User:Hdog1996/sandbox (disambiguation)

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Apocalypse Now
Directed byFrancis Coppola
Written by
Narration byMichael Herr
Produced byFrancis Coppola
Starring
CinematographyVittorio Storaro
Edited by
Music by
Production
company
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release dates
  • May 19, 1979 (1979-05-19) (Cannes)[1]
  • August 15, 1979 (1979-08-15) (United States)
Running time
  • 153 minutes [2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$31 million[3]
Box office$100–150 million[4][5]

Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic war film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who wrote the screenplay with John Milius and Michael Herr. The film is loosely based on the 1899 novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. The ensemble cast also features Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne and Dennis Hopper. Set during the Vietnam War in 1969, Apocalypse Now follows Captain Willard (Sheen) as he embarks on a river journey from South Vietnam into Cambodia to assassinate Colonel Kurtz (Brando), a renegade Special Forces officer who is accused of murder and presumed insane.

Various filmmakers struggled to adapt Conrad’s novel for over forty years until Milius began developing a screenplay on the novel in the late 1960s, changing the setting to Vietnam. George Lucas had intended to direct, but scheduling conflicts led him to leave the project by 1971. When Coppola took over as director in 1975, he handled all of the film’s financing after multiple studios rejected the project. Initially planned to be a five-month shoot in the Philippines starting in March 1976, Apocalypse Now faced multiple difficulties that prolonged filming for over a year. Problems during filming included harsh weather and typhoons, script rewrites, drug usage, Brando arriving on set overweight and underprepared, and Sheen suffering a near fatal heart attack after he was a replacement for Harvey Kietel. Initially budgeted at $12 million, costs had risen to $31 million by the project’s completion and took a psychological, physical, and financial toll on Coppola.

Apocalypse Now received negative publicity for its troubled and prolonged production, which prompted Coppola to premiered the film unfinished at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, where it was honored with the Palme d'Or. After numerous delays, the film was released on August 15, 1979 and earned over $86 million worldwide, becoming the ninth highest grossing film of 1979. Initial reviews were mixed, with critics criticizing Coppola’s handing of the story’s themes and finding the ending anticlimactic. Vittorio Storaro's cinematography and Walter Murch’s sound design were critically praised, with the pair winning Academy Awards for their respective works. Subsequent releases, including extended versions and re-edits by Coppola, have raised the film's worldwide gross to $104-150 million.

Since its release, Apocalypse Now has been critically reassessed and is now considered as one of the best war films and is often regarded to be one of the greatest films ever made. It has had a significant impact on filmmaking and popular culture with its depiction of the Vietnam War, influencing subsequent films based on the war and is seen as an influence in modern sound design. The United States Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2000.

Plot[edit]

At Saigon in 1969, burnt-out MACV-SOG Captain Benjamin L. Willard trashes his hotel room after a night of heavy drinking. The next morning, he is summoned to I Field Force headquarters in Nha Trang. Willard learns that Walter E. Kurtz, a U.S. Army Special Forces colonel, has waged a unauthorized guerrilla war with American and Montagnard troops at a outpost in Cambodia. Kurtz is also accused of ordering the murders of four South Vietnamese intelligence agents whom he suspected of being double agents for the Viet Cong. Willard is ordered to "terminate Kurtz's command ... with extreme prejudice".

Willard joins a U.S. Navy river patrol boat (PBR) commanded by Chief Petty Officer Phillips, with crewmen Lance, "Chef" and "Mr. Clean" to quietly navigate up the Nùng River to Kurtz's outpost. They rendezvous with the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment—a helicopter-borne air assault unit commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore—to discuss an safer passage. Kilgore is initially uncooperative until he learns that Lance is a well-known surfer. Before they can continue through, Willard’s crew accompanies the helicopter squadron, playing "Ride of the Valkyries" on loudspeakers, on a raid at dawn with a napalm strike.

As the PBR continues to travel further to Kurtz’s outpost, tensions arise between Willard and Chief over leadership on the boat and Willard’s hesitation to fully reveal his mission. Willard studies Kurtz’s dossier and is surprised to see Kurtz’s achievements and career opportunities. The PBR reaches a remote U.S. Army outpost to seek information on what is upriver and receive a dispatch bag containing official and personal mail regarding Kurtz. Willard learns via the dispatch that another MACV-SOG operative, Special Forces Captain Richard Colby, was sent on an earlier mission identical to Willard's, but has since joined Kurtz.

Further upriver, Lance becomes addicted to LSD and activates smoke that attracts enemy fire, which results in both Chef and Clean getting killed. Now in charge of the PBR, Chief learns the truth about Willard’s mission and continues to travel up further. The PBR arrives at Kurtz's outpost, an abandoned Angkor Empire temple compound teeming with Montagnards and strewn with hanged corpses and severed heads. They are encountered by both a crazed American photojournalist and Colby. Willard sets out with with a LSD-influenced Lance to find Kurtz and orders Chef to call in an airstrike if the two do not return.

Willard is bound and brought before Kurtz, who severs Chef's head to prevent the airstrike. The enigmatic Kurtz lectures Willard on his disillusionment of the war and the ruthlessness of the Viet Cong. Kurtz releases Willard so he could tell his family what really happened. While the Montagnards ceremonially slaughter a water buffalo in the night, Willard sneaks back into the outpost and uses a machete to morally kill Kurtz, utters “The horror ... the horror” on his breath. As the compound see Willard emerge with a collection of Kurtz's writings, they bow down to him as Willard and Lance board the PBR to head back down the river.

Cast[edit]

For a list of the rest of the cast members not included in the 153-minute version of the film that was released in theaters, see Apocalypse Now Redux § Cast.

A picture of Marlon Brando.
A picture of Robert Duvall.
A picture of Martin Sheen.
A picture of Laurence Fisbourne.
A picture of Dennis Hopper.
(Left to right) Marlon Brando (pictured in 1955), Robert Duvall (2014), Martin Sheen (1995), Laurence Fishbourne (2009), and Dennis Hopper (2008).

The cast also includes Scott Glenn as Richard M. Colby, a captain who was previously assigned Willard's current mission before he defected to Kurtz's private army and G. D. Spradlin, Jerry Ziesmer, and Harrison Ford as Lieutenant General R. Corman, C.I.A. agent Jerry Moore, and Colonel G. Lucas, the three men who briefed Willard on Kurtz and assign him his mission. James Keane appears as Kilgore's Gunner, a man ready to battle to the tune of "Ride of the Valkyries" and Kerry Rossall as Mike from San Diego, a soldier who surfs against incoming attacks.[8] Colleen Camp, Cynthia Wood and Linda Beatty portrayed the Playboy Playmates who entertained the soldiers. Director Francis Ford Coppola and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro portray a television news crew, and R. Lee Ermey is uncredited as a helicopter pilot. Sheen’s brother Joe Estevez is uncredited as stand ins and voice-overs while Sheen’s son Charlie makes an uncredited appearance as one of the children in Kurtz’s outpost.

Production[edit]

Filming[edit]

Release[edit]

Reception[edit]

Post-Release[edit]

Thematic Analysis[edit]

Legacy[edit]

See Also[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Further Reading[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Hdog1996/sandbox (disambiguation).
  • Hdog1996/sandbox at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
  • Hdog1996/sandbox at AllMovie
  • Hdog1996/sandbox at Box Office Mojo
  • Hdog1996/sandbox at IMDb
  • {{Metacritic film}} template missing ID and not present in Wikidata.
  • Hdog1996/sandbox at Rotten Tomatoes
  • The strained making of Apocalypse Now at www.independent.co.uk.
  • Apocalypse Now essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 ISBN 0826429777, pages 756–758 [1]
  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference var was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Apocalypse Now". British Board of Film Classification. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved December 20, 2014. Retrieved December 3, 2017
  3. ^ Appelo, Tim (August 30, 2014). "Telluride: Francis Ford Coppola Spills 'Apocalypse Now' Secrets on 35th Anniversary". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on September 2, 2014. Retrieved August 5, 2019.
  4. ^ Cowie 1990, p. 132.
  5. ^ Hinson, Hal (January 17, 1992). "'Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse'". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 1, 2021.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Bradshaw, Peter (August 7, 2019). "Apocalypse Now: Final Cut review – crazed exposé of the heart of darkness". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved August 6, 2023.
  7. ^ "5 Game Characters Inspired by Apocalypse Now". Game Rant. October 14, 2022. Retrieved August 6, 2023.
  8. ^ "The Only Actors Still Alive From The Cast Of Apocalypse Now". Looper. September 28, 2022. Retrieved August 6, 2023.
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