Apocalypse Now

Or, a more truthful rating:

The first two-thirds
Somewhat typical war film: stock characters we grow to like then watch die one by one (black soldiers first, naturally). Only an inkling of weightier issues, and only addressed on a grandiose scale. I’m not as interested in (although I suppose I am as affected by) war as spectacle. This is a visually grand film, and I feel this overwhelms anything of substance. Distracts the viewer from the horror; focuses instead on the excitement. For example, in the first ‘battle scene’: I would rather have heard the Wagner as they would have heard it on the ground, tinny and far off, instead of making it into the film’s score, and the battle itself something operatic.

The final act , or more. Yeah, more.
Yes, this is what interests me: staring directly into the face of madness, camera tight on Brando. Things get a little bizarre and interesting and intense here, eh? The final act is astonishing and has pretty much left me speechless.

Anyway, pretty extraordinary film, though I am more viscerally moved by it than I am convinced it is something pure and great. So iconic, too, like watching Casablanca for the first time: you can almost mime the dialogue moments before it is spoken… only a few movies out there like that.