Rating: 
Summary: One of Coppola's Finest Hours
Review: Francis Ford Coppola's engaging Vietnam war story is considered to be one of the greatest films ever made. While I'm not sure about that,I am sure of the fact that I do enjoy watching this movie. This isn't just for Coppola fans,or war movie fans,but is intended to entertain everybody! Wonderful performances through out the cast(Martin Sheen is excellent in his role. Also the supporting players like,Robert Duvall,and Marlon Brando)! The highlights here are the truly outstanding cimatography by Vittorio Storaro(A Bertolucci regular). Of course Coppola's directing. Brando's "horror" soliloquy is up there with some of the grestest moments ever filmed. I only wish there was more screen time for him,not that I'm disappointed with Sheen leading the cast. This is a must for movie lovers...make sure you buy this movie!
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Summary: The horror, the horror, how to flee the horror
Review: I recently watched Apocalypse Now on dvd again after quite some time, and after all this time it still hits me like a ton of bricks. I have to admit however that this time the shocking images of battle (the helicopterattack), though still impressive didn't shock me as much when it did then. I guess my senses are dulled by the images of movies which has appeared since (Hamburger Hill, Full metal Jacket and more recently Saving private Ryan).Compared with these latter movies, Coppola showed more restraint in displaying blood and gore then. It is the part of the movie after the helicopterattack which impressed me so much, when Willard and company embark on an almost psychedelic journey to find the renegade Kurtz. Coppola then leaves the big vistas of battle to the more intimate inner workings of individuals who are trying to cope with the horrors of war and essentialy fail to do so. Willard and the crew of the patrolboat are from then on confronted with the full horrors of war hidden under the spectaculary beauty of the vietnamese jungle while never coming face to face with this horror. After the helicopterattack w'll never get to see the face of the enemy again. Everytime the crew of the patrolboat thinks they are facing the enemy, it turned out to be something completely different, a sampan with suspected VC, turned out to be a boat full of innocent people after they shoot them to pieces (watch the young gunnersmate go to pieces after this incident), an attack from ashore turned out to be an attack of primitive indiginous people ("a spear", an incredulous mortally wounded skipper gaspes)and towards the end the survivors find out they are after one of their own... During all this everyone, in his own way feel the growing need to escape the allpervasive horror of the situation. Most of them flee into drugsuse, the gunnersmate goes wacko, the skipper and Chef try to hold on to their sense of morality and ironicaly get killed, as if Coppola wants to say that western morality doesn't apply in extreme situations. Even Willard, already on the brink of becoming unhinged after one tour (see the eerie hotelroomscene at the beginning of the movie) has to do some serious rethinking an refeeling after beiing confronted with Kurtz, just to keep in the game. Kurtz himself, turned out to be not the clearcut incarnation of evil, the military leadership painted him to be. Despite his warcrimes, he is a victim of the horrors of war, just like the others. Kurtz tried to escape the horror by meting out the same horror on the ones who inflicted it on him. But by the time Willard reaches him, Kurtz ,however, no longer is able to flee the horror anymore and cajoles Willard into providing him the ultimate escape, death. Willard does kill him in the end, but not because of his mission ("they are going to make me major for this, and I'm not even in their f...g army anymore")but because Kurtz wants him to and most of all "because the jungle wants him to, hell he took his orders from the jungle anyway"... This is pretty strong and thoughtprovoking stuff, stuff I'm able to appreciate more now since I'm 20 years older and hopefully more matured...It is this multilayered approach to the subject which make Apocalypse Now an alltime classic and which sets it aside from the others... The DVD itself is of an adequate quality, but Paramount again dropped the ball and could have made this an absolute must-have if they would have included the making-of documentary "Heart of Darkness", which itself is of a brooding, dark quality equal to the movie itself.
Rating: 
Summary: To think this was an adaptation of a Conrad short story!
Review: A great adaptation of Joseph Conrad's "Heart ofDarkness... into the Vietnam War. This film is so powerful on many levels; as a war-film, a film of the craziness of war, the insanity of violence, the god-worship nature of people, the limits of mankind. Truly one of the classic films of all time.The DVD offers some interesting bonuses, such as the original filming of the destruction of the Kurtz compound in Cambodia. If anything, it goes to show you how a great director like Coppola was smart enough to take this out of the original in order to leave a more powerful message in the ending than simple mass destruction.
Rating:
Summary: Reviews speak for me.
Review: Brilliant ensemble acting in what I consider to be Coppola's greatest film, Apocalypse Now scores big. Only a filmmaker like Coppola could have told such a simple story so masterfully: special agent ventures up river in search of a renegade military colonel gone insane. His mission: "terminate with extreme prejudice." I recently purchased this DVD and must say that it's certainly a big improvement over my pan & scan VHS cassette, but it really could have used some more extras. When will Paramount learn? Not only that, but the color timing is off in just a few scenes i.e. when Willard first meets up with Colonel Kilgore. The picture is just a little bit more "reddish" than what I'm used to seeing, as it is during the caribou sacrifice. But the picture sharpness and the sound quality cancel these downsides out. I can't see how anyone could not find this movie interesting, as it is (in my opinion) the greatest war film of all time. Pay no attention to the criticisms of Brando's "sloshy" performance. He's hauntingly brilliant as always.
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Summary: Apocalypse Now is Brilliant
Review: When I learned what Francis Ford Coppola had gone through to make this picture, I think I had appreciated it more than ever.My only regret is that I never saw this one on the big screen. This is a picture that includes epic scenes filmed on the grandest scale possible(Helo attack with Wagner blarring, for example) and scenes in which are so quiet and contemplative you wonder if this was not just some elongated music video.This is not a plot driven movie.This is an adventure of visual and auditory imagery that tells its own plot.You go on the journey up the Mekong Delta with the crewmembers of the plastic patrol boat.The soundcrew and cinematography crew won well-deserved oscars.The new widescreen special edition is even better.(Film has been remastered and must be viewed with surround to appreciate!) Use of The Doors in opening and ending scenes probably introduced a new generation to the genius of Jim Morrison as well!This is a brilliant piece of cinema and was well worth what Coppola went through to get it off the ground!
Rating:
Summary: Get this movie! Get this movie!
Review: One of the best films on the Vietnam War. This movie definitely goes among other great Vietnam war movies like Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Casualties of War and the documentary film Hearts and Minds. Charlie Sheen gave a great performance here along with of course, Marlon Brando. Other actors in this movie include Dennis Hopper, Lawrence Fishburne (see if you can spot him), Harrison Ford (see you if you can spot him too), and Robert Duval, remembered for his one-liner "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." in this movie. The scenes are simply spectacular; shot entirely in the Philippines. This is not your typical Vietnam War movie of firefights. The story is simply haunting. Very very haunting. Charlie Sheen who plays the part of a CIA black ops guy is ordered to assasinate a rogue colonel played by Marlon Brando. Brando will scare you. I like the part where Robert Duvall launches a chopper assault on an enemy village while blasting Wagner music on speakers mounted on the sides of the choppers. This is a great movie. A lot of the other Vietnam movies that followed it adapted a lot of the formulas done in this movie. Get this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Great buy
Review: Excellent picture and sound, with great extras. Buyers should be aware that altough descibed as 2.35 - the transfer is only about 2.1 (but still anamorphic). Dont let it put you off.
Rating:
Summary: Apocalypse WOW!
Review: Coppola's controversial VietNam film is not only one of the many highlights from the last great decade of American filmmaking, but is one of my all time favorite films. This is not so much a film about the American experience in VietNam or an anti-war statement as it is a blistering personal vision from Coppola. It's a work of demented genius. Almost minimal in plot(a burned out Army Captain journeys up river into Cambodia to "terminate" an errant officer in the jungles)the film is really a series of staggering surreal set pieces. It's one great scene after another: from the greatest opening scene in cinema history(a fire bomb attack scored to the Doors "The End")to the famous Wagnerian helicopter assault to the bizzare USO show in the middle of nowhere and right up to its nightmarish dreamy conclusion this is a grand act of filmmaking on an insane level. This is one of the few films I can watch endlessly.
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Summary: A peoples movie
Review: Based on the book "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad , Apocalypse now is the Vietnam version of this classic story . After it debuted on cinema in 1979 , this movie is up till now one of the best selling movies on homevideo(including dvd) . With 3 versions now availlable (apocalypse now , apocalypse now redux , heart of darkness a filmmakers apocalypse) and add then the book "Notes" by eleina coppola it is clear that it became a peoples movie . Almost all credit goes to Coppola , for him probably the most challenging movie he ever made in his career .
Rating:
Summary: A Bit Pretentious, but Still a Classic
Review: Okay, some of Martin Sheen's narrations are pretentious and overblown, but that doesn't change the fact that Apocalypse Now combines the horrors of war with unbelievable cinematography and a host of unique characters to provide audiences with one of the better films of the 1970s. Francis Ford Coppolla almost killed himself due to the almost four years it took to make this film. He was obsessed with this project, more so than either of the first two Godfathers, and he became convinced that the movie would be a tremendous failure. Instead, Coppolla made one of the best war films of all time. This film follows the disturbing journey of Captain Willard (Sheen) up the river where he must find and confront American colonel Walter Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who has gone insane and is now running the Vietnam War on his own terms, with the natives of the woods following his every command. In regards to Kurtz, Willard is instructed to "terminate with extreme prejudice." There are many memorable scenes in this film: the Chef being attacked by a tiger in the woods and his mad reaction that followed that dangerous episode, the shooting up of a Vietnamese boat because one of the passengers was lunging to grab a puppy and not a weapon, the get-together of several hundred GIs to watch a show featuring Playboy bunnies, and of course the final scenes in which Kurtz reveals his twisted logic to a stunned Willard. There also a number of unforgettable characters who play only bit roles: Robert Duvall as the hilarious Captain Kilgore who blows up an entire Vietnamese village just to surf, Dennis Hopper playing a spacy American photo-journalist who worships Kurtz, etc. Everybody on Willard's boat is portrayed marvelously by such actors as Lawrence Fishburne, who was only 17 while this film was being made. Even Sheen provides a strong performance as the lead, although he can't help the fact that some of his narrations seem to take themselves too seriously. For the most part, though, this movie was very well-written. It was an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's early 20th Century book, Heart of Darkness. For an even better experience than Apocalypse Now, special recommendation goes to Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, which is a documentary about the struggles of making this movie, shot by Coppolla's wife.
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