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Apocalypse Now

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Apocalypse Now
File:Apocalypse-now-dvd-cover.jpg
Directed byFrancis Ford Coppola
Written byJoseph Conrad (novel)
John Milius & Francis Ford Coppola (screenplay), Michael Herr (narration)
Produced byFrancis Ford Coppola
StarringMartin Sheen
Marlon Brando
Robert Duvall
CinematographyVittorio Storaro
Edited byLisa Fruchtman
Gerald B. Greenberg
Walter Murch
Music byCarmine Coppola & Francis Ford Coppola
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release dates
May 10, 1979
Running time
153 min.
202 min. (Redux)
LanguageEnglish
Budget$31,500,000

Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American film directed by Francis Ford Coppola from a script by John Milius (rewritten by Coppola) which was inspired by Joseph Conrad's classic novella Heart of Darkness. Set during the Vietnam War, a taciturn American soldier is sent to "terminate with extreme prejudice" the command of a rogue United States Army Special Forces colonel. The narrative of his journey and its culmination are studded with events which, while bizarre, are based on real Vietnam stories. The soldier's journey becomes increasingly nonlinear and hallucinatory. Coppola's agenda clearly involves larger themes; the film's subtext concerns a journey into the darkness of the human psyche.

The film features performances by Martin Sheen as Captain Benjamin L. Willard (Marlow in Conrad's novel), Marlon Brando as Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, Dennis Hopper as a fast-talking hallucinogen-using photojournalist, and Robert Duvall in an Oscar-nominated turn as the borderline-psychotic Lt. Colonel Kilgore. Several other actors who were (or later became) prominent stars had minor or supporting roles in the movie including Harrison Ford, R. Lee Ermey and Laurence Fishburne (who, only fourteen years old when shooting began in March 1976, was credited as 'Larry Fishburne').

The movie poster art for Apocalypse Now is one of the more famous paintings by Bob Peak, who is considered an influential artist in the world of film when it comes to movie posters.

Background

Filmed in the Philippines (most notably the Pagsanjan River and Hidden Valley Springs), the film went far over budget and schedule: a typhoon destroyed many of the sets, the Philippine Army helicopters used for shooting were constantly called back by President Ferdinand Marcos to be used in actual combat, the lead role was recast (Martin Sheen replaced Harvey Keitel after shooting had begun), Sheen then had a near-fatal heart attack, Brando was intractable and out of shape, and Coppola himself was mentally fragile. Being similar in appearance and remarkably similar in voice, Martin Sheen's brother Joe Estevez stood in for the unwell Sheen in much of the film and some of the narration is by him.

After the first edit, the film was six hours long and had to be severely edited; the original released version was just over two and a half hours long. (Coppola re-released the film in 2001 under the title Apocalypse Now Redux, restoring footage and sequences and lifting the running time to 200 minutes.) For background information on the film, see Eleanor Coppola's documentary, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, released in 1991.

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler

U.S. Army Captain Benjamin L. Willard is stationed in Saigon; a seasoned veteran, he is deeply troubled and apparently no longer fit for civilian life. A group of intelligence officers approach him with a special mission up-river into the remote Cambodian jungle to find Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, a former member of the United States Army Special Forces.

They state that Kurtz, once considered a model officer and future general, has apparently gone insane and is commanding a legion of his own Montagnard troops deep in neutral Cambodia. Their claims are supported by very disturbing radio broadcasts and/or recordings made by Kurtz himself. Willard is asked to undertake a mission to find Kurtz and dispose of him "with extreme prejudice."

Willard studies the intelligence files during the boat ride to the river entrance and learns that Kurtz, isolated in his compound, has assumed the role of a warlord and is worshipped by the natives and his own loyal men. Another officer, sent earlier to kill Kurtz, has apparently become one of his lieutenants.

Willard will begin his trip up the Nung river on a PBR (Patrol Boat, River), with an eclectic crew composed of by-the-book and formal Chief Phillips, a black Navy boat commander; GM3 Lance B. Johnson, a tanned all-American California surfer; GM3 Tyrone, AKA "Clean", a black 17-year-old from The Bronx; and the Cajun Engineman, Jay "Chef" Hicks.

File:Apocalype Now Huey.jpg
The Village Attack Scene In "Apocalypse Now"

The PBR arrives at a Landing Zone where Willard and the crew meet up with Lt. Colonel Bill Kilgore, the merciless commander of the AirCav in the region, following a massive and hectic mopping-up operation of a conquered enemy town. Kilgore, a keen surfer, befriends Johnson. Later, he learns from one of his men that the beach down the coast which marks the opening to the river is perfect for surfing, a factor which persuades him to capture it. The problem is, his troops say, it's "Charlie's point" and heavily fortified. Dismissing this complaint with the explanation that "Charlie don't surf!", Kilgore orders his men to saddle up in the morning so that the AirCav can capture the town and the beach. Riding high above the coast in a fleet of Hueys accompanied by H-6s, Kilgore launches an attack on the beach. The scene, famous for its use of Richard Wagner's epic "Ride of the Valkyries", ends with the soldiers surfing the barely claimed beach amidst skirmishes with infantry and VC. After helicopters swoop over the village and demolish all visible signs of resistance, a giant napalm strike in the nearby jungle dramatically marks the climax of the battle. "I love the smell of napalm in the morning; smells like...victory," Kilgore exults to Willard. The quote made it to #12 onto the American Film Institute's AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes, a list of top movie quotes.

File:Apocalypse Now Smell Like Victory.jpg
"I love the smell of napalm in the morning...It smells like...victory."

The lighting and mood darken as the boat navigates upstream and Willard's silent obsession with Kurtz deepens. Episodes on the journey include a run-in with a tiger while Willard and Chef search for mango fruits, an impromptu inspection of a Vietnamese sampan that leads to massacre, a surreal stop at the last American outpost during a Vietnamese attack against a wood bridge under construction there, and the shocking deaths of both "Clean" and Chief Phillips during a gunfire ambush with hidden Viet Cong soldiers and a spear thrown by a native on the shore, respectively.

Once arrived at Kurtz's compound, Willard leaves Chef behind with orders to call in an air strike on the village if he does not return. They are met by a borderline-psychotic freelance photographer (Hopper) who explains Kurtz's greatness and philosophic skills to provoke his people into following him. Brought before Kurtz and held in captivity in a darkened temple, Willard’s constitution appears to weaken as Kurtz lectures him on his theories of war, humanity, and civilization. While bound outside in the pouring rain, Willard is approached by Kurtz, who places the severed head of Chef in his lap. Coppola makes little explicit, but we come to believe that Willard and Kurtz develop an understanding nonetheless; Kurtz wishes to die at Willard's hands, and Willard, having subsequently granted Kurtz his wish, is offered the chance to succeed him in his warlord-demigod role. Juxtaposed with a ceremonial slaughtering of a cow, Willard enters Kurtz's chamber during one of his message recordings, and kills him with a machete. Lying bloody and dying on the ground, Kurtz whispers "The horror...the horror." (This line is taken directly from Conrad's novella.) Willard walks through the now-silent crowd of natives until he comes upon Lance, who seems to have integrated himself into the society. The two of them make their way to the PBR and float away.

Redux

In 2001 Coppola released Apocalypse Now: Redux, which restored 49 minutes of scenes that were cut from the original film, including stopovers at a French rubber plantation wherein Mr. Clean is buried and a rain-soaked American base camp. Nudity absent from the original was also included in the Redux, most notably at the French plantation and in an additional scene with the Playboy bunnies (from the USO show.)

In this version, Willard steals Kilgore's surfboard, which can still be seen briefly onboard the PBR in the original cut.

Alternate Endings

Coppola denied having any actual alternative endings. In the DVD commentary, he states that they simply had a massive amount of footage to edit with and thus had some choices to make. They did consider using the explosion footage made during their destruction of the Kurtz compound, but he later decided that implying that the air strike had been called in was contrary to his wish to offer some slight hope that we could overcome the horrors of war.

However, there are multiple slightly varying versions of the ending credits.

One version, from the 70mm release, ends with no credits, and shows the boat pulling away. Another version, for the 35mm wide release, rolls the credits while the Kurtz compound is destroyed in what must be implied as an air strike. Yet another version ends silently, without the explosions, and the credits roll over a black background.

Literary Differences

Although inspired by Heart of Darkness, the film deviates from it extensively. The novel takes place in the Congo in the 19th century; Kurtz and Marlow (the Sheen character's name in the novel) are commercial agents of a Belgian ivory company that seeks fortune by brutally exploiting African native workers; Kilgore, a major character in the movie, is not present; and Captain Willard is sent to kill Kurtz rather than bring him back, and dies of a heart attack.

Nevertheless, Coppola has maintained many episodes (the spear and arrow attack on the boat, for example) that have respected the spirit of the novel and in particular its critique of the concept of civilization and progress. The fact that Coppola substituted European colonization with American interventionism does not change the universal message of the book. [1]

Cultural Influences

As one of the most iconic films of the 20th century, the film has been referenced and parodied countless times.

Film:

  • The film was parodied in a short film called Porklips Now, about health inspector Will Dullard, who makes a trip to inspect the meat processing shop of a man named Mertz.
  • British film Nil by Mouth, by Gary Oldman, has a scene where the character Danny (played by Steve Sweeney) dubs the scene that the photojournalist talks to Cap. Willard (when he is in the wood cage), as the film is played on a TV.
  • In True Romance, Clarence Worley calls Apocalypse Now "the greatest Vietnam film ever made".
  • Apocalypse Pooh is a nine-minute short which marries visuals from Winnie the Pooh cartoons with audio from Apocalypse Now. Amazingly, they fit perfectly, following the basic plot well.
  • Hot Shots! Part Deux starring Sheen's son Charlie Sheen parodies the film. Willard's character and Charlie Sheen's character Topper are depicted staring at each other while passing in opposite directions on PBRs on a river. As they meet each shouts in unison, "I loved you in Wall Street!".
  • Another movie starring Charlie Sheen, The Chase, has a gag scene after the end credits, in which Sheen quotes Kilgore's famous napalm line.

Television:

  • In an episode of Seinfeld, Elaine Benes visits her employer, J. Peterman, in a scene that parodies Willard's eventual meeting with Kurtz.
  • The same scene is also parodied in an episode of Sealab 2021, with Captain Murphy as Kurtz and Marco as Willard.
  • Parodied in the episode "Kamp Krusty" of The Simpsons with Bart assuming the role of Kurtz. Marge Simpson also tells her husband, Homer, in another episode, "your character provides the comic relief, like Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now". The 'Ride of the Valkyries' helicopter sequence was humorously homaged in a "Treehouse of Horror" short.
  • In an episode of The Critic, one of the films Jay Sherman reviews is a musical remake titled "Apocalypse Wow."
  • The episode "Eekpocalypse Now!" of the cartoon series Eek! the Cat cast Eek as Willard, Elmo the Elk as Colonel Kilgore and Sharky the Sharkdog as Colonel Kurtz.
  • In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Restless," contains Xander's dream version of Apocalypse Now, including Principal Snyder as Kurtz.
  • Claymation cartoonist Corky Quakenbush produced "A Pack of Gifts Now", which is part of his Rudolph Trilogy (the other two being "Raging Rudolph" and "The Reinfather.") The short is set in Saskatchewan, with Rudolph in the Willard role and Santa Claus in the Kurtz role. Rudolph's mission is to "terminate the Kringle (Santa) with extreme prejudice." This short would air on the Christmas edition of MadTV in 1999.
  • In the TV series Scrubs, the episode "My Heavy Meddle" ends with the janitors comment: " The horror!", quoting Kurtz.
  • In an episode of Animaniacs, Warner Brothers sends Yakko, Wakko and Dot Warner on a mission to stop a crazed movie director (a parody of Jerry Lewis) from filming a movie the studio had cancelled. The trio find the director, who has created a kingdom for himself in which stunt doubles worship him. They stop the film and smash him with a 50 ton weight. His last words are "The hurting... the hurting..." Throughout the episode, a singer who looks very much like Jim Morrison drones "This is the ending, the ending of our story, the ending."
  • "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man," an X-Files episode features a flashback scene where "the Cigarette Smoking Man" is tasked with the assasination of John F. Kennedy. The scene has many things similar or identical to the Scene where Willard is tasked with the assasination of Kurtz, most prominently both have a question that goes something like "have you ever met myself this man or the general before?" to which Willard and the CSM both reply "Not personally".
  • The cartoon Yvon of the Yukon has an episode that parodies the opening scene, as well as a helicopter pilot stating "I love the smell of lip balm in the morning"

Music:

  • Iron Maiden's "The Edge of Darkness" on their album The X Factor (1995) is very closely based on the film. Most lyrics are very close to being a direct quote from the movie.
  • The Canadian band Death From Above 1979 take their name from the 'Death From Above' motto on Kilgore's helicopter.
  • The band Dismember uses the quote "I love the smell of napalm in the morning!" to start of their song "Let the Napalm Rain."

Video Games:

  • In the videogame World of Warcraft, a series of quests in the Stranglethorn Vale zone take you to the camp of a crazed Colonel Kurzen who has brainwashed his men, in an attempt to kill the Colonel.
  • The Half-Life singleplayer mod 'Heart of Evil' is partly inspired by the film (the Vietnam War setting, a U.S. Army captain sent to assassinate a rogue colonel, the helicopter ride with "Ride of the Valkyries" in the background, the boat ride to the colonel's compound).

Literature:

Primary cast

Award wins:


In 2000 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

It is widely believed that Apocalypse did not win the Best Picture Oscar in 1979 due to the fact that another Vietname epic, "The Deer Hunter," had just won the previous year. It is often regarded as a far superior film to the 1979 winner of the award, Jaffe's "Kramer vs. Kramer".

Award nominations:

Quotes

  • "I watched a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor. That's my dream. That's my nightmare. Crawling, slithering, along the edge of a straight razor, and surviving." - Col. Walter E. Kurtz (on tape)
  • "We train young men to drop fire on people, but their commanders won't allow them to write 'fuck' on their airplanes because ... it's obscene!" - Col. Walter E. Kurtz
  • "They were gonna make me a major for this, and I wasn't even in their fuckin' army anymore." - Captain Willard
  • "You smell that? Do you smell that? ... Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve 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 ... victory. Someday this war's gonna end." - Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore
  • "Charging a man with murder in this place was like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500" - Willard, when beginning his assigned mission
  • "What are they going to say? That he was a kind man? That he was a wise man? That he had plans?" - The photojournalist to Willard, on how Kurtz will be remembered
  • "Never get out of the boat!" - Chef
Wikiquote has quotations related to Apocalypse Now.
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