Why Haven't I Seen That?: APOCALYPSE NOW

Welcome to a new installment of WHY HAVEN'T I SEEN THAT?, where we talk about a must-see or iconic movie that we have never seen...until now. This week we take a look at Francis Ford Coppola's war epic... APOCALYPSE NOW.  Enjoy.

“Apocalypse Now is not about Vietnam; It is Vietnam,” is something the writer-director Francis Ford Coppola has said about his War Epic, and I would honestly agree with him.

Going into this film, I had no clue what it was about and I did that purposefully. However, for the purpose of this film review I’ll give the premise of the film. Apocalypse Now is about Captain Willard who during the Vietnam War is sent to assassinate a renegade Colonel. The film is directed by Francis Ford Coppola and stars Martin Sheen as Captain Benjamin L. Willard, Marlon Brando as Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, and Robert Duvall as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore.

I think this was one of those films I always wanted to watch but never got to it. Partly because I always had a film I’d want to watch first. I decided enough is enough and put the Blu-ray in my ps4 and stared the film. I wanted to see for myself how great it really was. I think partly why I also wanted to watch it now rather than later was because I recently purchased the book ‘In the Blink of an Eye’ written by Walter Murch, the editor of Apocalypse Now. I really wanted to see the film and know if the book was written by a genius or just another editor in the haystack.

The book was definitely written by a genius because if this film has one thing that’s flawless it’s the editing. I think the film is incredible, but the editing is worthy of being studied, it’s that good. I also think what supports the editing and supplements it is the cinematography. Each frame is perfectly crafted. Creating such atmosphere and beauty that a viewer can just get lost in the world. Where I do give credit to the editing and cinematography, I think the one that also deserves a lot of credit is the director himself.

What Francis Ford Coppola did with this film is drive in incredible performances from the entire cast resulting in the creation of iconic lines of dialog from “Charlie don’t surf!” to the famous “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”  But more than that, he centered the story to focus and create a conversation about the Human soul. Which it does so beautifully, especially in the third act, where it leaves you asking yourself what your breaking point might be.

I think even with all the production troubles this film went through, at the end of the day the film is masterfully crafted, written and directed. If you are looking for a film strictly driven by story, this isn’t it. This film is more about the human mind, and how far we can go. It really tries to create a dialog about the human condition that not many other films have been able to successfully pull off.

Even if you simply look at the acting done in this film you can see Marlon Brando giving an amazing performance, Martin Sheen giving it his all, and Robert Duvall giving you one of the most iconic characters in all of cinema.

Overall this film is a masterpiece in many aspects, from directing to editing and even cinematography.It  is a film you need to watch if you haven’t already, for this film will surely go down to many people as one of the best films ever made.

Khizer's Score: 10/10 

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