To say that Apocalypse Now is a war movie would be like saying that the Beatles were rock musicians. Both the things are true but fail to convey in any manner whatsoever the true significance of the respective subject matter. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, more famously known for “The Godfather” and starring Martin Sheen, in his second best role ever, (his best was as the blue collar, trade union leader and father to a greedy stockbroker in Wallstreet), this picture might just be the best movie about a war that I have ever seen. It perfectly captures the essence of what happened in Vietnam.
As was said “this ain’t about Vietnam, this is Vietnam”. The basic story is that Martin Sheen is a captain who has been given the mission of tracking another captain whose entire unit has gone rogue and into hiding in Cambodia, where they are not even supposed to be. The terminology is that Sheen has to “terminate his command”. What I thought was going to be another military “cloak-dagger” where there is a whole team of suicidal tough guys and a sidekick who gives lines like “Time to kick some Cambodian ass!!” instead turned out to be more about the journey rather than the destination. This is picture ain’t about a plot, it’s about painting a portrait. There is no “message” so to speak on the face of it; just like there is no message per se in the paintings of Van Gogh, other than the obvious one of showing that war is a cruel son of a bitch. Discerning viewers will be able to marvel at how perfectly Coppola captures the fact that if your soldiers don’t know what they are fighting for, or don’t believe in their mission, then you are bound to lose a long war. The instance of the rogue unit is just the extreme end, there can be other reactions. The longing to get back home, to do normal jobs like being a chef, the fear of losing your life for a cause you don’t know or don’t believe in can finish off the army as effectively as napalm.
This picture gets criticized for having “no point” and for being “cryptic”, which I have to admit it sometimes is at the very end, but I fail to see why this should be a valid point of criticism for a movie of this nature. The director has caught the desperation and the futility of war perfectly, if you want to discover the reasons and narration of the story of the war you would be better off reading a book.
Rating – A
Behind the Veil 