Considered by many to be one of the greatest movies ever made, Apocalypse Now is director Francis Ford Coppola's take on Joseph Conrad's 1902 novel Heart Of Darkness. Taking the overall premise of the novel, Coppola moves the story out of Africa and into Vietnam, filling it out with the general absurdity of America's war presence there during the late 1960s.

Magnificently shot, excellently acted, and brilliantly paced, Apocalypse Now seethes with undercurrents of subject matter that far transcends its basic war premise. Touching on the moral duality of mankind, the hypocrisy of modern war, the line between sanity and insanity, and many other heavy subjects, Apocalypse Now has a whole catalog of undercurrents that it inadvertently and subtly provokes. Aside from being a riveting film to watch with the eyes, it's brilliance lies in the fact that it doesn't attempt to answer any questions, and instead only seems to ask them accidentally by just naturally telling its story.

A second version of the film titled Apocalypse Now - Redux is available, but viewers are encouraged to watch the original release first. The Redux version has many deleted scenes returned to the story, but the effect is that it almost makes Apocalypse Now into a different movie. Seeing the original release first and then exploring the Redux later is probably the best bet.