First time seeing Apocalypse Now today: did anyone else not get it?

[RaynorWolfcastle]

So I rented Apocalypse Now Redux today and just finihed watching it. My reaction: what the fvck was that all about? Apart from the obvious "war is hell" theme I have no idea what that movie was about. What the hell is Brando's character supposed to symbolize? What about Duval's character? What about the French?

Oh and it's waaaayyy too long (3:10). For the last hour or so I just wanted it to end so that I could figure it out, of course the end cleared up nothing for me.

Can anyone here explain the movie to me, I'm thoroughly confused.

 

[Spyro]

Nope I didn't get it

 

[Hammer]

read Heart of Darkness

 

[GroundZero]

Originally posted by: Hammer
read Heart of Darkness

got that one on dvd too...


what was there not to get?

 

[Train]

i never saw the redux, but i guess they added like an hour of footage cut from the original.

To me its basically about how brando went nuts from all the atrocities he did/saw and had to be whacked.

of course theres a lot more to it than that. But you cant say the movie was pointless, im prety sure it was film of the year in 1979.

and its where we get the ever-resurfacing phrase "I love the Smell of Napalm in the morning"

 

[RossMAN]

Bought the redux DVD, never watch it, still in shrink wrap

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Originally posted by: GroundZero

Originally posted by: Hammer
read Heart of Darkness

got that one on dvd too...


what was there not to get?

Well there was obviously a deeper message beyond the superficial people blowing each other up and the "war is hell" deal, but i can't figure out what it was. I'm sure Marlon Brando's character was supposed to be symbolic of something.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Originally posted by: RossMAN
Bought the redux DVD, never watch it, still in shrink wrap

Bah, I think the movie would have been much better if it had been ~2 hours, 3 hours made it seem like it took an eternity to finish. Also, the movie seemed to be extremely linear, in that I thought that the linking each "portion" of the story together was really lacking.

 

[Aceshigh]

I remember my family going to see that movie when I was a toddler. The theater was packed. I remember my mom holding me while we waited in line. I believe I slept through the movie. It's not like a 2 year old would understand it anyways.

I do remember that much though.