Apocalypse Now Redux (1979)

Mark Kermode once said, when describing the criteria he used to define the best film ever made, "for me what defines the best film of all time is how it affects the audience members emotions". Well on this criteria I would have to say "Apocalypse Now" is the greatest film ever made. Francis Ford Coppola created perhaps the grandest film in terms of scale and impact ever, only rivaled by the "The Godfather" (Also his work). The entire film is torturous and hard to watch. Every single time I watch this movie my soul seems ever more blacked by the downward spiral into hell this film presents. When I say that I mean it literally, the film is almost an allegory for the descent into hell as the protagonist follow along a river that leads to the ultimate despair of Colonel Walter E. Kurtz's camp, stopping off at different increasingly disturbing points to witness "The Horror". It is almost as if they where going through the many circles of hell "Dante" presents in "The Divine Comedy". Some myths say that Coppola wasn't happy with the ending of Apocalypse Now", well i don't know how he personally feels but i know that he should be proud, ending on that haunting line by Marlon Brando will stay with me for the rest of my life: "The Horror, The Horror". Another point people critique about the movie is the casting... well for me every single character is cast perfectly and i couldn't imagine it any other way. Based on my favorite book "Heat Of Darkness" I propose this is one of the best "book to film" translations thats has successfully taken place. I couldn't say i enjoyed this film on any level but am rather in awe of it. Stanley Kubrick said he didn't care for "Shindlers list" as that film is about the victory of one mans small efforts where the point of the holocaust wasn't victory but rather loss. Well where Spielberg failed Coppola triumphed. He painted the war exactly for what it was a horrific, nihilistic blip in history that should never happen again and for that i would say Bravo. Although defiantly not my favorite film of all time I would strongly argue the best.