Apocalypse Now 

Originally released in 1979

Now available on various streaming services, including Netflix and Amazon Prime

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Starring Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, and Martin Sheen

“Why would you watch a movie you’ve already seen?” K asked me.

Sometimes she does that – asks me questions that leave me temporarily speechless. I gathered my thoughts.

“For the same reason I have read Sapiens twice and Lolita three times.”

“Don’t be snarky,” she scolded.

I get it.

There are so damn many good and even very good new movies being produced. More now than ever. And many times more than one could possibly view. Why waste precious time watching something for the second time?

My answer is simple: There is a huge difference between very good and great.

The first time I saw Apocalypse Now was the year it was released, 1979. I was 29, working as a journalist in Washington, DC. It was soon after I had returned from a two-year stint in Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer, and 12 years after I was called to serve in Vietnam by my local draft board. (Another story for another time.)

Apocalypse Now is a three-hour war drama, a brilliant reimagining of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and probably Francis Ford Coppola’s best film. It’s also one of a dozen movies I’d take with me to the proverbial “desert island.” (We can talk about the other 11 in a future post.)

The photography and the musical score are brilliant. The sets, scenery, sound effects, and editing are superb. But it is the script and the acting that bring an otherwise very good war film to the level of greatness.

Critical Reception 

In reviewing Apocalypse Now in 1999, Roger Ebert encapsulated my thoughts:

At a distance of 20 years, Apocalypse Now is more clearly than ever one of the key films of the century. Most films are lucky to contain a single great sequence. Apocalypse Now strings together one after another, with the river journey as the connecting link.

The whole movie is a journey toward Willard’s understanding of how Kurtz, one of the Army’s best soldiers, penetrated the reality of war to such a depth that he could not look any longer without madness and despair…. It is the best Vietnam film, one of the greatest of all films, because it pushes beyond the others, into the dark places of the soul. It is not about war so much as about how war reveals truths we would be happy never to discover.

Interesting fact: At the time of its release, the producers were criticized for paying Brando a million dollars for what amounted to about five minutes of screen time. How wrong they were.

You can watch the trailer here.