Movie Info
One of a cluster of late-1970s films about the Vietnam War, Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now adapts the Joseph Conrad novella Heart of Darkness to depict the war as a descent into primal madness. Capt. Willard (Martin Sheen), already on the edge, is assigned to find and deal with AWOL Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), rumored to have set himself up in the Cambodian jungle as a local, lethal godhead. Along the way Willard encounters napalm and Wagner fan Col. Kilgore (Robert Duvall), draftees who prefer to surf and do drugs, a USO Playboy Bunny show turned into a riot by the raucous soldiers, and a jumpy photographer (Dennis Hopper) telling wild, reverent tales about Kurtz. By the time Willard sees the heads mounted on stakes near Kurtz's compound, he knows Kurtz has gone over the deep end, but it is uncertain whether Willard himself now agrees with Kurtz's insane dictum to "Drop the Bomb. Exterminate them all." Coppola himself was not certain either, and he tried several different endings between the film's early rough-cut screenings for the press, the Palme d'Or-winning "work-in-progress" shown at Cannes, and the final 35 mm U.S. release (also the ending on the video cassette). The chaotic production also experienced shut-downs when a typhoon destroyed the set and star Sheen suffered a heart attack; the budget ballooned and Coppola covered the overages himself. These production headaches, which Coppola characterized as being like the Vietnam War itself, have been superbly captured in the documentary, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. Despite the studio's fears and mixed reviews of the film's ending, Apocalypse Now became a substantial hit and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Duvall's psychotic Kilgore, and Best Screenplay. It won Oscars for sound and for Vittorio Storaro's cinematography. This hallucinatory, Wagnerian project has produced admirers and detractors of equal ardor; it resembles no other film ever made, and its nightmarish aura and polarized reception aptly reflect the tensions and confusions of the Vietnam era. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi.| Rating: | R (adult situations/language, violence) | ||||
| Genre: | Drama, Action & Adventure | ||||
| Directed By: | Francis Ford Coppola | ||||
| Written By: | John Milius, Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Herr | ||||
| In Theaters: | Jan 1, 1979 Wide | ||||
| On DVD: | Nov 20, 2001 | ||||
| Runtime: |
United Artists - Official Site
Audience Reviews for Apocalypse Now
½
Coppola's all-time classic is an intense Vietnam War nightmare that
sets out to portray with some of the most spectacular visuals the
unfathomable horror and madness of war, following a man as he goes
further and further in a harrowing descent into the very heart of
darkness.
½
The way the film is shot is as searing as the Vietnamese heat; few
films can compare to the intensity and quality of picturesque way it is
shot accompanied with its great writing, and legendary direction.
A black ops assassin is sent into the jungles of South East Asia to
hunt down and kill a one-time career military golden boy who has turned
renegade and began operating outside of the chain of command. Francis
Ford Coppola's dream-like journey through the horrors and absurdities of
the Vietnam war, like 2001: A Space Odyssey before it, is more an
experience than a story with any kind of strict middle, beginning and
end. It's not the destination that's important. It's chock full of
memorable performances from Martin Sheen's Willard who becomes
fascinated with his target and shares more in common with him than he'd
like to admit, through to Brando's towering presence as the rarely seen,
shadow enshrouded god of war who has tired of the hypocritical "rules
of engagement". Not forgetting Kilgore, who despite the long and
illustrious career of Robert Duvall, will always be the character he is
remembered for and the Ride Of The Valkyries sequence is one of the
all-time greats of cinema. It has so many haunting, nightmarish images
and the whole film is absolutely stunning to look at from beginning to
end. Some may be left bemused by the rather free-form approach but it is
certainly the most creative and provocative war film ever made.
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