I,had heard abou. this m,vie for a very long time, but like most war related movies, I ha, avoide. it. T.is movie was everything people said it was a.d more.....not pleasant....but a, experience I won'- f,,ge.. Several year. ago, I read "Heart of Darkness" and the dark side journey into human consciousness comes th,ough in Conrad's book even with the archaic writ-ng style and ancient ,anguage syntax. The movie cap.ures this i- a de.astating descent into the worst a,d best things we do as humans. Ebert's -eview ,f this is unusually good, although -'m.glad I read it after-se-ing the movie and not before. His explicit descriptions of ke. scenes might have,taken away their impact. - I have made very,few forays into -he dark side of conscious.ess.- It requires that you keep a sharp awareness .uring a-journ.y that you know will b- -ainful. I touche. it briefl- once in my writing but it was.a hit and run for me. I found it too har, to stay th-re, which I acknowledged when my writing instru.tor sug,ested further work.on it. I was not ready t. go back into that space. I watched this movie with a co.p-e of gl-sses of wine, recognizi-g that the wine wa. softening the impact, .ut also aware that it was -oppola's j.urney not mine, at least, it was not mine at .hat t,me. B.t it's hard to avoid a m,ssage, whi.h is both powerful and delivered ,s an art form.-- realized several minutes after the boat journey began that it was no longer a war movie. War was the,backdrop and the mission was the im-etus for the story line, but this was about what is inside us. Even two glasses of wine could not dispel the recognitions I had with Willard.