Mr Cheese (10 out of 10 ) Interesting Movie, Interesting Script
Walter (10 out of 10 ) Cannot been bettered.
JAQ (9 out of 10 ) The film's end does not fulfill the promise of what led up to it. Sheen's character has come to respect Kurtz's reason. He should have a harder time making the decision to kill Kurtz. Brando's character should have had to force Sheen to kill him.
rob (10 out of 10 ) No, the end was fine. He followed his orders. That's war. That's a soldier. What kurtz was. The ideal. The only life he knew. He killed him because he respected him.
royston (10 out of 10 ) Greatest anti-war film ever made; probably the greatest film ever made, and to think that they more or less winged it as it went along. Methinks that the Gods may have been at work here.
Tom (10 out of 10 ) Many people complain about the ending, but I think it's perfect. Nothing is explicitly stated, and no grand meaning is given to the prior events, but that is the point. War is chaos. Kurtz, despite making some sense, is actually "insane". Willard kills him, as per his orders, but he has been changed by the whole ordeal, as has the audience, as has America after Vietnam. The script is good, this draft is OK, but the film itself is a masterwork, particularly the Redux. It is so beautiful and haunting.
Howard Koor (10 out of 10 ) One of the best films ever. It worked on so many levels. I could see it again and again. The visuals stunning. Sharp dialogue. Universal themes brought vividly to the screen. Masterful.
Jayjay (10 out of 10 ) It's a good film. Probably in the top 25 of all time. Certainly not the best, but very well written, acted, and directed. I thought Kurtz did his job. I agree with Tom. I felt the ending was climatic and rewarding enough. Although I do think Brando overplayed his role as usual. Less is more sometimes. The narration is what makes the film good and the use of silence. It's almost like a horror film in how it plays out. Especially the Apache "cavalry" scene, was a crazy sequence. I think if Coppola had made the movie today or in the early 2000s it would have been better. The budget combined with his gritty work ethic and real viewpoint would have really made the movie stand out.
flubndub (9 out of 10 ) One of the best adventure-war movies of all time. Based on Conrad's classic book The Heart of Darkness. Another Coppola masterpiece. Martin Sheen plays Willard a Vietnam era "black ops" Captain assigned to exterminate the rogue officer Kurtz "with extreme prejudice" played by Marlon Brando. Supporting cast includes a 14 year old Morpheus, skinny Indiana Jones, a surf crazed Tom Hagen and Dennis Hopper on the good stuff. All great but the real star is Coppola and his' vision. It is a surreal trip up a jungle river in a PT boat towards Kurtz and death. The more Willard knows of Kurtz the more confused he becomes on what he will do when he gets there. Don't expect a unimpeachable "how it was in Nam" type of war movie. This is a adventure-war movie. That's not to say many scenes do not ring true. The massacre on the river is frighteningly authentic and all the fire fights are intensely realistic. This movie has the ability to make the uninitiated viewer feel disorientated and unsettled. Everything in this movie is big. You will feel like you got your' money's worth. The Ride of the Valkyrie helicopter sequence is one of the greatest battle scenes ever filmed and is THE best helicopter battle scene ever. Coppola himself had reservations about his ending. I always though it was rather simple. Willard could not make a wrong decision. The you. S Army ordered him to kill Kurtz and basically Kurtz himself ordered not only his' own death but the extermination of his' tribal army. Two direct orders from two different figures Willard viewed as his' superiors. Interesting side note. If you saw this in theaters back in the 70's Kurtz's compound is show to bombed during the end credits. I always took this complete destruction to be the ultimate meaning behind the title Apocalypse Now. I haven't seen that particular ending in years. Perhaps slow in spots Apocalypse Now is always interesting and visually beautiful. This wouldn't be the movie to educate one on the Vietnam experience, but it is the movie to educate one on film making at it's finest. The only reason I'm giving it 9 stars instead of 10 is because it drags badly between the skipper's death until they reach Kurtz's jungle lair therefore keeping it from perfection. The redux version does fill in some blanks but is a muddled mess that just adds a few more pace killing scenes. Make your' first watch the original. A nice companion piece is the documentary Hearts of Darkness about the nightmare of filming this epic. Not your' average "making of" documentary.
Bob (9 out of 10 ) Apocalypse Now Redux ranks as one of my favorite movies of all time. The scenes left out of the original were some of the best of the movie. My favorite was the French Plantation scene. Aurore Clément was superb. She said so much without saying a word. When she did speak it was like listeng to an Angel. The opium pipe scene was amazing from start to finish. I wasn't impressed by Brando's work at all. I think he was the wrong choice for the part. PS The line about never being able to step in the same river twice could have been left out.
eviltimes (6 out of 10 ) If anyone actually reads this script they will find it has very little to do with the actual film. Interesting, though.
K. Hungus (7 out of 10 ) I've always enjoyed Hearts of Darkness more than Apocalypse Now, and after I read this, I really did truly understand Coppola's hardships in rewriting it into a cohesive, brilliant film that it turned out to be. He was absolutely right about the original ending.
DirtySock (10 out of 10 ) Colonel Kurtz is clearly insane and yet has a better grasp of the situation than anyone except perhaps Kilgore, who just continues in denial. His, Kurtz's, words for his son, his followers and his country's future are sewn together in a coherent patchwork of despair and disgust. There is a line that perfectly summarizes every war America finds itself a part of, imo: "we train young men to drop fire on people, but their commanders won't allow them to write f*ck on their airplanes because it's obscene"
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