10 Movies That DEMAND Your Attention Immediately

Spoiler: this won't be the only time that Francis Ford Coppola appears on this list, and with damn good reason.

Apocalypse Now is perhaps the war movie to end all war movies, an almost inexplicably atmospheric visualisation of the oft-spoken mantra "war is hell," using every tool in a filmmaker's box to depict the spiritual destruction caused by the Vietnam War.

And it all begins in that unforgettable opening. The very first shot is a seemingly still, calm image of a forest of palm trees, accompanied by the synthesised sound of a helicopter as one flies by, followed by the initially subdued tones of The Doors' "The End."

As we keep watching, dust begins to fill the screen, more helicopters fly in the camera's path, and the forest is promptly set ablaze by a gigantic, strangely beautiful napalm strike, all while the lyrics, "This is the end..." hauntingly ring out.

As Coppola surveys the carnage, we fade into a shot of Captain Willard's (Martin Sheen) face, staring up at his hotel room's spinning rotor fan.

It is, without a hint of hyperbole, utterly hypnotic, confirming how consumed Willard's life is with war, juxtaposed against the destructive might of the U.S. Army.

If the film is arguably never quite as transfixing as in its opening scene, Coppola nevertheless manages to hold viewers in his grip for the remainder of Apocalypse Now's epic runtime.