Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now
At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a mysterious Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz, who has been leading his personal army on illegal guerrilla missions into enemy territory.
Oliver Reznik reviewedApril 27, 2025
Original Cut
The beginning is so outstandingly good. It really contrasts with the rest of the movie that takes place out in the field. I find the jungle setting a bit monotonous. It's a long movie, with a lot of chaos and horror. The chaos + horror has a subtly changing flavor as you go along, but it can still be a bit trying on the nerves after a while.
This is an adventure movie, structured into a number of vignettes. Like I said, each has its own flavor, but the prevailing ideas remain the same. Outstanding work was done with layering the chaos throughout these scenes. Extremely textured environments. A lot of the weapons look like fireworks though. Lots of quotable lines too.
Obviously, a major factor of this movie is the anticipation it's building up in the confrontation with Kurtz. Done masterfully by the catalyst scene as well as the entrancing voice over by Willard, and of course the various recordings, photographs, and newspaper clippings that Willard pours over on the approach. It's interesting, I've seen this movie twice before, both a long time ago, and I didn't quite remember the true nature of Kurtz's aura that I took away from those viewings. Again, I've watched it, and I still don't want to take anything specific away, or try to describe it in a constricting way. It's intentionally nebulous, I think. Certainly, extremely powerful. It's one of the things that's lasted in my mind all these years. And I think the in-exactness of it is part of the charm. I think about the annoying, psychotic photographer sycophant that exists prominently at Kurtz's compound. That's a real, obviously crazy, goofy clown of a character. But his brain worm ramblings exist in contrast to Kurtz's much more authoritative ramblings, giving them a feeling of weight and credence. Kurtz even displays disgust in the photographer. Maybe the mystical weird things he says actually mean something? I don't know. But it's outstanding theatrics. The photography of Kurtz is ridiculously outstanding.
This is a war movie. I have a distaste for war movies. I think it's partially due to the temporary, and constrained nature of these liminal civilizations that pop up to support the war effort. You got entertainment, you got work, you got food. But it's not as rich as a big a city or a cabin in the woods. Two thirds of the population (women and children) are excluded for one. There's only so many different things that can happen in a war zone, right?
This really is a firing on all cylinders, virtuosic masterpiece.
I really recommend watching Little Dieter Needs to Fly to get a more firsthand account of what it was like in the jungle. Apocalypse Now feels like particularly high effort Herzog movie, interestingly.