Apocalypse Now

Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
Written by: John Milius

Cast:
Captain Willard - Martin Sheen
Colonel Kurtz - Marlon Brando
Colonel Lucas - Harrison Ford
Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore - Robert Duvall
Dennis Hopper - Photojournalist
Frederic Forrest - Jay ‘Chef’ Hicks

“I love the smell of Napalm in the morning.” Well, really I don’t, I have no idea what Napalm smells like (Nor do I want to) but Colonel Kilgore surely does. He is just one of the many colorful characters that make up Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece - Apocalypse Now. A film that explores the senselessness of murder and the breaking point that exists in everyone.
The movie is set in Vietnam during the war where special agent Captain Willard is sent to eliminate, “with extreme prejudice” a Colonel Kurtz, who has, judging from field reports and audio tapes, gone insane. He is deep in the Cambodian jungle and operating under is own jurisdiction. He has killed hundreds of innocent people and has a devoted following.
Captain Willard accepts the mission though not without hesitation as he states: “charging a man with murder in this place was like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500.” He goes up a river to his destination escorted by a few ‘kids’ and a boat captain.
As we go further up the river we progress like in Dante’s Inferno, deeper and deeper into hell. Man is back in his primordial element - it is kill or be killed. But it is more than just defense. There is also a deep senselessness in it all. The scenes can best be described as nightmarish. There is plenty of smoke and just that right balance of light and dark that makes for a particularly uneasy feeling. I couldn’t help but think if Rembrandt was the cinematographer he would have worked on this movie.
Everything comes to its climactic finale, the lowest circle of hell, or the end of the world, whichever you prefer, when Captain Willard meets up with Colonel Kurtz, who has become nothing less than a God to a tribe of natives and a few defected soldiers. The question soon becomes who will do the assassinating.
All in all, Apocalypse Now is a burning testament to the horror that is war. Perhaps the most horrific thing of all is what it can do to a perfectly normal human being and the idea that there might be a Colonel Kurtz buried in us all.
4 stars