Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Francis Ford Coppola directed war epic Apocalypse Now is considered by many to be one of the greatest ever made war films which could have been seen in movie theatres.
Whilst it may not be the most historically accurate film it does a great job of underlining the insanity of war.
During the Vietnam war the Army has become concerned that a high ranking and decorated special forces officer named Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) who is taking part in an unofficial campaign in Cambodia has gone completely mad. They then give another special forces officer Cpt. Willard (Martin Sheen) the task of tracking him down. The intelligence briefing delivered to Cpt. Willard tells him in no uncertain terms that when he finds him he is to kill Kurtz.
The film opens in a very memorable way with Jim Morrison's haunting vocals of the Doors hit "The End" ringing out over scenes of napalm dropping on the jungle whilst Captain Willard stumbles around drunk in his room. The clearly battle fatigued Willard being reminded of helicopter rotor blades by the fan in his room before he is dragged away to his intelligence briefing by a couple of Military Provosts.
As Captain Willard travels the river through Vietnam to Cambodia in a Naval Patrol Boat he encounters many weird and insane characters and situations. Particularly memorable is Robert Duvall's performance as a Battalion commander of the Texas Air Cavalry who really loves his job and the smell of napalm. The scene of the helicopters flying accompanied by Wagner's Ride Of The Valkyries is amongst the most memorable scenes in the film and indeed the entire genre.
The screenplay for the film was written by Coppola himself with John Milius and adapted from a novel by Joseph Conrad.
The film begins to get very dark by the end as Willard catches up with his prey and begins to wonder if he really is insane or a visionary. Dennis Hopper puts in a very good performance as a Photojournalist who has become a disciple of Kurtz.
As the film progresses it does a good job of highlighting the insanity of everyone involved and of the war itself.
When the film was initially released back in 1979 it garnered very positive reviews and won 2 Oscars. It is widely considered as one of the finest war films ever made even if it does lack realism.
Whilst other war films have since followed which gave a much more realistic impression of war and even of the Vietnam war, Apocalypse Now was the first to really deal with the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and gave civilians who've never been to war at least an outline of the condition. Whilst many films have followed which have stressed the impact of war on one's sanity even to the point of becoming a cliché, when Apocalypse now was first released it was still very much a taboo subject.
Even to this day over 30 years since the film's release it remains very edgy and watchable and really set the bar high for other war movies to follow. Apocalypse Now should be in everyone's DVD collection.