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Apocalypse Now (1979)
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast overview: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando
Running time: 153 minutes
War is a much-covered and much-explored genre in film, although it's one that I haven't done much exploring of. However, my journey through seventies cinema led me to this - of course, I was well aware of it beforehand, but had never checked it out - and I decided to watch it, expecting an impressive and well-made film. I wasn't disappointed. Telling the story of a US soldier sent on a clandestine mission to assassinate a renegade US officer who has set himself up as a god among a local tribe, and with a story partly taken from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, it's an intriguing premise that draws you in from the start.
Like all war films - although this is also a drama about the effects of war itself - it's dark. The scenes of blazing jungles, explosions, napalm, and general horror is shocking and quite profound, especially given the true nature of the Vietnam War and the effects experienced by those who served over there.
Sheen and Brando turn in great performances as Willard and Kurtz respectively, with the former as a quiet and seemingly directionless officer and the latter as a former highly regarded soldier who has gone insane. Coppola's direction serves to heighten the acting skill on show and create a film that is as authentic as it is powerful. He's a director known for his fantastic work in the seventies, and this counts among masterpieces such as the first two Godfather films and The Conversation. The overriding message of "war is hell" is perhaps the most memorable notion gained from this film.
All in all, this is an epic masterpiece that is only prevented from getting a perfect score by a slightly overlong set-piece in the middle third, but it's a terrific piece of cinema that holds up to this day as a powerful and brutal film.
Quotes
Kurtz: We train young men to drop fire on people, but their commanders won't allow them to write "****" on their airplanes because it's obscene!
Kilgore: Smell that? You smell that?
Lance: What?
Kilgore: Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that.
[kneels]
Kilgore: I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like
[sniffing, pondering]
Kilgore: victory. Someday this war's gonna end...
[suddenly walks off]
[last lines]
Kurtz: [voiceover] The horror... the horror...
Trivia
The scene at the beginning with Captain Willard alone in his hotel room was completely unscripted. Martin Sheen told the shooting crew to just let the cameras roll. Sheen was actually drunk in the scene and punched the mirror which was real glass, cutting his thumb. Sheen also began sobbing and tried to attack Francis Ford Coppola. The crew was so disturbed by his actions that they wanted to stop shooting, but Coppola wanted to keep the cameras going.
Originally scheduled to be shot over six weeks, ended up taking 16 months.
Francis Ford Coppola threatened suicide several times during the making of the film.
Trailer
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast overview: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando
Running time: 153 minutes
War is a much-covered and much-explored genre in film, although it's one that I haven't done much exploring of. However, my journey through seventies cinema led me to this - of course, I was well aware of it beforehand, but had never checked it out - and I decided to watch it, expecting an impressive and well-made film. I wasn't disappointed. Telling the story of a US soldier sent on a clandestine mission to assassinate a renegade US officer who has set himself up as a god among a local tribe, and with a story partly taken from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, it's an intriguing premise that draws you in from the start.
Like all war films - although this is also a drama about the effects of war itself - it's dark. The scenes of blazing jungles, explosions, napalm, and general horror is shocking and quite profound, especially given the true nature of the Vietnam War and the effects experienced by those who served over there.
Sheen and Brando turn in great performances as Willard and Kurtz respectively, with the former as a quiet and seemingly directionless officer and the latter as a former highly regarded soldier who has gone insane. Coppola's direction serves to heighten the acting skill on show and create a film that is as authentic as it is powerful. He's a director known for his fantastic work in the seventies, and this counts among masterpieces such as the first two Godfather films and The Conversation. The overriding message of "war is hell" is perhaps the most memorable notion gained from this film.
All in all, this is an epic masterpiece that is only prevented from getting a perfect score by a slightly overlong set-piece in the middle third, but it's a terrific piece of cinema that holds up to this day as a powerful and brutal film.
Quotes
Kurtz: We train young men to drop fire on people, but their commanders won't allow them to write "****" on their airplanes because it's obscene!
Kilgore: Smell that? You smell that?
Lance: What?
Kilgore: Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that.
[kneels]
Kilgore: I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like
[sniffing, pondering]
Kilgore: victory. Someday this war's gonna end...
[suddenly walks off]
[last lines]
Kurtz: [voiceover] The horror... the horror...
Trivia
The scene at the beginning with Captain Willard alone in his hotel room was completely unscripted. Martin Sheen told the shooting crew to just let the cameras roll. Sheen was actually drunk in the scene and punched the mirror which was real glass, cutting his thumb. Sheen also began sobbing and tried to attack Francis Ford Coppola. The crew was so disturbed by his actions that they wanted to stop shooting, but Coppola wanted to keep the cameras going.
Originally scheduled to be shot over six weeks, ended up taking 16 months.
Francis Ford Coppola threatened suicide several times during the making of the film.
Trailer