Apocalypse Now! (1979)

Tagline: The Horror… The Horror…

Apocalypse Now movie storyline. It is the height of the war in Vietnam, and U.S. Army Captain Willard is sent by Colonel Lucas and a General to carry out a mission that, officially, ‘does not exist – nor will it ever exist’. The mission: To seek out a mysterious Green Beret Colonel, Walter Kurtz, whose army has crossed the border into Cambodia and is conducting hit-and-run missions against the Viet Cong and NVA.

The army believes Kurtz has gone completely insane and Willard’s job is to eliminate him! Willard, sent up the Nung River on a U.S. Navy patrol boat, discovers that his target is one of the most decorated officers in the U.S. Army. His crew meets up with surfer-type Lt-Colonel Kilgore, head of a U.S Army helicopter cavalry group which eliminates a Viet Cong outpost to provide an entry point into the Nung River. After some hair-raising encounters, in which some of his crew are killed, Willard, Lance and Chef reach Colonel Kurtz’s outpost, beyond the Do Lung Bridge. Now, after becoming prisoners of Kurtz, will Willard & the others be able to fulfill their mission?

Apocalypse Now (1979) is the leading producer / visually beautiful film director Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece of avant-garde with surrealistic and symbolic sequence describing the confusion, violence, fear, and nightmarish madness of war Vietnam. Coppola had already become a noted producer / director, following its two profitable and critically acclaimed films The Godfather (1972 and 1974) – The epic story of a mafia-style patriarch and his successor. This provocative film did for the Vietnam War genre what The Godfather did for the gangster film.

After waiting three to four years for the notorious film (which has other films winning the Vietnam War to the forefront of the previous year – The Deer Hunter (1978) and Coming Home (1978)), the film was budgeted at $ 12 – 13 million of something an extravagant, indulgent epic in the making that has cost nearly $ 31 million – with much of the film shot on location in the Philippines.

Delays and high-profile disasters in the making strenuous (designed for approximately 17 weeks, but found a lasting approximately 34 weeks), as well as extramarital affairs, a great director and suicide, drug and other forms of madness, were mainly due to a typhoon rain, (named Olga) and a star-debilitating, a near-fatal heart attack for the star Martin Sheen.

Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne, Albert Hall, Harrison Ford, Dennis Hopper, Jerry Ziesmer, James Keane, Kerry Rossall
Screenplay by: John Milius, Francis Ford Coppola
Production Design by: Dean Tavoularis
Cinematography by: Vittorio Storaro
Film Editing by: Lisa Fruchtman, Gerald B. Greenberg, Walter Murch
Set Decoration by: George R. Nelson
Art Direction by: Angelo P. Graham
Music by: Francis Ford Coppola
MPAA Rating: R for disturbing violent images, language, sexual content and some drug use.
Distributed by: United Artists
Release Date: August 15, 1979