A retelling of Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Bizarre lighting, colored smoke, explosions and weird shadows are used to set the tone while the actors behave as randomly and strangely as possible. I get it — war is absurd, Americans are evil and mankind is prone to darkness. Just like in Conrad's book, the point is hard to miss because for more than two hours I was hit over the head with it. In the end, it's all so wacky that it's stupid and the only ones who could truly pretend to get a meaningful message from it are those who are as stoned as the actors were on set. I can't stand Marlon Brando (he was 88 pounds over the weight he was supposed to be for this movie and hadn't bothered to read the script) and he actually managed to make what was already a train-wreck of a movie even worse.

I can now understand the cultural references to this movie, but I'll never watch it again.