Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall

During the Vietnam War, the young American Captain Willard is given the assignment to hunt down and kill one of his own: Colonel Kurtz, who has apparently gone insane, murdered hundreds of innocent pe...( read more  read more... )ople and constructed a strange kingdom for himself deep in the jungle. Willard and his crew embark on a surreal river journey to find Kurtz, meeting along the way a Lieutenant-Colonel who surfs during live combat, Playboy bunnies dropped in by helicopter to entertain rowdy troops, and the inhabitants of a French plantation trapped in colonial times.

Flixster Users

93% liked it

241,059 ratings

Critics

98% liked it

60 critics

R, 2 hrs. 33 min.

Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola

Release Date: January 1, 1979

Invite friends to see

DVD Release Date: November 20, 2001

Stats: 17,462 reviews

Get movie widget Recommend it Add to Favorites

Your Rating



clear rating
Share on: Facebook Twitter

Flixster Reviews (17,462)


  • September 30, 2009
    One of the greatest films ever made. Historically one of the trickiest films to shoot, it?s amazing it ever got made! Thank fuck it did though, you know a film is good when after 3 hours you still want more! Credit due to Warner Herzog though, it was his idea and his film was har...( read more)der to make and is ultimately better, but this is still one of the best films ever made!
  • April 12, 2009
    Great casting and plot, one of those movies that bring you in and mess with your head.

    I don't know I gave this film 5 stars when I haven't even seen the whole movie. If the first half is as good as the second half, 5 stars is staying.
  • March 31, 2009
    I may not like Brando's character and his long-winded, pseudo intellectual bullshit. But I love the rest of this harrowing and dazing war epic, starring an excellent, tired and stupefied Martin Sheen.
    The attack to the vietnamese village with Wagner's die walküre itself is iconic...( read more).
    Vittorio Storaro's cinematography is an absolute work of art.
  • March 14, 2009
    No denying it. So much passion went into the making of this film it drips off the screen.
  • March 1, 2009
    What's there to say about "Apocalypse Now" that hasn't been said? The film is perhaps one of the biggest spectacles in film history, from the "Ride of the Valkyries" chopper attack to Marlon Brando's larger-than-life performance. It's also one of the most beautifully photographed...( read more) of all movies, with Vittorio Storaro's cinematography creating visuals that movie-goers have never forgotten. While it's debatable to call "Apocalypse Now" the greatest war film of all time, there's certainly no question that it's in atleast the top three.

    Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) is a U.S. military officer nearly going mad while waiting for an assignment. Finally, the mission comes - to penetrate into Cambodia and dispose of Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a highly respected green beret who has been driven to insanity. Willard curiously dissects Kurtz in every which way along a boat ride down the Nung River, building anticipation to the famous final act of the film with Kurtz's first appearance. Willard becomes fascinated with Kurtz, almost loving him, and when Kurtz meets Willard for the first time that respect is shared. It creates one of the more fascinating and compelling relationships you'll see on film.

    There are critics who feel that the ending of the film is a monumental misstep, and so self-indulgent that it's hard to get through without rolling your eyes. I, on the other hand, thought these were the best moments of the film - with Kurtz's incoherent pretentious ramblings being completely entrancing. When it comes to films about the Vietnam war, I find a more focused character study to be more compelling than a giant spectacle of chaos (the first part of "Full Metal Jacket" is perhaps my favorite half hour in film history).

    That being said, however, one cannot overlook the scale of the film. It's a film that'll unlikely ever be duplicated - with enormous sets and some of the largest explosions ever filmed. Even the grittiness of the long boat ride, which is relatively small in scale, is heightened by the looming sense of doom that the jungle presents.

    I don't know if i'd call "Apocalypse Now" a perfect film. There are some moments that are completely overstated, such as the Playboy bunny sequence and the sacrifice at the end of the film, and at times I did feel a certain self-indulgence such as the opening montage set to The Doors. When ranking my favorite war films, "Apocalypse Now" would probably be just a step below "Full Metal Jacket", but both films are masterful works that should not be missed.
  • November 23, 2009
    Well done but so depressing, upsetting... I'll never watch it again.
  • November 22, 2009
    The Horror... The Horror. Six stars out of five.
  • November 21, 2009
    little bit tiring experience watching this movie (i watched the redux version fyi) until the last 45 minutes came up, which for me is one of the best 45 minutes i had ever spent in watching movie, it's thrilling, haunting, shocking, mind-blowing, absolute classic horrorshow..
  • November 20, 2009
    The best movie made by The Godfather Director, Francis Ford Coppola. Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper, Harrison Ford and the rest of the cast are all amazing. Bizarrie and Disburbing.
  • November 20, 2009
    An amazing story, a great cast and an excellent depiction of the Vietnam War. It is an extremely well paced movie, even with a large amount of story and a vast assortment of characters. It is done on a large scale, putting you right in the center of the war. Martin Sheen and Marl...( read more)on Brando played great opposites and carried a message of good vs. evil quite well.

Critic Reviews


December 31, 2003
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

...Coppola's sprawling, harrowing war story is not to be missed. full review

January 17, 2002
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

The opening, with the whirling sound of choppers intercut with Willard sweating angst in his Saigon hotel bed, a jungle burning with napalm...remains a visual and aural wonder. full review

January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

The film has one of the most haunting endings in cinema, a poetic evocation of what Kurtz has discovered, and what we hope not to discover for ourselves. full review

View more Apocalypse Now reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • kanokaan
    May 24, 2009
    Affective...
  • TheMightyCelestial
    June 18, 2008
    For any actor to be able to transform a role into one that becomes one of those rare cinematic icons of American culture, is almost always a good indication of the strength of the performance behind it.
    Take Robert Duvall.
    One of my favorite scenes is of Lt. Colonel Kilgore walking blithely around in the middle of blazing warzone as the shells, grenades & bullets exploding around him, while everyone else is shooting or running for cover. You can really tell the sincerty in his comment of liking the morning smell of napalm.
    Which, BTW, is a view that I find myself not sharing.
    And even though I've never actually experienced the smell of napalm in the morning,
    I have been awakened on several occasions by the burning hot & almost equally as dangerous fragrance of my own farts.
    Which, I can imagine, can't be all that much of a difference in experience.
    Especially when the night before, I might've indulged in a midnight snack consisting of a huge steak sandwich with a layer of bacon on it.
  • cunongbose
  • bluejays86rock
    April 7, 2007
    well i wasnt even around when this tragic war was happening but i have relatives who were in it and vietnam and korea were both losing wars for us, political wars is all they were that killed alot of people, oh well this is just my opinion so who cares lol.
  • DroogenLeader
    March 28, 2007
    Quiz I made on 'Apocalypse Now';

    http://www.flixster.com/user/droogenleader/quiz/heart-of-darkness?invitorId=210110980
  • DroogenLeader
    March 14, 2007
    Downloaded it. Again, great film.
  • DroogenLeader
    March 1, 2007
    This film is fucking ace. My favourite movie ever, and I'm still ashamed to have not seen 'Redux'. Soon I will have the money...
  • sarmad730
    December 9, 2006
    Saigon... shit; I'm still only in Saigon... Every time I think I'm gonna wake up back in the jungle. When I was home after my first tour, it was worse. I'd wake up and there'd be nothing. I hardly said a word to my wife, until I said "yes" to a divorce. When I was here, I wanted to be there; when I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the jungle. I'm here a week now... waiting for a mission... getting softer; every minute I stay in this room, I get weaker, and every minute Charlie squats in the bush, he gets stronger. Each time I looked around, the walls moved in a little tighter.
  • fareloy
    September 24, 2006
    can listen,can fill,but can't see...very powerfull
  • yeyopharmer
    August 31, 2006
    The greatest war movie of all time.... Barnone.

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Official Trailer

More Like This


Click a thumb to vote on that suggestion, or add your own suggestions.

  • The Goonies
    The Goonies (27%)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End
    Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End (36%)
  • We Were Soldiers
    We Were Soldiers (52%)
  • The Killing Fields
    The Killing Fields (83%)

Facts


No facts approved yet. Be the first

Apocalypse Now : Watch Free on TV


Apocalypse Now Trivia


  • After filming his opening scene in Apocalypse Now Martin Sheen had...  Answer »
  • which joseph conrad book is apocalypse now based on?  Answer »
  • The movie Apocalypse Now is based on the following book:  Answer »
  • In what movie did Chef say '...Don't get out of the boat! I'm never getting out of the boat---I'm not getting out of the boat!..."  Answer »

Recent News


No recent headlines. Got one?

Most Popular Skin