Apocalypse Now

December 11, 2004

Rated: R Runtime: 145 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

DVD Quick Take

Apocalypse Now can only be classified as a war epic. This is Francis Ford Coppola’s interpretation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness novel. It is the story of an intelligence officer in the Vietnam War who is sent to remove a Colonel who the government feels has gone insane from command.

The story is a bit of an acquired taste as it starts out strange and only gets deeper and darker as the movie progresses. This is not light viewing where you just sit back and watch stuff blow up. The star is Martin Sheen playing the intelligence officer pursuing Colonel Kurtz played by Marlon Brando. You’ll also catch appearances in the movie by such big names as Harrison Ford, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper and Laurence Fishburne just to name a few.

The DVD is amazingly good considering that it is reproducing a movie that is over 20 years old. The video quality is sharper than any print or video I’ve seen of the movie and the Dolby 5.1 track was remixed beautifully. You’ve gotta like the mixture of helicopters and Flight of the Valkyries in one of the movies best scenes. My only fault is that they did not include more info about the making of the movie on the DVD as that is a very interesting story in and of itself. Although this isn’t the type of flick you’re likely to plop in and watch over and over, this is a classic that belongs in anyone’s war movie collection.

Posted by Billy Bob | Filed Under 4 Stars, Action, DVD, Dennis Hopper, Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, R, Robert Duvall