Speaking in retrospect about his 1979 film, director Francis Ford Coppola once said, "Apocalypse Now is not about Vietnam, it is Vietnam." Coppola was referring to the immense difficulty and hardship he experienced in making the film, but his words are true in another sense as well. Apocalypse Now is not an accurate film—it does not depict any actual events that took place during the long history of American involvement in the Vietnam War. It is, however, a true film—it clearly conveys the surreal, absurd, and brutal aspects of the war that were experienced by many who took part in it.

Marlon Brando (left) and Martin Sheen in a scene from the film Apocalypse Now.

The broad outline of the script is adapted from Joseph Conrad's bleak 1902 novella Heart of Darkness, which concerns nineteenth-century European imperialism in Africa. Screenwriter John Milius transplants the latter two-thirds...