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Apocalypse Now
Francis Ford Coppola, 1979
This is one of the best films ever made. I've only seen the Redux version of Apocalypse Now, but I consider that version the complete vision and practical same movie. The film is long, which is a good thing, it helps bring out more than it would if it was shorter. It's creative, persuasive, and dark. This is one not to be missed.
Apocalypse Now is the story of Benjamin L. Willard (Martin Sheen), a soldier on duty in the Vietnam War. Waiting for a mission in Saigon, his hopes are answered when two military soldiers arrive at his door and take him to a Vietnam War headquarters where he meets Colonel Lucas (Harrison Ford) and General Corman (G.D. Spradlin). They inform Willard of an American colonel named Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who abandoned the American military while on duty, and stranded himself on an island, causing genocide to hundreds of innocent people. He has practically become an American Hitler, and Willard is given the assignment to kill him. Willard travels on a military-owned boat with some newly recruited soldiers, including Lance (Sam Bottoms), Clean (Laurence Fishburne), Chef (Fredrick Forrest), and Chief (Albert Hall). With only five people on the boat, the group routinely goofs-off, at times causing them trouble when enemy fire is targeted towards the ship in a narrow wooded area. Along the way, we are introduced to a character, Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore (Robert Duvall), who escorts them upriver in their helicopters over a war zone so the five of them don't get fired at, as a helicopter attaches the boat to its pick-up carrier. Having the rest of the way to go in the boat, the five enjoy themselves. On the way to terminate Kurtz, they run into a many number of things, involving a mansion of French communists, a number of nearly dis-functional Army posts, and many spells of enemy fire taken upon the boat. More and more events take place, until the mind-bending approach to Kurtz takes place. Upon arriving on the island, we are introduced to a National Geographic reporter (Dennis Hopper) who had stumbled onto the island of Kurtz by accident. He strongly believes Kurtz is sane, and it appears that another soldier just like Willard had went up to terminate Kurtz, only to stay on the island with a number of fifteen thousand Indian children and tribe members who practically worship Kurtz for his anti-War wisdom and Hitler-like genocide.
The main reason Apocalypse Now is one of the greatest movies of all time, is the fact we hear all these Satanic, dark, mysterious, and interesting things about Colonel Kurtz before we meet him. Along the boat ride, a voice-over narration from Sheen's character describes Kurtz's past, his history, his wrong and right decisions, the good things he accomplished, the bad, and ultimately the evil and why he chose to make them. Tension builds before we see Kurtz near the end of the film. We wonder what he will look like, how he will sound, and what he will do to Willard and the other four boat passengers. Will he be pure evil? Or will he make a point that war is pointless, and that violence is idiotic, and that Willard does indeed deserve to die for his taking of the mission? Kurtz's mind is so mysterious and complex, it's almost like getting every word in the dictionary and cramming it into one sentence. But, that's the fine idea of Apocalypse Now. Your nervous system will literally explode when we are about to be shown Kurtz for the first time, because he's the infamous man we've heard all about, and we are finally meeting him.
Apocalypse Now was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and the film has a bizarre and interesting history. The scene at the beginning of the film with Martin Sheen going insane, was real in a matter of speaking. Sheen told the cameras to just shoot him and he would make it up the rest of the way, in fact the scene was entirely unscripted. Sheen was actually drunk, and punched the glass mirror, which was real. In anger, Sheen tried to attack director Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola told the cameramen to keep shooting, and that is was good stuff. Plus, Coppola also tried to commit suicide on the set twice. Not to mention that the movie itself was originally 200 hours long, which is unheard of. Coppola had to cut the film down to a three hour length, and the film took nearly years to cut down in fear he would cut out something he would have wanted left in there, even though every bit of the footage was important.
The film features grand performances from its cast, including Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen. Plus, Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper really shined in Apocalypse Now as well. The movie is a whopping epic war film that stretches all across Vietnam in search of an American Colonel who has been targeted for assassination due to his genocidal techniques and abandonment towards American duty, technically making him an outlaw for joining a neutral enemy that doesn't even exist. It's very interesting what takes place on screen, and the score to the film is amazingly beautiful.
If you haven't seen Apocalypse Now, there's no denying that you need to see this right away. It is not my favorite film of all time, but it sure is close and is number six on my top one hundred favorite films list. See this movie right now. I guarantee you, Apocalypse Now will move you in some dark inside way or positively upbeat one.
Francis Ford Coppola, 1979
This is one of the best films ever made. I've only seen the Redux version of Apocalypse Now, but I consider that version the complete vision and practical same movie. The film is long, which is a good thing, it helps bring out more than it would if it was shorter. It's creative, persuasive, and dark. This is one not to be missed.
Apocalypse Now is the story of Benjamin L. Willard (Martin Sheen), a soldier on duty in the Vietnam War. Waiting for a mission in Saigon, his hopes are answered when two military soldiers arrive at his door and take him to a Vietnam War headquarters where he meets Colonel Lucas (Harrison Ford) and General Corman (G.D. Spradlin). They inform Willard of an American colonel named Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who abandoned the American military while on duty, and stranded himself on an island, causing genocide to hundreds of innocent people. He has practically become an American Hitler, and Willard is given the assignment to kill him. Willard travels on a military-owned boat with some newly recruited soldiers, including Lance (Sam Bottoms), Clean (Laurence Fishburne), Chef (Fredrick Forrest), and Chief (Albert Hall). With only five people on the boat, the group routinely goofs-off, at times causing them trouble when enemy fire is targeted towards the ship in a narrow wooded area. Along the way, we are introduced to a character, Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore (Robert Duvall), who escorts them upriver in their helicopters over a war zone so the five of them don't get fired at, as a helicopter attaches the boat to its pick-up carrier. Having the rest of the way to go in the boat, the five enjoy themselves. On the way to terminate Kurtz, they run into a many number of things, involving a mansion of French communists, a number of nearly dis-functional Army posts, and many spells of enemy fire taken upon the boat. More and more events take place, until the mind-bending approach to Kurtz takes place. Upon arriving on the island, we are introduced to a National Geographic reporter (Dennis Hopper) who had stumbled onto the island of Kurtz by accident. He strongly believes Kurtz is sane, and it appears that another soldier just like Willard had went up to terminate Kurtz, only to stay on the island with a number of fifteen thousand Indian children and tribe members who practically worship Kurtz for his anti-War wisdom and Hitler-like genocide.
The main reason Apocalypse Now is one of the greatest movies of all time, is the fact we hear all these Satanic, dark, mysterious, and interesting things about Colonel Kurtz before we meet him. Along the boat ride, a voice-over narration from Sheen's character describes Kurtz's past, his history, his wrong and right decisions, the good things he accomplished, the bad, and ultimately the evil and why he chose to make them. Tension builds before we see Kurtz near the end of the film. We wonder what he will look like, how he will sound, and what he will do to Willard and the other four boat passengers. Will he be pure evil? Or will he make a point that war is pointless, and that violence is idiotic, and that Willard does indeed deserve to die for his taking of the mission? Kurtz's mind is so mysterious and complex, it's almost like getting every word in the dictionary and cramming it into one sentence. But, that's the fine idea of Apocalypse Now. Your nervous system will literally explode when we are about to be shown Kurtz for the first time, because he's the infamous man we've heard all about, and we are finally meeting him.
Apocalypse Now was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and the film has a bizarre and interesting history. The scene at the beginning of the film with Martin Sheen going insane, was real in a matter of speaking. Sheen told the cameras to just shoot him and he would make it up the rest of the way, in fact the scene was entirely unscripted. Sheen was actually drunk, and punched the glass mirror, which was real. In anger, Sheen tried to attack director Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola told the cameramen to keep shooting, and that is was good stuff. Plus, Coppola also tried to commit suicide on the set twice. Not to mention that the movie itself was originally 200 hours long, which is unheard of. Coppola had to cut the film down to a three hour length, and the film took nearly years to cut down in fear he would cut out something he would have wanted left in there, even though every bit of the footage was important.
The film features grand performances from its cast, including Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen. Plus, Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper really shined in Apocalypse Now as well. The movie is a whopping epic war film that stretches all across Vietnam in search of an American Colonel who has been targeted for assassination due to his genocidal techniques and abandonment towards American duty, technically making him an outlaw for joining a neutral enemy that doesn't even exist. It's very interesting what takes place on screen, and the score to the film is amazingly beautiful.
If you haven't seen Apocalypse Now, there's no denying that you need to see this right away. It is not my favorite film of all time, but it sure is close and is number six on my top one hundred favorite films list. See this movie right now. I guarantee you, Apocalypse Now will move you in some dark inside way or positively upbeat one.