Apocalypse Now (1979)

Personal rating 7.8 out of 10                IMDB rating 8.6 out of 10 (as of 10/1/10)

First off I'm going to have to say DO NOT let the fact that this movie was made in the 70's deter you from watching. This film has all of the aspects anyone in modern life is looking for in a movie, the picture is great, the setting, acting, soundtrack.... it goes on. If nobody had told you that this movie was made in 1979 you would have almost no chance in figuring it out just by watching the movie itself. I mean, as far as setting goes, this production goes to a very great depth in the form of detail, almost surpassing the attention to detail in modern movies. Although this is a war movie there is much more to this story than war.(but dont worry theres definitely enough bullets, weaponry, swearing, and grit to go around)

The story tracks the journey of Captain Willard (Martin Sheen), a U.S. Army Intelligence officer sent on a hazardous mission up river into Cambodia to terminate "with extreme prejudice" an American renegade colonel name Kurtz who has spun out of control and out of his mind in a remote jungle compound.

My personal rating was greatly effected by the last 15 minutes of this movie, in which the movie loses a lot of its luster. This is not to say that I wasn't completely immersed with the whole story before the ending. To put it short, I was disappointed with the way the story ended. While the movie is on the longer side (appx. 3hrs) you don't really get that "antsy" restless feeling that you get from long movies until the very end. I will say that this is much more emotionally capturing than any war movie I have seen before, though.

Apocalypse Now has won two Oscars, and is currently rated #38 on IMDB top 250 movies of all time

 I will issue a warning to the animal lovers out there, though. Near the end of the movie there is (what seems to be) a live animal slaughter, so just be cautious if you choose to watch. 
  

Memorable quotes-


Kilgore: Smell that? You smell that?
Lance: What?
Kilgore: Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that.
[kneels]
Kilgore: I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like
[sniffing, pondering]
Kilgore: victory. Someday this war's gonna end...


Kilgore: How're you feeling, Jimmy?
Door Gunner: Like a mean motherfucker, sir!