The story is adapted from Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" and transposed to the Vietnam War. Captain Willard, played by Martin Sheen, leads a boat down a river in the middle of the Vietnamese jungle and into Cambodia, where he must find Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) and terminate his command by whatever means necessary.
Colonel Kurtz was one of the most outstanding officers ever produced by the U.S. Army, yet somehow he has gone mad. From what Willard is told, Kurtz has fallen below any standards of acceptable human conduct. Kurtz has actually discovered what he calls the "the horror," and the film depicts the horror that Kurtz has found.
The entire movie is full of surrealistic images. The cinematography in the film is unlike any film I have ever seen. It captures the feeling of the jungle and of the war, often seen through layers of haze, mist and smoke.
In the film's most memorable sequence, Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore, played by Robert Duvall in one of his best performances, is on a mission to destroy a Vietnamese village. From his helicopter, Wagner's "Flight of the Valkyries" blasts into the village as the inhabitants run in the confusion to find shelter. The camera flashes between perspectives as the helicopters close in. Chaos ensues as Kilgore sends his men into the ocean to surf in the middle of the battle. It is here where he delivers his often-quoted line: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." One cannot fully comprehend why Kilgore orders the attack other than for pure pleasure.
The dialogue between Kurtz (Marlon Brando, perfectly cast) and Willard about "the horror" is key to the film's meaning. Both Willard and the audience are able to see into Kurtz's mind, which makes us understand what he has done but at the same time allows us to hate Kurtz even more (exactly as Willard does). The line between the real and the imaginary becomes even more blurred and incomprehensible.
In its original 70mm release, the film had no beginning or end credits, but was instead accompanied by a printed program. Coppola wrote in the introduction, "The most important thing I wanted to do in the making of 'Apocalypse Now' was to create a film experience that would give its audience a sense of the horror, the madness, the sensuousness and the moral dilemma of the Vietnam War."
I strongly recommend that anyone who has not seen this film do so, preferably on DVD. This version includes the original preview, Coppola's explanation of the ending and the program that originally accompanied the film about the production and intentions of the film.