Apocalypse Now (1979)

#28 on the AFI 100. This is an epic movie. Two and half hours of suspense and character development with surprisingly little action for a Vietnam War movie. I don't think I would say this is the quintessential Vietnam movie; it focuses on one specific Special Ops soldier's journey. Movies like Platoon, which follow an average group of soldiers, seem to be more relatable. However. Apocalypse Now was so well made. Everything flowed and the long runtime did nothing to bore me--I would even love to see it longer. It is especially amazing that it was so great considering all of the issues it had during filming. You can read about those online, but the one that really irked me was that  Marlon Brando, arguably the greatest film actor of all time, showed up to set overweight without having read the script. The script had to be changed to suit his weight, and since he was paid by the day, he kept on prolonging the writing process. I have to give SOOO much credit to Coppola for not only working with Brando and dealing with the countless other problems this production faced, but doing so in a way that causes this movie to be one of the best ever made. Truly an inspiration.