After the success of the first two 'Godfather' films in 1972 and 1974 respectively, Francis Ford Coppola embarked on an ambitious attempt to bring home the reality of the war in Vietnam, which had concluded with the fall of Saigon to the Vietcong in 1975… The plot was loosely based on the book 'Heart of Darkness,' a story by Joseph Conrad about Kurtz, a trading company agent in the African jungle who has acquired mysterious powers over the natives…Coppola retains much of this, including such details as the severed heads outside Kurtz's headquarters and his final words, "The horror… the horror…"

In the film, Sheen plays an army captain given the mission to penetrate into Cambodia, and eliminate, with "extreme prejudice," a decorated officer who has become an embarrassment to the authorities… On his journey up the river to the renegade's camp he experiences the demoralization of the US forces, high on dope or drunk with power…

Although, as a result of cuts forced on Coppola, the film was accused of incoherence when first released, it was by the most serious attempt to get to grips with the experience of Vietnam and a victorious reinvention of the war film genre… In 1980 the film won an Oscar for Best Cinematography and Best Sound…

"Apocalypse Now" was re-released in 2001 with fifty minutes restored… As a result, the motion picture can now be seen as the epic masterpiece it is

Coming out on the cusp of several other big award winning Vietnam war films ("Coming Home" and "The Deer Hunter" which could not have been any more different),this is the most avant garde of them all. While another stack of Vietnam war films came out nearly a decade later, this is perhaps the most controversial. Unlike his son Charlie Sheen's character in "Platoon" Martin Sheen's captain here isn't just a recruit facing his own apocalypse from going into combat for the first time. He's experienced, trusted and smart, and that's just one of the reasons he's chosen for the special mission of going deep into the Vietnam jungle to take out one of his own, an American officer who seems to have defected, declared himself to be lord of that jungle and most likely incurably insane.

Director Francis Ford Coppola has declared this to not be anti-war even though he doesn't indicate his own feelings. He claims that this shows why the human psyche constantly gets into wars and uses the Joseph Conrad novel "Hearts of Darkness" as his source, changing it to the Vietnam war and exploiting the cruelty and violence, some of it obviously necessary as the attacks on the Viet Cong camps at the start of a day indicate. It's easy to hate those in charge of this action for killing children, and when a young Vietnamese girl tosses something into the helicopter and runs off before it bursts into an inferno can temporarily change how you see this mission before realizing why it had to be done.

In all truth, seeing the nearly 40 year old Martin Sheen here, I did confuse him at first with son Charlie, then 22, in "Platoon". Martin looks way younger than his years so it's frightening to see him foisted into this mission to which there's no easy way to accomplish it. The look of disgust on his face while looking on at the impish antics of those on the river boat escorting him downstream is unforgettable. He's obviously already seen horrors that explain the opening scene where he's on a drug trip as the Doors song "The End" plays over it.

The subject of the assassination plot is the Colonel played by Marlon Brando in what is basically the highest paid cameo in film history, equivalent to what he had done right before this for "Superman". Brando's the one weak element of this film, photographed strangely and often difficult to understand. Perhaps he thought that would add to his character's insanity. Sheen spends time looking at pictures of the younger Brando, altered in photos to appear to be in a military setting.

Since the top billed Brando doesn't appear until later in the film, it's the supporting cast surrounding Sheen that you will remember which includes Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper, Laurence Fishburne, Frederic Forrest and a young Harrison Ford, basically a cameo but an important scene along G.D. Spradlin. There are a few women in the cast outside the extras playing members of the Viet Cong, and one disturbing scene has a young prostitute at work asking a soldier looking on why he's there, only to heat, "I'm next."

So this glorifies war while also giving an indication of how evil it is and how soul crushing it can be. Sheen's quiet performance seems to emote this, and that gives his performance real power. Many of the battle scenes are at night with screaming voices sounding like ghosts crying out for mercy. This is the type of film that will make you feel guilty when you either cheer or laugh, but that's a part of what makes this film stand the test of time. As a 16 year old watching this in the theater, I felt different emotions than I do 41 years later, not the fear of that sheltered existence of a teenager, but the anger of a mature man still debating why we need to feel the urge to kill. That's the power of cinema when it's done right and why this film is important on so many levels.

There are films we watch because they are good, even though they are painful for us. This is a film I saw one time. At that time I thought to myself, this is enough. It was painful to make that journey down the river, wondering what was around every corner. Then we meet the products of our own id impulses, as we are the enemy, our souls have been brought down to this. At the end of the river is the man who came before us, and we see the uselessness of the journey. It is the Heart of Darkness. There are death masters like Robert Duvall. There are those who can only hope to survive, but the war is the master. The Doors music as the napalm settles gently on the treetops and across the ground, sweeps us up gently. Meanwhile it is consuming the flesh of the Vietnamese people, as well as an occasional American soldier. The ancient Romans could not envision peace without war. We and much of the world seem to have embraced those tenets put forth some two thousand years ago. This film gets into the marrow.