Apocalypse Now

WHY I BOUGHT IT

Spoilers for Apocalypse Now to follow.

Apocalypse Now is a fever dream of an experience. Francis Ford Coppola descended into madness trying to capture this story about descending into madness and the director ended up creating one of the most revered and staggering pieces of filmmaking of all time (something he made a habit of during the 70s). But like 2001: A Space Odyssey, another God Level piece of filmmaking, I simply never want to watch it.

Again, it is obviously one of the best movies ever made. I watched the theatrical version on 4K and it is jaw droppingly beautiful, with all of the hellish imagery and sound design looking and sounding better than ever before. But damn, this movie is tough to watch for me.

Apocalypse Now is taking the audience into the psyche of men who have quite simply lost their minds and it is, in a word, horrifying. Now, having never experienced war or any kind of military service, obviously I can’t relate to those experiences Coppola is digging into. However, I deal with depression and anxiety on the daily, so watching a 2.5 hour movie go into gruesome and explicit detail of the way a person’s brain can shatter is something I’m just not dying to do these days.

“Well ok, fair enough. But why the hell did you buy it then?”

BECAUSE I’M SICK, OK?! I BUY TOO MANY MOVIES AND HAD TO CREATE A WEBSITE/COLUMN TO JUSTIFY MY HABIT!

OK but really, Apocalypse Now is an all timer and there is no way in hell I won’t have that in my collection. Do I watch it all the time? No. Do I watch it every couple of months? No. Do I watch it annually? NO. But god damnit when that itch pops up and the only way to scratch it is to watch the damn thing, I don’t want to search through 10 streaming services to get to it. I want that disc, baby. I need it.