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Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now

List Price: $29.95
Your Price: $23.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Tell me something new
Review: I was 11 when this movie was released (1979), and over the years I pretty much forgot about it. So while perusing the DVD section at the local video store, I thought I would give it a try.

Mind you, I had no preconceived notions of this film. In fact, I didn't even know the basic plot line.

So it comes down to this: Please, tell me something new! So war is horror? No kidding. Did I need F.F.C. to tell me that? You mean the 60 thousand or so killed in Nam wasn't enough to get this point across? Gimme a break.

Now, this movie was entertaining, but it certainly wasn't ground breaking. The music was odd; but I had to keep telling myself that it was made 20 years ago. This brings up a point: The reason I kept forgetting it was made 20 years ago is that the DVD quality of this movie IS incredible. Crisp, clear, bright colors. Definitely one of the best transfers I've experienced. The "alternate ending" (which actually WASN'T an alternate ending) was an interesting twist that I wasn't aware of.

Rent it, but I know I wouldn't watch this movie 5 times to make buying it worth the price.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: SOMEDAY THIS WARS GONNA END
Review: This film is just the greatest film I have ever seen in my life. The further down the river they go the more followers Kurtz has, which can be said of so many great minds that go over the edge(Nick Drake, Richey Edwards, J.D. Salinger, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Stanley Kubrick). The acting from Sheen and Brando will probably never be bettered.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Classic!
Review: This movie is full of shocking images. You can tell that this movie was made by Francis Ford Coppola. He should have gotten the Oscar for best director. Martin Sheen gave his best performance ever, Robert Duvall was great, and Marlon Brando was haunting! Be ready for one of the greatest assults ever filmed! A great film with a great journey into darkness! Grade:A

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Own it.
Review: I gave my widescreen VHS copy away and bought this disc. It was clearly the right decision. I can't imagine anyone regretting the purchase of this DVD.

This disc's picture quality and sound demonstrate what ought to be done, but usually isn't, to some of the older classic movies now appearing on DVD. Sound has been remastered into full Dolby Digital. Picture quality is so fine it's difficult to believe that this could have been better experienced in the theater.

The obvious companion piece to this is the documentary of the making of the film by Coppola's wife, "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse". If you haven't seen that, you need to. It's a fascinating piece even if you haven't seen Apocalypse Now.

There are a couple of goodies on the disc, including an alternate stand-alone ending of the airstrike coming in on the Kurtz temple and some excerpts from the original theatrical program, but this is nothing compared to all the goodies you can get by watching Hearts of Darkness.

Knowing about all that extra information and some deleted scenes shown in Hearts of Darkness, I wonder why some of that material (indeed, why not put the whole documentary on the disc, or make it purchasable as a double set?) wasn't included on this disc. For that reason, I refrain from a fifth star.

Quality of the movie itself and quality of the transfer to DVD are surely five stars, however. Perfect.

On a completely irrelevant side note, it would be nice if Coppola pulled a George Lucas on this film and rereleased it with some digital enhancements, such as the addition of the extra choppers he wanted in the chopper attack scene and a redoing of some of the awful artificial shadowing on Brando's face in the ending scenes. (Hell, you could even give Brando the body he should have had, looking like the kickass soldier he was written to be instead of an indulgently fat actor.)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Psychadellic Splendor
Review: In my opinion, one of the greatest films ever. A truely enthralling look at a war that was never completely understood. A story of five men finding true horror in the Vietnamese jungle. As they search for Colonel Walter Kurtz they find themselves in the most chaotic and unbelievable situations. As if being warned off by the ghosts of the jungle through situations seemingly out of the Twilight Zone, they press on. They find themselves in a war of pure carnage, a sureal place where soldiers are worshiped like the nights of the round table, and war is not war, but a game. A game with intangable costs; lives, sanity, and manhood. Slowly as they make their way to Kurtz they become entangled in a realm not of this world. A realm where man's suffering plays second fiddle to one mans God like stature. A world where there will be a second comming, a greater God, someone who can take Kurtz' place. In a way Kurtz wishes his own demise. He longs for his suffering to end. When it does we are left wondering, who took his place. This film is not for the faint of heart. It is full of grafic violence towards not only man but also animal. The most shocking scene of the movie is when Kurtz is killed. At the same time there is a water buffalo sacrificed by decapitation. In 1979 they didn't have CGI, so you can bet that that was as real as it gets.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: While not accurate, a good film
Review: While this film is pretty unrealistic in terms of true military facts, it is a good flick that is worth buying.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: heart of darkness
Review: I read heart of darkness before i actually saw this movie, at first, i hated the book. The only reason I read it was because I had to write a 1500 word essay about "the horror, the horror". you know what? now that i think of it I really enjoyed the book, its contents are as deep you want them to be.

the sentence 'the horror the horror' gives place to many interpretations that can go on for as long as anyone reads the story. Not only can Kurtz' words have different meanings but Kurtz himself can be thought of as either the true center of the story, or as just a secondary character, an imaginary fabrication of Marlow's mind. The indistinctness and complexity of Conrad's writing, coupled with his ability to mask and distract the reader make finding out and understanding the true meaning of his sentences a rather deceitful process. The true intended meanings are lying way down beneath the surface.

Kurtz had nothing to bring him back to civilization, life in the jungle managed to drift him further away into savagery to a point of no return. His death served him as the determinant factor with which he realizes what he had turned into after all the years of tormenting, killing and degrading the natives to the point where human life was worthless. Not only for him, but for all the people he was able to convince and confuse to the extent of being worshiped, it was really impossible to think about them going back to civilization. Although he could never return to civilization, he, at least, had the chance to take conscience of what he had done throughout his life.

back to apocalipsis now.... this film portrays the book in a way in which very few have done before, never a film was capable of showing emotions in the way A.N does. if you like the book, watch the movie, if you liked the movie, read the book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An even better masterpiece on DVD
Review: This has always been one of my favorite films, so it was a great experience watching it on DVD. The picture quality was excellent for such an old film, and listening to those helicopters dominate the room was loads of fun. A very creepy, thought provoking movie that sticks with you long after the closing credits. A must watch for anyone who cares about movies, especially films from the golden age of cinema, which for me are the 70's. Filmmakers felt they had the freedom to do whatever they wanted to then, and movies like this were the result.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best Vietnam-movie ever made!
Review: I don't want to reveal to much about this incredible good movie. I think if you look at the people who has made this film you will understand that this movie belongs in every persons DVD-collection.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Tantalizingly good - 4 and a half really
Review: Apocalypse Now is a superb film. The cinematography is amazing and the acting and direction is great and very believable. It is also quite well-written. However, there's some things that are . . . well, it's hard to explain.

The movie is about a soldier journeying through Vietnam by boat to find a renegade officer. It's very good all the way through - but the ending is very strange and there's a good chance you'll find yourself asking "what the hell just happened?" It's very surreal and eerie though, it really is a good ending, it's just - really weird. The movie is pretty quickly paced, but at the end it slows down - a lot.

That's not to say you shouldn't see it - in fact, you most definitely should, it's a fantastic movie. However, you may want to rent it before purchasing it. Even so, Apocalypse Now is, in my opinion one of the best war movies ever.


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