Some war films glorify war itself, some expresses intrinsic opinions and ideology, but only a few doesn’t dignify war as it is. This piece of cinema is the impeccable paradigm. Unlike other war films, victory is victorious, honour is a crusade, but for Apocalypse Now it relentlessly shows the madness of war, its sadness and unprecedented dementia that it brings to humanity. Most of us were used to encapsulate movies of breathtaking courage and bravery, and it takes a great amount of patience and understanding towards Francis Ford Coppola’s unparalleled masterpiece aside from The Godfather Trilogy in which he studies the Vietnam war, the lunacy it brings and the echoes that it stir in the waking world today.

However, in such despicable images of death and carnage in the land of Vietnam, Coppola made sure that he brings paradox to darkness, which is beauty. As it remains today, this has one of cinema history’s most groundbreaking cinematography, all scenes were masterfully shot, reverberating visuals studded against the turbulent background of shooting locations in the Philippines. And yes, as a Filipino, this film makes me proud that for once in history (or hopefully more than once), the greatest director the world has ever know, Francis Ford Coppola, had set foot in the Philippines along with legends like Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, Laurence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper, Robert Duvall and the once very young Harrison Ford to shoot a fine piece of cinema in Philippines and waged their own war against unceremonial weather and typhoons (mosquitoes as well). Camera movements were moving as if they were measured perfectly, images were darkened to convey the breadth and complexity of a hopeless war, and the slow burn of visuals were deliberately piled alongside with each other to bring out the message of the film.

It starts with blackness and the distant sounds of helicopters blaring, then it opens up on a scenery of a land ravaged by war, bombs, explosions, and there was Capt. Willard (Martin Sheen) bedraggled and staring endlessly into space with his intense green eyes. Then we know that beneath the solid evocation of stare, he was haunted by something unfathomable, more than just the remnants of war. He was brought back into his senses was called by a superior commander and was ordered to start a journey upriver to discover the situation of the unchartered Col. Hurtz (Marlon Brando), one of the army’s most successful soldier, who had fled from the ‘Nam war ages before and was ordered to be killed due to disloyalty. Rowing behind enemy lines, they risked their lives along with a band of soldiers to finalise a mission difficult to behold. With Coppola’s astounding technical mastery, the scenes were majestically handled: from the unforgettable assault of the village, with students and teachers running in panic, the helicopters sound blaring like thunders, bombs exploding like orchestra drums, to the sudden ambush in the river, the hysterical almost drugged entertainment by Playboy Playmates to the soldiers and to the dark and brooding finale with Col. Hurtz. Indeed, Apocalypse Now is dark, terrifying, brooding and trance-like, just like the war of Vietnam which was powered by drugs, heroine and anti-humanity.

Like the backdrop, performances in this film were priceless. Martin Sheen as Capt. Willard delivers his most superb, most distinguished performance of his career, as the troubled soldier, haunted by the aphorism about the lunacy that the war brings. His unimposing character, in which he was introduced by a hard stare in the ceiling, conceiving ceiling fans as helicopters and climaxes by a bloody pose with eyes steeling as if he had seen the horrors that Colonel Hurtz had seen once before, was downrightly amazing. He’s no loud-mouthed, he thinks before he talks, and he sees before he contemplates, a wonderful portrayal of a soldier imposed of a mission with consequences he doesn’t know. Marlon Brando’s appearance was all too brief, but Col. Hurtz was unforgettable. His bald shape half-hidden in the dark, as the embers of fire lit a little space, his voice deep and his gaze unforgiving, such a character of enigmatic gravitas needs no explanation for the situation he was in, leading a band of tribes in the jungle, we know a reason lurks behind it. There are other great performances here too: Robert Duvall as the good ‘ol 1970’s Captain Jack Sparrow version, Lt. Kilgore, trash-mouthed and deploring, Harrison Ford as the young soldier who saves a cute puppy from bloodshed, Laurence Fishburne as a heroic anti-hero, effin banal with drugs and swear signs, and Dennis Hopper as the exclamatory journalist-photographer stuck in the in the jungles where Hurtz lived.

The greatest thing about the film is the ending. A masterclass of imagery, power of dialogue and stunning allegories. Capt. Willard was captured by Hurtz but he wasn’t forced within bars. Hurtz knew he was leading to his death, and upon Willard was reminded of his mission, he brought a heavy strike into Hurtz as a noisy tribal dance and worshipping was befalling outside. It proved that the recurring line “The horror... the horror...” as Hurtz was seeped with blood, breathing his last air, was one of cinema’s haunting, thematic line that shatters the self-righteousness of war. Soon we realise that we sympathise with Hurtz, that we couldn’t blame him for fleeing from war and building his own empire in the wilderness for he was human enough to feel the ravage implicated upon the desolate lands and to test human’s survival instinct. We know that as soon as Willard completed his mission as emerged from the expected murder, he had seen something more than just horror that the war had caused, but something deep, disturbing and psychologically complex that would change his life into the brink of sanity.

Apocalypse Now is now one of my favourite movies of all time, not just because Coppola directed it but because it pushes us to the heights that cinema rarely does. Technically God-like, masterfully shot, image by image, a roll of film that would transcend in history and would remain in the future generations. This is a metaphorical study of war, of humanity, of horror, of the psyche and of sanity. Part satire, part horror film, part ingenuous war film, part psychological study, part surrealism – it’s more than just a film. Apocalypse Now is an experience difficult to forget.

Rating: A+