surf obsessed Lieutenant to the bizarre french family. However, Sheen isn't returning to his wife but is in search of a mythical figure, the crazed Colonel Kurtz; and who else to play him but Brando himself. Every second Brando is on screen I am a child, oddling at the television set. They say your eyes can get glued to the screen. My relationship with the screen was similar to James Wood's in Videodrome.

    Of course, the film has a bounty of themes, madness, loss of self, God complexes, the horror of war but there is no use getting tangled in them. Instead, get taken by the concept of horror itself. Use that and, much like Colonel Kurtz, the film will become more powerful than you could ever imagine.