Apocalypse Now

"But the thing I felt the most, much stronger than fear, was the desire to confront him." I mean, to start, this was just a phenomenal, jaw dropping film. Like every 5 minutes something even better happens. The color grading, the cinematography, THE ACTING PREFORMANCES, just perfect. It’s just such a big story and it’s very well done here. You can really tell it was a book with the very chapter-like breakdown of the film. It’s even crazier to think that the book it was based on was not even about Vietnam. Heart of Darkness was literally just about some African forest , and I think it was genius for Francis Ford Coppola to put this in the backdrop of Vietnam. It’s extremely refreshing when directors don’t play it safe with adaptations. I was literally captivated right on that first scene. The pan of the forest, and the it getting blown up!? Cinema. And that 3 film layering was crazy. Such a cool effect. And then when Robert Sheen started dancing like that I knew I was gonna be in for a wild ride. That first Vietnam part with the platoon was the only part that really felt like a war film and it really does capture those horrors of war. I mean it’s gruesome. And it also has the line, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." It really pits you in that Vietnam “mood” because the rest of the film has nothing to do with that war except the setting and characters. I feel like everyone gave an incredible acting preformance in this, but Marlon Brando being in there is just unfair to everyone else. He’s just absolutely incredible. I literally felt his presence throughout the film because he’s literally center of marketing of this film. When he gets on that screen, he takes control of the entire film. His line delivery, his character, his aura is too strong. The original diva. In the middle, I kinda felt this was gonna be a high 9 to a low 9.5, but once that final sequence happened, it immediately shot all the way up to 10/10. That’s when you get the meat of the film. It’s the end of the main characters epic odyssey, and it ends with a bang. His mental journey towards the end is so cool. And then when it hit the three minute mark, I was confused because it didn’t end yet. So I waited, and THERE WAS NO CREDITS. It just ended with a fade to black. Crazy. Overall, fantastic near perfect film with incredible performances from Robert Sheen and Marlon Brando. Impeccable directing from Coppola and I think the ending is definitely gonna stick with me for a while. "The horror...the horror..."