Apocalypse Now

If you consider watching this film, than yes, do read this review! First off, this film is 196 minutes long, not the 153 minutes as it says here on trakt. That's 196 minutes of your life you'll never get back. Don't get me wrong, the acting is really good, the music used in the film is great. Where the film falls down for me personally is first of all the length. If you cut out all the unnecessary bits and just leave the real story of what this film is about, it can be about 40 minutes, everything else is just pointless filler. The worst part of the film for me is the ritual killing and slaughter of a cow/ox/bovine type creature. I understand that such rituals happen in certain parts of the world, but to film it and use it just to add dramatic effect to a different scene I found disgusting.

I watched the 3 hour version and I'm going to be brutally honest; the first hour was a chore to get through, and even after that, it was action here and there, and the story seemed so messy to me. However, after all that messiness, I was surprised at how well-made this war movie is. It's so intellectually and narratively deep. Coppola gave us two of the best war characters in one movie, and one barely had one minute of screen time. Marlon Brando walked onto the set for one minute and literally obliterated every other performance out of the park—an absolutely haunting portrayal of the cruelty of war.