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.
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.