Critically assess Francis Ford Coppolas film Apocalypse Now as a representation of the past. Compare how the film stacks up with the historical evidence and what historians say on the same subject.

The Vietnam War was the most controversial war in American history.  It was the longest and the least popular war in the history of the United States and it was the first major war that Americans had lost.   The American public had been saturated with images of the Vietnam War on the television screen on a daily basis and the final defeat of America in Vietnam left the United States deeply divided….(short extract)