Apocalypse Now

I first watched this when I was like 13, and while I thought it was well made, younger me didn’t really understand everything this masterpiece has to offer. This isn’t just a war movie. It encompasses a whole journey into darkness. Seeing Willard’s descent into madness unfold, as well as everyone else on the boat, is perfectly captured. Whether it be in the scene where they come across the boat with the two guys and the lady, and everything that unfolds there, or what happens at the bridge. Each stop along the river feels like a physical and mental nightmare for these characters who are losing their sanity and humanity. Before all that, the scenes with Kilgore do a great job representing the horrors of war and how some soldiers treated it. Kilgore didn’t care about winning. He wanted it to be like home. I mentioned not seeing this when I was younger because this first section seemed like a standard war film when I first saw it. You have the Lieutenant who is tough and says lines like “I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” but watching after growing up, you can see the stuff with how he treats the surfers, and how he disregards any hesitancy to fly and massacre the civilians after hearing about the waves. He wants his experience to be like home. Not focusing on winning a war. When he is focused on fighting, it’s just gunning people down and calling them “savages,” justifying it in his head when the only actions that are “savage” are what he is committing. While I love the first section of this film, the riverboat journey is the stronger part. Everything that happens along the way, the visuals, the performances by the whole crew, and the ending are perfection. While I love the ending, and how dark and shadowy it is, I find it pretty funny how much shadow they had to use to try and hide Brando’s weight. I saw some bts stuff and yeah, I wouldn’t be super happy as a director if I had to work with someone who acted like that. Despite that, the ending caps off this film perfectly. I could’ve gone without that water buffalo being slaughtered though. I know the real life natives were doing it and Coppola didn’t kill it, but I knew it looked too real for a reason. I also love how the movie ends with the fact that this mission will probably happen again. With no response, a new person is gonna be sent to find the colonel after Willard said nothing.