Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece still has a pull with my Millennial son. It was the first genuine depiction of the Vietnam War, a war with no real purpose. You are sucked into it with an all-star cast: Martin Sheen, Brando, Robert Duvall, teen Lawrence Fishburne, Harrison Ford, Dennis Hopper, etc.!
The film begins by tapping all senses to draw you into the world of the Vietnam War. Capt. Willard (Sheen) gets his orders to seek and destroy a Col Kurtz (Brando), who has gone AWOL raising his own vigilante army. Willard goes on a Mr. Toad's Wild 'helicopter' Ride, speakers blaring so turn on that surround sound, with the bombastic Lt. Col. Kilgore (Duvall) who wants to surf in the middle of a bombing run.
Next, we are sitting on edge along the swift boat patrol; courtesy of the transcendent cinematography of Vittorio Storaro. "Never get out of the boat!" says Capt. Willard after being spooked back to the boat by a jungle monster. The lazy river cruise heads toward its next stop. Adventure lies beyond the next reed. Camera angles beguile you into a seat by the crew.
Where's the war? Authority structures become blurred as you head deeper into enemy territory and finally even into Cambodia. It's an impossible mission, as the war itself. Coppola gives you a full war experience by such tangents as landing a Playboy U.S.O. show, which gets shut down by soldiers storming the stage. Just take your patrol boat gently down the stream... The ending flows like a bad acid trip with Marlon Brando's classic monologues as your flashback.
It was reedited so much that the sequence is anticlimactic. Still a classic! It gets a FIELD GOAL, especially when you're in the mood to escape and feel like going "beyond caring." Rare is the movie that continues to generate such appeal across generations.
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