A dismal, dark and visually stunning masterpiece examining the chaos of war, Apocalypse Now is often considered one of the most realistically shocking Vietnam pictures of all time. Dozens of iconic moments exist throughout, almost as if the film was designed around still images of shocking contrast, jarring violence and awe-inspiring action. Notorious for being one of the most difficult pictures to make, Apocalypse Now faced unprepared cast and crew, natural disasters, and difficulties with equipment and locations. This highly honored and critically acclaimed film marks another important and influential chapter for director Francis Ford Coppola, the mastermind behind The Godfather.

Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) is slowly losing his grip on reality in his seedy hotel room, anxious for another mission, realizing that life outside of war will never be the same after the horrors of Vietnam. A new mission does arrive, and he quickly accepts. It involves accompanying a patrol boat up the Nung River to Cambodia where a rogue Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) has become a god amongst the natives and governs his own army in the jungles. Willard must infiltrate the area using whatever means necessary and then assassinate Kurtz. Curious to confront the crazed Colonel, who he studies during the adventure upstream, Willard is also fearful of what he might do as he struggles to make sense of a war that functions on utter discord.

Perfectly capturing the miscommunications, turmoil, and general pandemonium of war, (Vietnam in particular) Apocalypse Now builds a fiercely fascinating tale of adventure and madness. The film is loosely based on Joseph Conrad's novel "Heart of Darkness" which sets the mood for discovering the morbidity and delirium of war. Willard struggles with his grip on sanity, alienated from a normal life, and surrounded by surpassing insanity. The irrational, stoic and surf-crazed Lieutenant Kilgore rivals Willard on the opposite end of the spectrum with an outstanding performance by Robert Duvall. Famously enjoying the smell of napalm in the morning and spouting lingering speeches that abruptly cut off, he never flinches at the explosions or bullets that crackle around him. In a powerful scene of irony, Kilgore, intent on preserving a heroic leadership image, offers water to a dying Viet Cong soldier, only to spill it on the ground as he speaks with another officer. In one of the most memorable sequences, the lieutenant orders the classical “Ride of the Valkyries” music to be blasted upon the village he bombards with machinegun fire. He attempts to recreate the luxuries of home with his casual attitude and love of surfing, but essentially furthers himself and the soldiers from those fond memories. Marlon Brando portrays the insane Kurtz, and despite showing up on set completely unprepared having never read the script or the book it was based on, Brando's improvisation turned out to be an impressive display of intense acting, and perfectly embodied the mindset of the genius behind the madness.

The cinematography is simply enchanting, with hazy oranges and greens blanketing the daytime shots and fireballs lighting up the trees as soldiers frantically scurry about. Toward the conclusion, faces are masked in deep black shadows and only eyes pierce the darkness, as well as quick flashes of light against the backs of heads or across the tops of foreheads. Brando arrived on set extremely overweight (Kurtz was described as featherweight thin in the novel), so Coppola used these shadowy shots to hide his overall appearance. When sirens and flares ignite, faces distorted with fear and rage light up, often painted with green and black camouflage. These extreme contrasts in cinematography with bright whites and sooty blacks alternately clash on the screen in uncanny wonderment.

Reminiscent of film noir, with an abundance of shadows and a desolate voiceover by Sheen, Apocalypse Now doesn’t try to make sense of war, but instead demonstrates its many effects on the conscience, morals and their values. An entire village is wiped out so Kilgore can surf; the young soldiers such as Chef (Fred Forrest) have no idea what's in store for them and couldn't be less prepared, and in the midst of battle commanding officers cannot be located; these are but a few shocking moments that are brought to vivid realism. The entire journey is a slow decent into hell, and Willard essentially gives up the thin threads of sanity that separate him from Kurtz. At the disquieting conclusion we realize there are no heroes - only survivors - and that they are all guilty of the same atrocious acts.

Filled with iconic moments including the napalm raid on the Vietnamese village, Willard rising up out of oily black water, and Kurtz, sputtering half-poetry half-insanity about his command - Apocalypse Now is a challenging film to watch, and definitely not for everyone. But it is important and powerful with enough ambition and moral conflict to garner 2 Academy Awards, another 6 nominations, and countless other accolades. To fully comprehend Apocalypse now is perhaps as chaotic and undesirable as the events in Vietnam themselves, but to not witness this visually jarring and mind-trip madness of filmmaking for yourself is even worse. The pacing and cogency of the film takes a backseat to the bloody and tragic realizations of war and horror, but the entertainment value and poignancy never falter.

- Mike Massie