APOCALYPSE NOW (1979) | FIRST TIME WATCHING | MOVIE REACTION 

The fact that you were able to edit that down to under 40 minutes and still maintain much of the context, was a massive achievement on its own. Well done and thanks for this.

the only movie I have seen in a theatre that, when it was over, the entire audience walked out in compete silence. Not a word uttered. Not even a whisper.

Robert Englund tells a story about auditioning for this movie (he wanted to play Lance, the surfer). Coppola's casting director told him they were no longer looking for someone for that role, but he might fit for the space fantasy George Lucas was casting across the hall. And that was how Freddy Krueger auditioned to play Luke Skywalker. He didn't get the part, but he did go home to his roommate, Mark Hamill, and suggest that he have his agent set up an audition.

Your ability to empathize is your biggest asset. Never feel like you have to justify your sensitivity. It's a beautiful thing.

To quote Francis Ford Coppola at Cannes in 1979: "My film is not a movie. My film is not about Vietnam. It is Vietnam. It's what it was really like. It was crazy. And the way we made it was very much like the way the Americans were in Vietnam. We were in the jungle. There were too many of us. We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little, we went insane."

Robert Duvall is the G.O.A.T.

My brother was a movie theater manager and his theater showed this when it came out (back when many theaters had only one screen). He told me some Vietnam vets would come to see it but as soon it started, with the helicopters flying by is slow motions with the altered propeller sounds, a few would go back to the box office and ask for their money back because those images instantly brought back terrible memories. He always gave them a refund.

When Willard, talking about home says "...I'd been there and it doesn't exist." This is some brilliant writing, he is describing the effect war has on the men sent to fight and how the horrors they experience changes them, that they can't relate to normal life despite it being all they desperately want. Home is now in the past, they are a very different person now - damaged by what they have seen, the innocence they once had has been stolen so going home can never feel the same. This is also a theme in Tolkiens work and the Lord of The Rings, he fought in WW1. Everything you fight for and even if you win, the cost of winning is so hard and takes so much - so finally when you get home, the thing you were fighting for no longer exists.

"We train young men to drop fire on people, but their commanders won't let them write fuck on their airplanes because it's obscene." That's my favorite quote from the film. It shows you how ludicrous and hypocritical war is. Also, once you see the image of Martin Sheen's head emerging from a swamp, you'll notice thereafter how frequently that iconic shot is emulated in so many other films.

The making of Apocalypse Now was famously a nightmare for Francis Ford Coppola. Long delays from the rainy season, Harvey Keitel getting fired, Martin Sheen having a heart attack, Marlon Brando playing a super fit special forces officer and turning up on set massively overweight. The documentary Heart of Darkness shows the insanity really bled into the real life production of the movie

this is the greatest horror film ever made. the constant sense of dread just wares you down and then it actually shows you real horror

Cassie's empathy is the #1 reason why her videos are always at the top of my watch cue. I love that she is willing to watch something she doesn't think she will enjoy, for the experience and with the motivation of keeping an open mind.

"Are they supposed to be doing this?" That's basically the question of the entire Vietnam war.

There's a documentary about the making of this film called "Hearts of Darkness". It was one of the most grueling and crazy shoots ever (IIRC, Sheen had a heart attack close to filming and Brando was massively overweight). It's amazing they made the film they did.

There is a documentary about the making of this movie. Coppola's wife says in an interview that it was like the story. "We went into the jungle and slowly went mad."

He wasn't insane, he took war to its maximum conclusion. No remorse, no fear, no moral high ground, because no such things exist, it is a creation of leaders who justify evil to make war chivalrous. This was an antiwar movie.

After watching the movie you said you never wanted to watch it again. Willard says they were sending him on a mission and, when it was over, he'd never want another one. The horror.

The people that put on shows were absolute heroes. Leaving their comfortable careers back home to spend months going from base to base to entertain the troops. If they were with the USO tours, it was a high-end show with great support. But thousands of people were non-USO performers, putting on independent shows or booked by military clubs, often responsible for their own protection. Several of them died. Maybe the most famous was Martha Raye. At home she was labeled a warmonger for going to Vietnam so many times, often at her own expense. When not putting on shows she worked as a volunteer nurse. She was wounded twice during these tours but kept going back. In 1994 she became the only civilian to be buried at Fort Bragg, home of the US Army Special Forces.

Its impressive how this movie starts off already crazy and gets more and more insane the farther the Boats gets upriver to the point that Kurtz' compound just _feels_ like *Hell*.

"This is the end, beautiful friend. This is the end, my only friend, the end. It hurts to set you free. But you'll never follow me. The end of laughter and soft lies. The end of nights we tried to die. This is the end..."

the young black 17years old kid on the boat, was (the 14 years old in reality) Laurence Fishburne (Morpheus from the Matrix)

I think it's funny how Cassie doesn't want to watch Nightmare on Elm Street, but she watches Seven, Zodiac, Apocalypse Now and in comparison, Nightmare on Elm Street is a straight up comedy lol

The villainy of the US Army in the Vietnam War is so well portrayed here. The 'routine check' of the riverboat scene is one of my favorite moments of the film and the underlining of the grotesque *lie* of it all ("cutting a man in half with a machine gun and then giving them a bandaid") is what makes Kurtz such a horrifying monster at the end of the journey. Because he's right. And that's why the brass wants him gone - Kurtz has dropped the facade of righteousness and justification that the military is deluding itself with, and reveals the primal horror of what we were actually there to do.

So in this movie where the Vietnamese lady throws the grenade in the helicopter in her hat, that particular scene gave my grandfather flashbacks, he yelled out grenade and doe for cover beside his chair, and that’s the furthest he’s ever gotten into that movie he has since passed away, but it was still a scary moment

Dennis Hopper (the photographer/journalist) has always been very good at playing odd and/or insane characters in my small opinion.

That movie where Martin Sheen got ridiculously hammered in the hotel room, but Francis Ford Coppola said, "Let's just go with it", and Dennis Hopper was so high during the entire shoot he said years later he had no memory about making this movie. I guess there's no smell quite like coke in the morning.

"He's on acid, with a machine gun, ...which makes me a little nervous." Blessed be those who understate.

And it's a personal film for me , cause I worked with two women who were Cambodian, they lived through what the killing fields portrayed , they were young girls when it happened, one had tattoos on her shoulder that told the story of her father, the other told me about the escape as a little girl and after getting over the barbed wire, having to pull and wipe pieces of her cousin and best friend off of herself , there were tears in her eyes. She didn't cry much , she laughed at thing one normally doesn't, I realized at one point her laughter was a defense mechanism against her personal pain 😢 war truly is hell and a hell that never should have been created by man .

Honestly, Cassie, the reason I continue to return to your channel is because you get so deeply involved with what you're watching. It's refreshing to see someone with so much humanity and sweetness react to all the good, bad, light, and dark things you see in these movies---it's a completely different experience from watching movies with my family or friends or on my own. And your reactions sometimes affect me, as well. There's plenty of ugliness in the world we live in and it's easy to become cynical about our increasing lack of humanity, to think that recovering our decency, compassion, and morality is a lost cause in modern society as we grow increasingly distant to each other. But you and Carly are a reminder that there are plenty of people out there who haven't fallen victim to the cold and ugly bitterness that has swallowed so many people these days. It's refreshing and hopeful. So thank you for getting so emotionally involved while watching these movies. Thank you for sharing your reactions and being sincere with them. Thank you for inviting Carly to share in some of the viewing experiences with you, because you two make a great team! It's a nice change, seeing your sincerity, especially in a vidscape of staged reactions; and it's also interesting, fun, and telling how you process information, what you pick up and miss, what bothers you and why, and how you try to discern what's coming next. You are a relatable person. After having watching "Platoon" and "Full Metal Jacket", I would have thought "Apocalypse Now" would be an easier watch for you, but it goes to show how you don't take for granted the horrors and waste of war, even if it is presented as a piece of entertainment; and your confusion, frustration, and the wretchedness you felt truly sum up the pointlessness of the Vietnam war and the macabre atrocities it produced. Thank you again for being you and for sharing your cinematic journeys with us! And thanks for bringing Carly on the road with you! Love you both!

I believe that Martin Sheen actually had a heart attack during the filming. Also, the local village was in the process of sacrificing the water buffalo, so Coppola asked if they could film it, and they agreed.

My oldest cousins were both in Vietnam, the oldest one told me that this movie was the closest representation of what he remembered. The younger one was a door gunner (Chinook) naturally his experiences were different. He told me "you have to remember that this is just a movie, the real thing was much worse." When they both left they were only 6 and 4 yrs. older than me. When they came back it seemed like a generation. Vietnam changed everybody's life. I never realised how much till I started getting old. I didn't have to go, lucky lottery.

"not the civilians". that was the problem in Vietnam my dear. That is the problem in any war. There are ALWAYS civilians "in the way". Civilians usually pay the biggest price in any war.

Others have probably already noted this, but two Martin Sheen facts - he suffered a massive heart attack during filming and almost died, and in that scene at the beginning where he punches the mirror and his hand bleeds? That was no acting - he seriously cut his hand and was bleeding badly, but the cameras kept rolling and he went with it.

The girls dancing was a USO show to entertain the troops, Bob Hope made the USO shows famous during world war two

D. Anderson, USMC, Hotel Company, 2dBn, 9th Marines, 3d MarDiv, 2/9/3, 68-69 Operation Dewey Canyon. In memory of 58,281 men including 8 women, all nurses, 16 clergy members and 160 Medal of Honor recipients who served in the Vietnam War and later died as a result of their service. We honor and remember their sacrifice.

Listening to that tape playing of his mother when he was shot and killed on Mother's Day, hits a little harder. What an amazing masterpiece of a film. Still shocks. Still amazes.

Since this film touched upon Cambodia, I would strongly recommend The Killing Fields (1984) starring a young Sam Waterston and the extraordinary Dr. Haing S. Ngor, an actual survivor of the Cambodian genocide depicted in the film. Another overlooked film related to the Vietnam War is Werner Herzog's "Rescue Dawn" (2006) and Herzog's documentary of the same subject, "Little Dieter Needs to Fly" (1997). I always enjoy and appreciate your reactions, Cassie!

There are two reasons Brando was shot primarily in shadow: 1. It's ten times creepier, as you yourself experienced. 2. Marlon Brando did not even attempt to get into anything resembling military-level shape (reports that he was 300 lbs are probably exaggerated, but he clearly did not look like an Army Special Forces colonel).

The fact that you can cry makes me feel that you are a beautiful person. Be proud of your tears!

"This is the end, beautiful friend. This is the end, my only friend, the end. Of our elaborate plans, the end. Of everything that stands, the end. No safety or surprise, the end. I'll never look into your eyes, again."

As you mentioned Cassie the movie is based loosely on Heart of Darkness. So, it is a critique of American expansionism rather than the original colonialism. So, don't assume what you're watching is the experience of soldiers in Vietnam. It is an allegory of so many themes of war and Vietnam: strangers in a strange land, hypocrisy, senseless killing, etc. It would be like reading the Iliad and assuming its about the Trojan War. Homer was writing about the folly of man and his desires. So too for Coppola.

To give you some idea of how insane the Vietnam war was: a close family friend was in the Army and because he was the tallest in his unit he was always told to take point (walk in front.) On a patrol he came around a group of trees and bushes and came face to face with the enemy. The only thing that saved his life was he fired first. However, when he shot the other person he hit a grenade and blew the other guy up and took a bunch of shrapnel. He also has a fear of flying because every helicopter he was ever on in the war was shot down. The last time he was riding on one it started to take fire and was shot down, the only thing that saved his life was he had enough of being shot down so as soon as it started taking fire he jumped out, every one else on board died. A last aside, they hated the Air Force because whenever they were called in they would drop the bombs on them instead of the enemy. He loved the Navy because their deck guns were far more accurate. Needless to say he has severe PTSD.

John Milius wrote the best script of all time with this movie. His military consultant for the screenplay was his good friend named Fred Rexer. He was involved with Operation Phoenix and had also personally experienced the story that Brando tells about the special forces and the vaccines. Milius based both the Willard character and the Kurtz character on Fred Rexer. Also taking influence from a guy tamed Anthony Poshepny, he was also in the Phoenix project, he worked under Ted Shackley and eventually went rogue and was notorious for collecting V.C ears and wearing them as a necklace. I think the main theme of this script that John was getting at was the insane and pointless nature of war, also the fact that the war in Vietnam (like all other wars) was never meant to be won. It was meant to be prolonged, remember, the first American military casualty in Vietnam was Peter Dewey of the OSS in 1945. The American military had a presence in Vietnam less than a month after the Japanese surrender in WW2. A major part of the war of course being profits from defense contracting and the weapons manufacturing that feeds the militarized economy that Eisenhower eventually would warn of in 1961. But, more importantly, the drug trade, the golden triangle was the most rich area for poppy fields. The CIA was smuggling massive amounts of heroin in through Vang Pao and using Batista’s Cuba and mob figures like Santos Trafficante as the liaison to bring it in into the United States. This explains the hatred for Fidel Castro, after his 1959 revolution he shut down not only the drug trade but also the casinos and houses of prostitution. We see this same trend of drug smuggling with the prolonged Afghanistan war. That area, known as the golden crescent, was also a rich poppy growing region. After the American invasion and occupation the opium production skyrocketed. Not to mention that Fox News segment with Geraldo Rivera where he literally interviews the marines who are protecting the poppy fields and say words to the effect of, “well we can’t let the Taliban profit off of the poppy fields.” So they bought up all the local sap scraping tools to make sure nobody else could collect the sap. But, I digress, this movie is absolutely amazing and filled with truth, the DOD refused to give any equipment or support to Coppola basically because of the fact that Milius used a real term “Terminate with Extreme Prejudice” which is just another way of saying assassinate and portrayed a real example of the CIA’s Phoenix program. The Phoenix program of course being the assassination, terrorism, torture, sabotage campaign run by Bill Colby and Ted Shackley that was specifically targeted at CIVILIANS, not military personnel, it started in 1967 and was responsible for killing 100,000+ civilians all throughout Indochina.

The classical music piece the helicopters played on the loud speakers as they attacked, was *"Ride Of The Valkyries"* (first performed in 1870) from german composer Wilhelm Richard Wagner. *as per a quick Google search~* "This was originally used by Wagner to illustrate the majesty of a heavenward ascent. However, it appears in the film as an ominous precursor of destruction, “death from above,” a battle cry that will only be heard by the unsuspecting Vietnamese villagers when it's already too late."

I'm English from Liverpool, whilst on vacation in Sicily I was speaking to a Vietnam veteran, he said he watched the movie many years ago and it brought it all back, so he won't watch it anymore, think that is really a tribute to the makers and actors, he also said the UK did well in refusing to take part.

Cassie, if Bob Duvall says it's safe to surf that beach, fhen it's safe to surf that beach!

"What...is...going...on?" is an excellent way to describe this great movie.

The Playboy bunnies were part of the USO who provides entertainment to the troops during wartime. Bob Hope, Robin Williams and many others put on shows for the troops. I got to see Susanne Summers in S Korea. They're a big hit with the troops.

There is so much to unpack from this film. That copious amounts of drugs were being taken during filming; that Brando was so out of shape that Coppola had to completely change how he shot Kurtz' part, deliberately using dark shadows and minimal lighting; that even after the release Coppola wasn't happy, hence the extended director's cut that exists; that filming was scheduled originally for 6 weeks, but instead took 16 months; the opening scene was unscripted, Sheen was drunk for real, and did cut himself for real on the mirror.

'I am aware of the charges against me but I am not concerned. I am beyond their timid, lying morality and so I am beyond caring." Masterpiece of filmmaking in every detail !!

You’ve summoned it up perfectly. I saw this film at the cinema when I was seventeen and it changed the way I saw life for the better.

“Charlie Don’t surf!” The Clash like it and named one of the songs on the Sandinista (1980) record after this quote from the movie. “Charlie don’t surf for his hamburger momma, Charlie’s gonna be a napalm star” sings Joe Strummer. Great song, great record, this movie’s a masterpiece. One of the best anti-war movies ever.

i'm 77 and did almost 2 tours before i was sent back to the world. i still carry the scar across my face and left eye that was my ticket home. i still carry the nightmares in my head.

That's Robert Duvall "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning"😂😂😂

Sheen was intentionally drunk in the hotel room scene and he urged the camera crew to keep rolling regardless of what he did or said. At the time, he was actually battling personal demons including alcoholism, and despite the camera crew's unease Sheen insisted on pushing forward to confront his own struggles.

The pilot of their chopper during the Ride of the Valkyries sequence was R. Lee Ermey who played Sgt. Hartman in Full Metal Jacket. Also "I didn't get out of the goddamn eighth grade for this kinda shit." just might be my favorite line of all time.

The depth of feeling you have when you react to these difficult movies is the reason we watch.

I watched this with my dad a couple years after it came out. He was a USMC Vietnam Veteran. Growing up I never knew he did anything other than administrative duties. But when they were at bridge scene and the Captain left the boat to find the commanding officer, and the black soldier with cammo paint on his face fired a weapon in the air, my dad pointed it out to me and said “that’s what I carried over there!” It was the M-79 grenade launcher. I said that I thought he carried a pencil over there. He had a laugh at that and told me that he went out on long patrols. I later found out that he was Marine Force Recon before I was born

There was VERY little acting in this movie. Almost everything you see in this film was real and it took a huge toll on the cast and crew. The emotions were real. The injuries were real (Martin Sheen really did cut his hand open when he punched the mirror). Sam Bottoms was high out of his mind throughout the shoot. Lawrence Fishburne was only 14 when he started filming. Coppola very nearly committed suicide halfway through filming and was talked out of it by his wife. Sheen had a near-fatal heart attack. No one escaped this movie unscathed. I would highly recommend you watch the documentary Hearts of Darkness soon, as it goes into horrifying detail about how difficult Apocalypse Now was to make.

As Franz Kafka wrote once to a friend about books: “I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief.” This movie is the the axe for the frozen sea within us.

I’m just glad that Cassie waited this long for this movie, because it obviously affected her deeply and had it been one of the earlier movies on the channel she may have never recovered. Before I even watched the reaction I felt sorry for her, but I couldn’t wait to see her reaction. I hope she knows how much the fans of this channel appreciate her enduring these tough watches.

Lawrence Fishbourne was only 15. Dennis Hopper was high as a kite. Marlan Brando was in shadows because he gained so much weight before shooting they had to hide it somehow. What a trip

Her: "He's... been brainwashed?" Me: "No....he's Dennis Hopper". 🤣

This movie is a tough pill to swallow. 9:57 The man on the far left of the screen is Francis Ford Coppola. 19:58 This is the perfect definition of the Vietnam War, and later in time it was known that this definition in this movie stung important Pentagon officials. In fact, the movie is a perfect compilation of what Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf (a veteran of Vietnam) defined as "Vietnam mistakes". The horror, the horror...

Kurtz is such a fascinating character to me. He is a man who truly understands war, and it completely ripped his soul apart.

The "montagnards" is what the French nicknamed the various small tribes that live in the mountains of mostly modern day Cambodia. They often ended up organizing into militias and working with US assistance to keep the North Vietnamese Army from using their land as supply routes on their way to South Vietnam where the war was.

I remember in 1984, my senior year in high school, this was a required watch in my Sociology class. Our teacher was a Vietnam vet and told us it was the best representation of what it was like there. It took 3 whole classes to watch and discuss what the war had done to the country. Something I will never forget.

The opening scene in the hotel room where Martin Sheen gets drunk, has a crisis and punches the mirror and cut his hand was real... Coppola just kept filming and kept it in the movie.

Anyone who has ever flown on a Huey will never forget the sound of those rotor blades at the beginning of this movie 🚁

My favorite fun(?) fact about this movie is that some of the narration is spoken by Martin Sheen's brother, Joe Estevez who has a very similar, almost identical voice to him. When he had problems reading the script, that's when he realized his drinking became a problem. He's a very prolific actor, he probably had more roles than Martin Sheen.

Colonel Kurtz isn’t a villain, he is an antihero. The thing is, in war, there are times when there is no place for one’s own humanity. A necessary insanity, savagery, and free from one’s own judgment in order to achieve the objective. Not always, but there are times. Kurtz and Willard know how primal and ruthless they are but they dislike it, they only do what they do because it had to happen. Unlike Colonel Kilgore who is dressed up as a hero yet enjoys the war, wipes out a village so he go surfing, and reminisces about the smell of ‘victory.’ He is the true villain. This is the point of the film, to show the hypocrisy in how America fought the Vietnam War, the effect it had on their conscripts, and how they were doomed to fail.

"You can't judge me" "Kill without judgment" and our Hero's eyes widen.

One of the most beautiful nightmares ever put to film. Mad genius filmmaking.

When my dad took my mom out on their first date he took her to see Apocalypse Now, which was an insane decision

"Is this put on by like ..themselves? Or is this like ..em.. from the President?" hahaha

Fun fact: Platoon and this movie were about Vietnam war but both films were filmed here in the Philippines. Probably there were some controversies that's why they weren't filmed in Vietnam?

The Cambodians didn't want the North Vietnamese using their country as a supply line into South Vietnam (called the Ho-Chi-Minh Trail), which is why they were so willing to become soldiers for Col. Kurtz.

Watching a compassionate person like her almost tear her heart out watching this film is as gut wrenching as the film.

You'll always be one of my favourite people to do a watch-a-long with ('reaction' / 'reactor' is ridiculous nomenclature). It's satisfying to watch a grownup watching a grownup film. Thank you for your content.

"I feel it was so hard o make that movie." My friend, you have no idea. There have been documentaries made about how hard that movie was to make. It is an epic tale. If you read the wikipedia page about this movie, you will not believe it.

I wish I could feel the intensity Cassie feels when she watches movies. It reminds me of how I felt when I watched them when I was very young.

10:47 "Any man brave enough to fight with his guts strapped on him can drink from my canteen any day!" Now that's a leader. 12:01 Yep. That's Robert Duvall.

29:56 "Do you know that 'if' is the middle word in life." :)

27:10 This film is amazing but it's wild how iconic that moment is for me personally

MACV-SOG was one of a few secretive units that operated during Vietnam. The Phoenix Project was a counterintelligence program that operated via assassination. Other elite units that operated were Mike Force, Tiger Force was another. Many of these were early forerunners to what would eventually become Delta Force.

One of the helicopter pilots in Col. Kilgore's 1st Air Cavalry Division is played by real life former Marine Corps staff sergeant R. Lee Ermey, who would later go on to play Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket.

An interesting fact about the ending of Apocalypse Now was one shot with Capt. Willard and Lance silently walking to the PBR boat (not calling in the air strike) and the Kurtz Army lays down their weapons in silence, and the PBR leaves and the big stone idol is superimposed over the black screen. The second ending, which persisted through 1980's and early 90's (the era I first watched this movie), showed the PBR and then the whole place and even possibly the PBR gets hit with an airstrike. No one is seen visually getting hit with bombs to emphasise that everything and everyone in the area was completely annihilated. Coppola changed it at some point because it's been changed to credits over black screen. On another note there is a uncut versions with edited back in deleted scenes called Apocalypse Now Redux. This helps a lot to fill in some of the gaps that explain better the conflict down the river and even it's history with the French.

Cassie deserves a medal for making it through this movie.

Bleak. Stark. Harsh. And yet moving and somewhat beautiful. It's not a true depiction of "the war" but it is art in cinema. A classic.

I hate that Coppola claims the alternate closing credits were footage of the set being detonated and not intended to depict that Willard called an airstrike on the village after leaving. In the theater, when I saw the film, that was 100% the ending that was being shown, and even in the now "alternate" ending footage which can be found on yo..tube, it is clear that shells are being dropped from the sky before the village bursts into flames bringing the film full circle to the napalm bursts in the beginning when Willard was drunk in Saigon waiting for this mission. In my mind, he always called in the strike on the village, and will always go back to that place of destruction in his mind after each mission like it's his own endless circle of hell. I loved every second of this film, it is a one of a kind experience.

The Cinema Tyler channel's still-ongoing multi-year series about the making of Apocalypse Now is likely that best thing in RU-vid history.

It opened your eyes, didn't it? sure it did, and I was a senior in high school when America pulled out of Vietnam, and I joined the Navy 1982 to 1988 AZ2 VS-41 and VS-33 two west pacs and my cousin Ray Caryl was a birddog pilot with a spotter in the back seat with only his side arm and a ak-47 for defense..I have the utmost respect for all of the Vietnam Veterans they are a special group you never mess with...even today you don't mess with them.

I love how people told you this movie is based on Heart of Darkness. While thats true of the plot, in fact, this movie owes more to the book, Dispatches by Micheal Herr. Widely regarded as THE best book on the experience of the vietnam war. Herr wrote Dispatches in a haze of mental collapse reinforced with drugs, so although Dispatches is a memoir he always called it a novel. Herr co-wrote the screenplay for apocalypse now, and all the great parts- including Willard’s monologues - were written by Herr. On top of that, most of the best scenes come from Dispatches. My favourite is the guy with the bloop gun, which i think you only meet in Redux Also the Redux version is the version that Coppolla wanted audiences to see: the filming of apocalypse now was famously a disaster, the production was in the Phillipines and hit by a hurricane. Coppolla’s wife made a ‘filming of apocalypse now’ documentary - which Tropic thunder famously satirises, although few people realise it. But the result was coppolla could only afford to release the movie he wanted people to see when he finally put Redux together. I think you have met Dispatches before. Stanley kubrick used it to make the movie Full Metal Jacket. Except Dispatches is a series of separate reports and not a full story so kubrick stitched the reports in Dispatches together in a way that didnt work. But, worse, all the best bits of Dispatches were already In Apocalypse Now, and those couldnt go into Full Metal Jacket. Which is why Apocalypse Now will always be the superior movie about the Vietnam war. When i was a young soldier, all of the senior guys around us were vietnam vets. Apocalypse Now was kind of a bible and most of us could recite long passages from the movie (something that, much to my delight, is accurately portrayed in the book and movie Jarhead, which is a memoir of Desert Shield/ Desert Storm). It saddens me that two of the most iconic movies about the vietnam war experience are based on the late michael herr’s book, Dispatches, and almost no-one now is aware of that. Ps many people comment about how young Laurance Fishburne - Mr Clean - was when this movie was made. That was actually a deliberate decision. One of the - many - famous lines in Dispatches goes ‘How do you feel when a 19 year old kid tells you that he’s gotten too old for this kind of sh.t?… they’d be looking back at you over a distance you knew you would never be able to cross’.

While this adaptation of Joseph Conrad's classic "Heart of Darkness" novel is a fictional story set during the Vietnam War, it does recreate the madness of war masterfully. The horror... the horror.

"I feel like this whole room that I am sitting in now is just like filled with this uncomfortable 'ick' that I can't get out of the pit of my stomach." Cassie is just now realizing that she is on the her own path to the heart of darkness, sitting in her stronghold with her trophies on her wall, surrounded by her own loyal horde of "kernels" (Colonel Kurtz?) as she documents her thoughts and musings for her enraptured audience. How long before she appears in a video with a camo face paint and a raspberry beret?

0:52 It's not silly to deeply feel a movie. That's actually the entire point of movies. Whether it's joy, sadness, hope, or terror, a good movie will make you feel it.

Martin Sheen's character, Captain Willard, was a member of the US Army Special Forces assigned to MACV-SOG, or Military Assistance Command, Vietnam - Studies and Observations Group. Established on January 24th, 1964, it conducted strategic reconnaissance missions in the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), Laos, and Cambodia; took enemy prisoners, rescued downed pilots, conducted rescue operations to retrieve prisoners of war throughout Southeast Asia, and conducted clandestine agent team activities and psychological operations.

18:54 The man introducing the Playboy Bunnies here is the legendary Bill Graham, who was best known for being a rock & roll impresario and concert promoter, and who helped to establish bands like The Grateful Dead, The Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and The Holding Company (whose vocalist was Janis Joplin), Santana, and many others who were based in the San Francisco Bay Area in California during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Command knew that Willard had lost this mind. They had to send a mad man to kill a mad man.

"Hi tiger, Bye tiger. My favorite line loll