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Apocalypse Now (1979)

tomatometer

99

Average Rating: 8.9/10
Reviews Counted: 73
Fresh: 72 | Rotten: 1

Francis Ford Coppola's haunting, hallucinatory Vietnam War epic is cinema at its most audacious and visionary.

93

Average Rating: 8.4/10
Critic Reviews: 14
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 1

Francis Ford Coppola's haunting, hallucinatory Vietnam War epic is cinema at its most audacious and visionary.

audience

93

liked it
Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 241,059

My Rating

Movie Info

One of a cluster of late-1970s films about the Vietnam War, Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now adapts the Joseph Conrad novella Heart of Darkness to depict the war as a descent into primal madness. Capt. Willard (Martin Sheen), already on the edge, is assigned to find and deal with AWOL Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), rumored to have set himself up in the Cambodian jungle as a local, lethal godhead. Along the way Willard encounters napalm and Wagner fan Col. Kilgore (Robert Duvall), draftees who

R,

Drama, Action & Adventure

Francis Ford Coppola

Nov 20, 2001

United Artists - Official Site External Icon

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All Critics (76) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (72) | Rotten (1) | DVD (55)

A film of pure sensation, dazzling audiences with light and noise, laying bare the stark horror - and unimaginable thrill - of combat.

May 25, 2011 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Alternately a brilliant and bizarre film, Francis Coppola's four year 'work in progress' offers the definitive validation to the old saw, 'war is hell.'

July 2, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety | Comments (2)
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

...it's wonderful to see this hallucinatory folly-cum-near masterpiece again on the big screen.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Apocalypse Now did help provide me, and many of my generation, with a vision of what film art could achieve, a vision so magnificent it doomed us to spend much of our subsequent moviegoing lives in a funk.

July 21, 2005 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
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...Coppola's sprawling, harrowing war story is not to be missed.

December 31, 2003 Full Review Source: Seattle Times
Seattle Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

January 17, 2002 | Comment (1)
Rolling Stone
Top Critic IconTop Critic

With a famously horrific and documentary inspiring shoot it's almost unfathomable how Francis Ford Coppolla managed to harness the chaotic energy into one of the most potent examinations of war and masculinity to ever grace celluloid.

January 2, 2013 Full Review Source: 2UE That Movie Show
2UE That Movie Show

Perhaps Francis Ford Coppola's greatest directorial achievement, Apocalypse Now is a visually stunning war film that has no equal, with cinematographer Vittorio Storaro capturing the films Philippine location to great effect.

January 4, 2012 Full Review Source: Matt's Movie Reviews
Matt's Movie Reviews

Apocalypse Now is not merely the greatest film to come out of the Vietnam experience but one of the great works about the madness of our times.

May 28, 2011 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | Comment (1)
Guardian [UK]

A must-see, preferably in the cinema.

May 28, 2011 Full Review Source: Future Movies UK | Comment (1)

The best of it is grand, mysterious and oddly possessed.

May 27, 2011 Full Review Source: Independent

Undoubtedly it is one of the best films about war ever made.

May 27, 2011 Full Review Source: This is London
This is London

A film that needs to be seen on the big screen.

May 26, 2011 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK]
Guardian [UK]

It is mystical, daring, poetic, thrilling, appalling and never less than utterly mesmerising.

May 26, 2011 Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph
Daily Telegraph

A gilt-edged, no-messing, accept-no-substitutes masterpiece.

May 26, 2011 Full Review Source: Little White Lies
Little White Lies

Coppola delivered a harrowing masterwork that bursts with malarial, mystical images...

May 26, 2011 Full Review Source: Radio Times
Radio Times

This disturbing vision of the harrowing effects of war and violence continues to shock and haunt audiences.

May 24, 2011 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine
Empire Magazine

One of the best movies about the Vietnam War, an epic spectacle that's brilliant up to the last reel, when Brando appears.

February 25, 2011 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment (1)
EmanuelLevy.Com

Disturbing tale of war horrors isn't for kids.

January 2, 2011 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment (1)
Common Sense Media

There is greatness in Apocalypse Now, but there is also madness, and they feed off each other.

July 13, 2009 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com
eFilmCritic.com

The movie Francis Ford Coppola never recovered from, and the last word in Ci-Nam-a.

May 13, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4
Film4

Apocalypse Now is as good as ever.

December 30, 2006 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine
Empire Magazine

His film is timeless because although the setting may change, the wars and the plight of soldiers will remain the same.

August 18, 2006 Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star
Arizona Daily Star

Audience Reviews for Apocalypse Now

Shellshocked is a relevant word to describe how I felt after apocalypse now, what a stunning, beautifull, brutal film. A descent into madness that keeps you hooked.
August 27, 2012
Cameron Sherwell

Super Reviewer

So much hype surrounding this movie; its within the Top 250 list on IMDb, landed on countless "best movies" lists, AFI deemed it the 30th best movie of all time, and had a couple of quotes on the best quote lists by AFI. Finally, I laid my attention upon it. Did it turn out as expected? ...No.

I definitely respect the movie; I didn't particularly dislike it, but didn't particularly find it enjoyable/interesting either. DON'T HATE

Did I miss something here? Was my attention out-of-sorts when I watched it?
There has gotta be something that I missed here.

Gonna hafta give it a rewatch.

Noteworthy mentions:
- Spectacular cinematography
- Downright impeccable performances
- Masterful direction
- A peculiarly strange ending to a somewhat straight-forward narrative
- Boldly strong thematic undertones that crawl under the skin
July 30, 2012
Albert Kim

Super Reviewer

    1. Roach: He's close, real close. Motherfucker.
    2. Capt. Benjamin Willard: Do you know who's in command here?
    3. Roach: Yeah.
    – Submitted by Mark B (8 days ago)
    1. Chief: You like it hot, don't you Captain?
    2. Capt. Benjamin Willard: You'll never find out about yourself working in some fucking factory in Ohio.
    – Submitted by Mark B (8 days ago)
    1. Colonel Kurtz: Are my methods unsound?
    2. Capt. Benjamin Willard: I don't see any method at all, sir.
    3. Colonel Kurtz: I expected someone like you. What did you expect? Are you an assassin?
    4. Capt. Benjamin Willard: I'm a soldier.
    5. Colonel Kurtz: You're neither. You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill.
    – Submitted by Jim C (8 months ago)
    1. Lt. Col. Kilgore: Charlie don't surf!
    – Submitted by Alex K (9 months ago)
    1. Soldier in Trench: Ain't you?!
    – Submitted by Jesse K (9 months ago)
    1. Colonel Kurtz: I watched a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor. That's my dream; that's my nightmare. Crawling, slithering, along the edge of a straight razor... and surviving.
    – Submitted by Gonzalo D (9 months ago)

Discussion Forum

Topic Last Post Replies
Apocalypse Now vs Saving Private Ryan 1 day ago 16
Negative review 59 days ago 5

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