Apocalypse Now (1979)

I have seen a lot of movies that I didn't like the first time. When I have watch them again I find that I like them more (even if it's ever so slightly). I think it is because I notice things about the movie that I didn't notice before. I have watched Apocalypse Now twice, and I did notice more about the movie the second time. The only problem is that the things that I noticed made me hate the movie more. I suppose you don't need to finish reading this review because you know how I feel, but then you wouldn't hear me complain about how dumb this movie was.

Apocalypse Now takes place during the Vietnam war. Martin Sheen plays a special operations captain, Captain Willard. Captain Willard is given an assignment to go deep into the Cambodian jungle to kill a rogue, and insane, Colonel Kurtz (played by Marlon Brando). What follows is a strange, and mostly boring, three hours of Vietnam war stuff. This movie gave me the impression that Francis Ford Coppola was trying to make the quintessential Vietnam movie (like The Band of Brothers is for WWII) but he fell very short of his goal. Probably because he based it on "The Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad.

Let me take a moment and talk about "The Heart of Darkness." My senior year in High School I was in an A.P. Literature class. One of our assignments was to read this book. I really gave it an honest try, but could not get past the first 5 pages. It was so boring. Me being the lazy S.O.B. that I am, I decided to never open that book again. On top of us being expected to read this book on our own, we reread everything again as a class. You would think that I would at least listen then. WRONG! I slept instead. Needless to say, when it came time for the test I was a little unprepared. Five minutes before class started I asked a girl that was in my class what the book was about. As we walked to class together she gave me a rough outline of the plot. Armed with that knowledge I took the test, and got the highest score in the class. That says a lot about our education system doesn't it? Now back to the movie.

The Vietnam war, as everyone knows, was very controversial. Compared to WWII, which is seen as a very noble war, Vietnam is seen as one big mistake. That doesn't stop people from doing Vietnam reenactments at country clubs all over the country.



In all seriousness though, a lot of people came home from Vietnam completely messed up. But then again, who wouldn't be messed up after experiences like the one below?



Not to get too political, but maybe Vietnam wouldn't have turned out so badly if we didn't have the draft. There are a lot of people in this country I wouldn't want to have a rifle in their hands. With the draft everyone was there, so a lot of people that had no business fighting in a war got themselves killed.

Basically this movie confused me, made me tired, and made me angry that I had to waste so much time to watch it. That's three hours of my life (6 if you count the previous viewing) that I will never get back.

The bottom line:
Rating: 2.3
Would I own it? Do pigs have wings?
Would I recommend it? I would recommend the movie "Spy Kids" over this movie.