"Apocalypse Now" (1979)

Written by John Milius & Francis Ford Coppola, Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

4 stars

Coppola’s magnum opus, "Apocalypse Now," is pretty much a miracle. I mean this in the sense that, although a classic and amazing as it is, it had so many setbacks and such a troubled production that at one point the film might not have even been made. This is evident in the fascinating 1991 documentary, "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse," which captures the behind the scenes and making of the Vietnam War film. A monsoon hit the area, Brando was giving Coppola a hard time (as well as arriving fat to set), Martin Sheen had a heart attack, the director’s marriage was on the line, etc. Hard work pays off, especially when life and death are involved. But, nevertheless, here is Apocalypse Now. It is the finest American film depicting the Vietnam War.

To call it just a war film would not even begin to make it justice. Above all, I see it as a psychological thriller/war film. Its story is just set to drive the film: a troubled soldier, amazingly acted by Sheen, is sent on a classified mission to infiltrate a colonel’s whereabouts where he has gone insane. Sheen’s superiors give him the order to “terminate the colonel’s command.” Besides that, the film is more and then some as it deals with various themes such as mindless violence, insanity from firsthand experience in war, and the meaning of taking away someone’s life (whoever it may be). The depictions of war Coppola show us are literally something out of the gates of hell.

In 1979, Coppola told audiences at the Cannes Film Festival that “the movie is not about the Vietnam War: it is the Vietnam War.” Filmed unforgettably by Vittorio Strorraro with the eye of a poet, these scenes of the dark nature of humanity and brutality have the power to stick with you. Take one of the most famous scenes: the attack on a village while Robert Duvall’s character (an award-caliber performance) blasts the classical piece “the Ride of the Valkyries” through the helicopter’s speakers. Its purpose, according to him, was to scare the hell out of the Vietnamese. From there on, it shows scenes of strong violence: a villager bombing a whole helicopter full of Americans with a grenade (and then shown gunned down), a young man being treated for a leg wound covered in blood, etc. But other than violence, it’s the eerie performances that disturb (most notably in the performances of Sheen and Brando as the crazed Col. Kurtz). These are all men who have been affected by war, their hearts full of darkness indeed.

Like all great war films, the film’s target is to show the effects of war in the human mind and soul, as well as depicting a harrowing portrait of the Vietnam War. What people have committed or seen during such periods are moments in time that hardly or never go away. The only thing in life ever promised is death.

This is one of the best films of the 1970’s and the best film of 1979.