The opening scene of Apocalypse Now (1979), directed by widely acclaimed director Francis Ford Coppola, made me think that I was going to greatly enjoy the movie. Portraying a deeply troubled Vietnam soldier, Captain Willard (played by Martin Sheen), who is unsuccessfully trying to return to daily life, the scene is set to the Doors’ incredible and very fitting saga of a song ‘The End’. The effect of Sheen’s phenomenal acting coupled with the chilling music made for an amazingly intense and intriguing opening. Unfortunately however, that scene was the most exciting the movie ever got, all going downhill from there.
I do appreciate the movie’s aims; to honestly portray a soldier’s experiences in the Vietnam War, as well as to explore the psychological effects on him, but I personally didn’t enjoy watching the movie on the whole. I found it boring, and many of the scenes are too drawn out in my opinion. This is the case especially for the fighting scenes – despite it being combat, it’s not very exciting and a lot of unnecessary time is dedicated to those scenes. This made the movie very long, and drawn out. I think it would have been much more effective if the scenes were more concise. I also found these scenes to be extremely confusing – it was hard to tell who was who, and who was doing what, because it was so dark and everything happened. But I guess that was the point, to show that no one really knew what they were doing, but it still wasn’t enjoyable to watch.
Another reason that Apocalypse Now did not appeal to me is because it featured so much violence. I hate watching violence!! I jump at every gunshot and feel like throwing up when I see guts and blood. Obviously violence is necessary to show in the movie because it’s a war movie, but I personally can’t stand gore.
However, I did like how the war was portrayed as truthfully as possible. It wasn’t romanticized as it is in so many other movies and forms of media. Rather, they exposed many of negative psychological effects of war on soldiers, something that is not often openly discussed. It is very informative, and gave me some valuable knowledge about the Vietnam War, which I appreciate.
I also really liked the characters of the guys on the boat with Captain Willard -- Chef, Lance and Mr. Clean. They added some comic relief to the otherwise very intense movie and were the most relatable characters.
I thought that the ending, although slightly confusing, was very well done and interesting. I really loved how the second half of the song ‘The End’ was used for the ending; it was very effective and made it seem like everything came full circle.
To conclude, the beginning and ending of Apocalypse Now were pretty fantastic. However, I really did not like the majority of the film’s middle. I am glad that I finally saw the film, because I had been wanting to, but likely would not watch it again.
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