In contrast to its mixed reviews upon release, today the movie is regarded by many as a masterpiece of the New Hollywood era. Roger Ebert considered it the finest film on the Vietnam War and included it on his list for the 2002 Sight & Sound poll for the greatest movie of all time.[176][177] In the 2002 Sight & Sound director's poll of the "greatest films of all time", it was ranked No. 19.[178][179] It is on the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Movies list at number 28, but dropped to number 30 on their 10th anniversary list. Kilgore's quotation, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning", written by Milius, was number 12 on the AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movie Quotes list and was also voted the greatest movie speech of all time in a 2004 poll.[180] In 2006, Writers Guild of America ranked the screenplay, by John Milius and Francis Ford Coppola, the 55th greatest ever.[181] It is number 7 on Empire's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.[182] Empire re-ranked it at #20 in their 2014 list of The 301 Greatest Movies of All Time,[183] and again at #22 on their 2018 list of The 100 Greatest Movies.[184] It was voted No. 66 on the list of "100 Greatest Films" by the prominent French magazine Cahiers du cinéma in 2008.[185] In 2010, The Guardian named Apocalypse Now "the best action and war film of all time".[186] In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter ranked it 11th among 69 winners of the Palme d'Or.[187] The New York Times included it on its Best 1000 Movies Ever list.[188] Entertainment Weekly ranked it as having one of the "10 Best Surfing Scenes" in cinema.[189]
On December 14, 1981, a day after martial law was enacted in the Soviet-controlled Polish People's Republic, photographer Chris Niedenthal photographed an OT-64 SKOT armored personnel carrier with soldiers of the Polish People's Army standing around it, in front of the Moskwa Cinema with a banner containing the Polish-language title of the movie, which was Czas apokalipsy (literally: Time of the Apocalypse). The photo became one of the most recognizable symbols of the events during the martial law in Poland between 1981 and 1983.[190][191][192]
In 2002, Sight and Sound magazine invited several critics to name the best film of the last 25 years, and Apocalypse Now was named number one. It was also listed as the second-best war film by viewers on Channel 4's 100 Greatest War Films, and was the second-best war movie of all time based on the Movifone list (after Schindler's List) and the IMDb War movie list (after The Longest Day). It is ranked number 1 on Channel 4's 50 Films to See Before You Die. In a 2004 poll of UK film fans, Blockbuster listed Kilgore's eulogy to napalm as the best movie speech.[193] The helicopter attack scene with the Ride of the Valkyries soundtrack was chosen as the most memorable film scene ever by Empire magazine. (The scene is recalled in one of the last acts of the 2012 video game Far Cry 3, when the music is played while the character shoots from a helicopter.[194] It was likewise adapted for the Cat's Eye anime episode "From Runan Island with Love" and the Battle of Italica scene in Gate: Jieitai Kano Chi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri.)
In 2009, the London Film Critics' Circle voted Apocalypse Now the best film of the last 30 years.[195] It was also included in BBC's 2015 list of the 100 greatest American films.[196]
In 2011, actor Charlie Sheen, son of the film's leading actor Martin, started playing clips from the film on his live tour and played the film in its entirety during post-show parties. One of Sheen's films, the 1993 comedy Hot Shots! Part Deux, includes a brief scene where Charlie is riding a boat up a river in Iraq while on a rescue mission and passes Martin, as Captain Willard, going the other way. As they pass, each man shouts to the other "I loved you in Wall Street!", referring to the 1987 film that featured both of them. Additionally, the promotional material for Hot Shots! Part Deux included a mockumentary that aired on HBO titled Hearts of Hot Shots! Part Deux—A Filmmaker's Apology, a parody of the 1991 documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse about the making of Apocalypse Now.[197]
The film is credited with creating the Philippines surfing culture around the town of Baler, where the helicopter attack and surfing sequences were filmed.[198]
On January 25, 2017, Coppola announced that he was seeking funding through Kickstarter for a horror role-playing video game based on Apocalypse Now.[199] It was later canceled by Montgomery Markland, the game's director, as revealed on its official Tumblr page.[200]
The Sympathizer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Vietnamese-American author Viet Thanh Nguyen, features a subplot that Nguyen describes as a critique of Apocalypse Now. He told the New York Times that "Apocalypse Now is an important work of art, but that doesn't mean I'm going to bow down before it. I'm going to fight with it because it fought with me." He said that the film centered on American perspectives of the war rather than Vietnamese experiences. He was especially critical of the scene where all the passengers of a boat were unjustly killed by the traveling party: "People just like me were being slaughtered. I felt violated."[201]
The Seiko 6105 and its subsequent reissues have been nicknamed the "Captain Willard", in reference to its use by the eponymous character.[202][203]
