Details
Movie Description
Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam epic, loosely based on HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad, tells the story of Captain Willard (Martin Sheen), a special agent sent into Cambodia to assassinate an errant American colonel (Marlon Brando). Willard is assigned a navy patrol boat operated by Chief (Albert Hall) and three hapless soldiers (Frederic Forrest, Sam Bottoms, and Larry Fishburne). They are escorted on part of their journey by an air cavalry unit led by Lt. Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall), a gung-ho commander with a love of Wagner, surfing, and napalm. After witnessing a surreal USO show featuring Playboy playmates and an anarchic battle with the Viet Cong at a bridge, Willard reaches Colonel Kurtz's compound. A crazed photo journalist and Kurtz groupie (Dennis Hopper) welcomes the crew, and Willard begins to question his orders to "terminate the colonel's command." The grueling production and Coppola's insistence on authenticity led to vast budget overruns and physical and emotional breakdowns. Considered to be one of the best war movies of all time, APOCALYPSE NOW features incredible performances and beautifully chaotic visuals that make it an absolute must-see.
In August 2001, a new version of the film, title APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX, was released. The new version includes 49 minutes of never-before-seen footage, a Technicolor enhancement, and a six-channel soundtrack.
Synopsis
Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam epic, loosely based on HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad, tells the story of Captain Willard (Martin Sheen), a special agent sent into Cambodia to assassinate an errant American colonel (Marlon Brando). Willard is assigned a navy patrol boat operated by Chief (Albert Hall) and three hapless soldiers (Frederic Forrest, Sam Bottoms, and Larry Fishburne). They are escorted on part of their journey by an air cavalry unit led by Lt. Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall), a gung-ho commander with a love of Wagner, surfing, and napalm. After witnessing a surreal USO show featuring Playboy playmates and an anarchic battle with the Viet Cong at a bridge, Willard reaches Colonel Kurtz’s compound. A crazed photo journalist and Kurtz groupie (Dennis Hopper) welcomes the crew, and Willard begins to question his orders to "terminate the colonel’s command." The grueling production and Coppola's insistence on authenticity led to vast budget overruns and physical and emotional breakdowns. Considered to be one of the best war movies of all time, APOCALYPSE NOW features incredible performances and beautifully chaotic visuals that make it an absolute must-see.
Film Notes
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Interactive Menus
Scene Access
Theatrical Trailer
"Destruction Of The Kurtz Compound" with commentary by Francis Ford Coppola
Excerpts from the original Theatrical Program
Theatrical release: August 15, 1979.
Filmed on location in the Philippines.
In August 2001, a new version of the film, title APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX, was released. The new version includes 49 minutes of never-before-seen footage, a Technicolor enhancement, and a six-channel soundtrack.
APOCALYPSE NOW was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 2000.
At the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, Coppola will be screening a new director's cut of the film. He said, "The result is a film that is fifty-three minutes longer, and whose theme emerges more clearly. It is a more disturbing, sometimes funnier and more romantic film whose historical perspective has become more forceful."
The film shoot was only supposed to take six weeks but ended up lasting for 16 months because of numerous complications, including a typhoon that wrecked much of the set.
APOCALYPSE NOW is number 28 on the American Film Insitute's list of America's 100 Greatest Movies.
Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack during the strenuous shoot. Prior to this, Sheen had a drunken emotional breakdown while filming the improvised hotel room scene. When he shatters the mirror with his hand in that scene, both the glass and the blood are real.
Director Francis Ford Coppola had a nervous breakdown during the filming and threatened to commit suicide numerous times.
When the film's budget went sorely over budget, Coppola contributed millions of his own fortune, which he had earned by making THE GODFATHER and THE GODFATHER II.
Coppola briefly appears in the film as a newsreel director.
Harvey Keitel was originally cast as Willard. He was fired shortly after filming began and was replaced by Martin Sheen.
Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford, and Al Pacino were all considered for the role of Kurtz.
A Francis Ford Coppola private joke: The name tags on the army shirts of the two men (G.D. Spradlin and Harrison Ford) giving Willard his assassination orders are R. Corman and Colonel G. Lucas, Coppola's two director buddies.
Marlon Brando was supposed to lose weight for his role as Kurtz but instead arrived on the set distinctly overweight. The actor also hadn't memorized his lines and insisted on improvising most of them.
Larry Fishburne was only 14 years old when he played the part of Mr. Clean.
Sam Bottoms was on various drugs for much of the filming.
Coppola's wife, Eleanor, documented the chaotic filming of APOCALYPSE NOW in the 1991 film HEARTS OF DARKNESS: A FILMMAKER'S APOCALYPSE.
Orson Welles wanted to make a version of HEART OF DARKNESS in 1939. He got as far as storyboarding the film before abandoning the project for CITIZEN KANE.
Tim Roth and John Malkovich starred in a made-for-televison version of HEART OF DARKNESS directed by Nicolas Roeg in 1994.
Industry Reviews
"...A brilliant and bizarre film....An exhilarating action and adventure exercise....The cast is extraordinary, with Sheen extremely effective in laconic style..."
Variety - Poll. (05/16/1979)
"...Coppola's APOCALYPSE NOW lives up to its grand title....The actors are superlatively right..."
New York Times - p.C15 - Vincent Canby (08/15/1979)
"...One of the key films of the century. Most films are lucky to contain a single great sequence. APOCALYPSE NOW strings together one after another, with the river journey as the connecting link..."
Chicago Sun-Times - Roger Ebert (11/28/1999)
"...[With] glorious cinematography..."
Total Film - Andy Lowe (01/01/2001)
"[Brando] hardly needed anything but his voice and his eyes to make a lasting impression."
Entertainment Weekly - Entertainment Weekly Staff (07/16/2004)
"Brando had created one of the cinema's most distinctive and memorable boogeymen."
Premiere - Premiere Staff (10/01/2004)
4 stars out of 5 -- "Rarely have the themes and events unravelling on screen encapsulated and mirrored a director's own hellish filmmmaking journey as they do with APOCALYPSE NOW..."
Ultimate DVD - Simon Edwards (10/01/2006)
Quotations
"Terminate with extreme prejudice."--a civilian to Willard (Martin Sheen)
"I was going to the worst place in the world and I didn't even know it yet."--Willard, in voice-over
"Charlie don't surf."--Lt. Col. Kilgore (Robert Duvall)
"I love the smell of napalm in the morning. It smells like...victory."--Kilgore
"What are they gonna say about him? What are they gonna say? That he was a wise man? That he was a kind man? That he had plans? That he had wisdom? Bullshit, man!"--photographer (Dennis Hopper) to Willard
"The horror. The horror."--Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando)
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