In 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War, Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) is resting in his hotel room, waiting for a mission to be given to him by the United States Army. A mission that no one else has ever been given before. The mission is to travel upriver to assassinate a colonel, who’s gone AWOL and acts like a demi-god to a group of tribal n
atives in the jungle. Taking the mission for what it is, Willard travels upriver along with a ragtag group of American soldiers, some of which are called by their nicknames. Along the way, several obstacles get in their way of the mission including a deadly encounter with a tiger and heavy enemy fire at a strategic bridge. As Willard nears the end of his mission, he soon finds himself reeling in the horrors and sanity of war itself as he confronts the colonel face to face in which Willard’s true nature begins to emerge slowly.
Right of the bat, this movie is a visual masterpiece! With some shots you just have to sit back and watch in awe. The colour scheme throughout this whole movie is also magnificent. There’s a lot of orange, yellow and green. The battle scenes are tense and shown in gory detail. Speaking of tension, the set-up for the story is a simple one, but, the building of the mystery around Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) throughout this whole movie is what really kept me watching it. The tension builds and builds and builds and the eventual encounter towards the end of the movie doesn’t disappoint. The brilliant sound design adds to the tension as well. The side characters in this movie are fleshed out well, humanised, you get a lot of screen time with them and I was surprised how emotionally invested I was in them when the battle scenes were happening. I was kind of surprised Martin Sheen didn’t get at least nominated for best actor in a leading role in this movie. He’s very likeable in this movie.
The movie kind of drags, I finished it over the course of multiple sittings. And I don’t view that as a negative. This is mostly due to watching the redux version of this movie. I think the theatrical version would have been a little easier on the eye. So despite not being able to finish the movie in one sitting, this is still a movie I highly recommend you check out and I’m going to give it 10/10*
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Written by: John Milius, Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Herr, Joseph Conrad
Starring: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne, Albert Hall, Harrison Ford, Dennis Hopper, Scott Glenn
Runtime: 147 minutes (1979 theatrical release) / 196 minutes (2001 redux)
Awards: Won 2 oscars (best cinematography, best sound), nominated for 6 oscars (best picture, best actor in a supporting role – Robert Duvall, best director, best writing or screenplay based on material from another medium, best art direction-set decoration, best film editing)
