My most vivid childhood moviegoing experience was seeing Apocalypse Now. The year was 1979, I was twelve and this movie absolutely blew me away. In those few hours I matured at least five years. This movie not only takes you to the front lines of the Vietnam war, which it does brilliantly, but is also an exploration deep into the psyche of the human animal with the conclusion that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Based loosely on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, this is the story of an American soldier (Martin Sheen) sent into the Cambodian jungle to find and kill another American soldier (Marlon Brando).
This film starts dark and yet Francis Coppola manages to increase the sense of dread and foreboding as it goes along. The supporting cast includes 15-year-old Lawrence Fishburne as well as veterans Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper.
There are many classic moments here, including the battle scene where Duvall's character says his famous line. 'I love the smell of napalm in the morning.' This movie goes beyond just the 'war is hell' motif of other films to a truly scarier place. That within each of us is the capacity for pleasure at the suffering of others.
Marlon Brando gives his last great performance as the insane General who has created his own 'paradise' in the jungle, with himself as supreme deity. Who can forget his chilling final words? 'The horror, the horror.'
Still this is a director's movie and as such belongs to Coppola. He has given us a serious vision of humanity's darker side and one hell of an entertaining movie to boot.
