Apocalypse Now

R 8.4
2001 2 hr 27 min Drama , War

At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a mysterious Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz, who has been leading his personal army on illegal guerrilla missions into enemy territory.

  • Cast:
    Martin Sheen , Frederic Forrest , Albert Hall , Laurence Fishburne , Sam Bottoms , Marlon Brando , Robert Duvall

Similar titles

Giving Birth to a Butterfly
Giving Birth to a Butterfly
After having her identity stolen, a woman, and her son's pregnant girlfriend, bond together on a surreal journey as they attempt to track down the perpetrators.
Giving Birth to a Butterfly 2023
Airport 1975
Airport 1975
When an in-flight collision incapacitates the pilots of an airplane bound for Los Angeles, stewardess Nancy Pryor is forced to take over the controls. From the ground, her boyfriend Alan Murdock, a retired test pilot, tries to talk her through piloting and landing the 747 aircraft. Worse yet, the anxious passengers — among which are a noisy nun and a cranky man — are aggravating the already tense atmosphere.
Airport 1975 1974
Joanie
Joanie
When a girl takes up acting classes to find a semblance of self, she soon finds out that she has more within her than previously thought.
Joanie 2023
The Lost Daughter
The Lost Daughter
A woman's seaside vacation takes a dark turn when her obsession with a young mother forces her to confront secrets from her past.
The Lost Daughter 2021
The Woman of the Century
The Woman of the Century
Beth, a young transgender woman, is taken to times and places afar. Run-ins with a powerful spirit and a growing bond with another lost girl will take our heroine on a journey to finding her place in this big strange world of ours.
The Woman of the Century 2024
Language Arts
Language Arts
The film follows Allison Forche-Marlow, a beautiful, bright, determined, and organized woman, who never gives up trying to heal her autistic son, whom she fiercely loves, no matter what it demands of everyone.
Language Arts 2021
Bad Therapy
Bad Therapy
Married couple Bob and Susan Howard decide to see a marriage counselor named Judy Small, who appears trustworthy but harbors dark and conflicted impulses.
Bad Therapy 2020
Spray of the Days
Spray of the Days
Chick fell in love with Alise because of a shared passion for writer Jean-Sol Partre who gradually devoured their relationship. Soon after, Colin, the main character, also falls in love with a young girl, Chloe, but after their marriage she soon suffers from a strange illness: a water lily grows in her lungs.
Spray of the Days 1968
The Silence
The Silence
With the world under attack by deadly creatures who hunt by sound, a teen and her family seek refuge outside the city and encounter a mysterious cult.
The Silence 2019
Moonlight
Moonlight
The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.
Moonlight 2016

Reviews

Diagonaldi
2001/03/08

Very well executed

... more
Stometer
2001/03/09

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

... more
GazerRise
2001/03/10

Fantastic!

... more
Sameer Callahan
2001/03/11

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

... more
adonis98-743-186503
2001/03/12

During the Vietnam War, Captain Willard is sent on a dangerous mission into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade Colonel who has set himself up as a god among a local tribe. Apocalypse Now is for sure a really beautiful film and very well made in general plus Robert Duvall gives one of his best perfomances and the entire cast is pretty good in general but where the film kinda disappointed me at least the Redux version did was with the story that was kinda slow and at times even hard to follow, some of the character's motivations were also a bit muddled like Brandon's for instance plus the scenes with the 2 women and the french weren't even needed. Overall an overrated and decent drama. (7/10)

... more
jeeap
2001/03/13

While a war is simple: you kill and get killed. There's no need to justify wars or say they are something that could be avoided. They happen all the time because they are part of human's nature. Try to prove otherwise by looking at history )) Or by reading news.And let's be honest one more time: we're talking about movie selling business, so any idea will work well if it's sold. Blood, sex and f-bombs are all good for the audience sitting in cosy chairs and chewing popcorn.

... more
claudia-bowling
2001/03/14

Why would you watch this more than once? I can't even make it through the movie once. What a horrible waste of 2 and a half hours. Just stop!

... more
notoriousCASK
2001/03/15

Apocalypse now is not only the best war film ever made but it's also one of the best films of all time as it won the prestigious Palme d'Or at Cannes and its constantly recognized as a benchmark in cinematic history. Based on the novel " Hearts of darkness" by Joseph Conrad this film is not so much about the Vietnam war, it is about war in general and serves as a deep study into the dark places of the human soul and how war can affect the individual. Apocalypse now depicts a timeless story about a universal human struggle, the duality of man, consisting of morality, the savage primordial instinct and what every person chooses to base his actions upon.The film has a simple premise, US Army Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) is ordered on a dangerous mission into Cambodia through a river, to assassinate a renegade, Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who has gone insane and set himself up as a god among the local native tribe. It's an accessible premise, allowing for the film to be consumed by even the most casual movie watchers, and yet this film is anything but shallow. It's a journey into madness and hysteria, an observation into the darkness of humanity. I could write an essay analyzing this film, there's just so much to talk about. My interpretation is that the river is not only the passage to find Kurtz but also the descent into madness and a reflection to the character's inner journey towards evil that is accomplished through the main theme of the movie, dehumanization. The journey through the river is also reminiscent of Dante's perilous journey through unspeakable surroundings and horrors. There are three major stops before Kurtz and each stop on the river furthers the dehumanization that war has brought, as well as implanting a new type of evil to the characters.The first stop is with lieutenant Kilgore. That stop shows that Kilgore and his soldiers have been consumed by the love of war after they dehumanized the enemy. Their love of war has blinded them so much that they see no negative and can't comprehend the consequences the war will bring. In one scene of the movie, the "heroic" marching of the helicopters to lay wrath upon their enemies, Captain Kilgore uses Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries to pump his soldiers and scare his enemies and like the mythical creatures Valkyries, he is the decider of who lives and who dies on the battle. At this stage, although everyone has removed any shred of humanity from the enemy, they still understand the innocent.The second stop is the USO show where we see the loss of morality as well as the dehumanization of the innocent. At this stop we see that a soldier dehumanized everyone aside from himself, becoming very selfish and losing any compassion for anyone but themselves. The soldiers that have passed through this stop would be willing to put anyone at risk for their instant gratification. Now as the characters go deeper into the river metaphorically they go deeper into themselves to explore their own evils which are becoming more apparent. The last stop before Kurtz is the Do-long Bridge and it's at this point that a soldier has gone too far, he's experienced so much trauma and so much evil that he lost grip with his own sanity and thus he dehumanized himself and can't return to a normal state of mind. The final stop on the journey is Kurtz, at this point only Willard and Kurtz have passed the madness stage and they are competing for the heart of darkness, the ultimate evil that we all have the capacity to have. Kurtz is in possession of the heart of darkness as he associates evil with strength. Bypassing the madness stage he's able to see the world for what it truly is, filled with hypocrites and he decides to bury his hatred and simply act on instinct. Willard at the end of the film rises from the river reborn as a new man ready to obtain the heart himself. He kills Kurtz and leaves the compound with his heart corrupted. In the end Willard has a choice, succumb to evil and stay in the compound having taken Kurtz's place as the leader of the savages or abandoning them into their fates...throwing his weapon, he emerges from the bottomless pit he had fallen through the heart of darkness and by saving Lance and choosing not to exterminate the tribe, he has completed his personal journey and tested his soul to the very limit. Both of them at any point could have just stopped but they didn't, they wanted to explore the depths of their souls and just how much further they could go.The film presents this study of the human psyche through Carmine Coppola's eerie score, hypnotic images, and some haunting scenes, essentially taking the viewer into the depths of hell. It's here where Coppola succeeds the most. His ability to create a living "hell" is so amazing, and it perfectly captures the mindset of the soldiers. It provides a commentary on war and religion, making the subtext even vaster. The film is weirdly beautiful and a true picture of the evil and hell from within ourselves .The cinematography by Vittorio Storaro is phenomenal and it provides a hallucinatory feeling throughout the film's runtime - from the faces of the losing minds covered in endless sweat, and the sight of figures within the shadows to a dark trenched riverbank - everything is captured in a stunning manner, conveying the hellish imagery and still taking the viewer's breath away. Coppola's direction transcends itself, the camerawork is at its absolute best when it comes to the use of lighting and shadows, most notable during Col. Kurtz's first appearance. The troubled production obviously didn't hurt the film at all, and most likely increased the dark quality it portrays. Apocalypse Now is beautifully haunting, utterly hellish, terrifyingly intelligent, and magnificently wrought, it slowly pushes you into the horror and absurdity of war, but also its meaningfulness and beauty. Not only is this one of the best films ever made, it's a psychoanalytical journey into places none of us would dare to venture to on our own. It is Francis Ford Coppola's magnum opus as he sacrificed everything to make it work. Immortal for its contribution to cinema, and a truly unforgettable experience, Apocalypse Now is cinema at its most complete, crystalline and pure.

... more