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Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic war film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who wrote the screenplay with John Milius and Michael Herr. The film is loosely based on the 1899 novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. The ensemble cast also features Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne and Dennis Hopper. Set during the Vietnam War in 1969, Apocalypse Now follows Captain Willard (Sheen) as he embarks on a river journey from South Vietnam into Cambodia to assassinate Colonel Kurtz (Brando), a renegade Special Forces officer who is accused of murder and presumed insane.

Inspired by his college professor, Milius began developing a screenplay on in the late 1960s on the war by using Conrad’s novella, which was known for its unfilmabillity. Development began in 1969 when George Lucas joined the project to direct and Coppola producing. When Lucas left the project in 1974 to focus on the development of Star Wars (1977), Coppola took over directing duties while also self-financing the majority of the film’s budget. Filmed in the Philippines from March 1976 to May 1977, Apocalypse Now faced multiple production difficulties including typhoons, script rewrites, Sheen's near fatal heart attack, and problems with the actors such as reported drug use and Brando arriving overweight and underprepared. Initially budgeted at $12 million, costs had risen to $31 million by the project’s completion and took a mental, physical, and financial toll on Coppola.

Apocalypse Now received negative publicity for its troubled and prolonged production, which prompted Coppola to premiered the film unfinished at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, where it was honored with the Palme d'Or. After numerous delays, the film was released on August 15, 1979 and earned over $86 million worldwide, becoming the ninth highest grossing film of year. Upon its release, the film received polarized reviews, with critics criticizing Coppola’s handing of the story’s themes and finding the ending anticlimactic. Vittorio Storaro's cinematography and Walter Murch’s sound design were critically praised, with the pair winning Academy Awards for their respective works, and Duvall’s performance as the bombastic air-calvary officer Kilgore was unanimously praised. Subsequent releases, including extended versions and re-edits by Coppola, have raised the film's worldwide gross to $104-150 million.

Since its release, Apocalypse Now has been critically reassessed and is now often regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. It has had It has had a significant impact on filmmaking with its sound design and its depiction of the Vietnam War, and influenced several medium across entertainment. Its enduring popularity has also prompted numerous books, parodies, and documentaries about its production. The United States Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2000.

Plot
At Saigon in 1969, burnt-out MACV-SOG Captain Benjamin L. Willard trashes his hotel room after a night of heavy drinking. The next morning, he is summoned to I Field Force headquarters in Nha Trang by Colonel Lucas, Lieutenant General R. Corman, and C.I.A. agent Jerry Moore. Willard learns that Walter E. Kurtz, a highly decorated U.S. Army Special Forces colonel, has waged an unauthorized guerrilla war with American and Montagnard troops at an outpost in Cambodia. Kurtz is also accused of ordering the murders of four South Vietnamese intelligence agents whom he suspected of being double agents for the Viet Cong. Lucas orders Willard "terminate Kurtz's command ... with extreme prejudice".

Willard joins a U.S. Navy river patrol boat (PBR) commanded by Chief Petty Officer Phillips, with crewmen Lance, "Chef" and "Mr. Clean" to quietly navigate up the Nùng River to Kurtz's outpost. They rendezvous with the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment—a helicopter-borne air assault unit commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore—to discuss an safer passage. Kilgore is initially uncooperative until he learns that Lance is a well-known surfer. Before they can continue through, Willard’s crew accompanies the helicopter squadron, playing "Ride of the Valkyries" on loudspeakers, on a raid at dawn with a napalm strike.

As the PBR continues to travel further to Kurtz’s outpost, tensions arise between Willard and Chief over leadership on the boat and Willard’s hesitation to fully reveal his mission. Willard studies Kurtz’s dossier and is surprised to see Kurtz’s achievements and career opportunities. The PBR reaches a remote U.S. Army outpost to seek information on what is upriver and receives a dispatch bag containing official and personal mail regarding Kurtz. Willard learns via the dispatch that another MACV-SOG operative, Special Forces Captain Richard Colby, was sent on an earlier mission identical to Willard's, but has since joined Kurtz.

Further upriver, Lance becomes addicted to LSD and activates smoke that attracts enemy fire, which results in both Chef and Clean getting killed. Now in charge of the PBR, Chief learns the truth about Willard’s mission and continues to travel up further. The PBR arrives at Kurtz's outpost, an abandoned Angkor Empire temple compound teeming with Montagnards and strewn with hanged corpses and severed heads. They are encountered by both a crazed American photojournalist and Colby. Willard sets out with with a LSD-influenced Lance to find Kurtz and orders Chef to call in an airstrike if the two do not return.

Willard is bound and brought before Kurtz, who severs Chef's head to prevent the airstrike. The enigmatic Kurtz lectures Willard about his disillusionment with the war and reads various poems to him. After several days, Kurtz releases Willard so he could tell his family the truth about what he did. While the Montagnards ceremonially slaughter a water buffalo in the night, Willard sneaks back into the outpost and uses a machete to kill Kurtz. As the compound see Willard emerge with a collection of Kurtz's writings, they bow down to him as Willard and Lance board the PBR to leave.

Cast
For a list of the rest of the cast members not included in the 153-minute version of the film that was released in theaters, see Apocalypse Now Redux § Cast.


 * Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz: A delusional officer gone rogue
 * Robert Duvall as William "Bill" Kilgore: A warmongering and surfing fanatic air-cavalry commander
 * Martin Sheen as Benjamin Willard: A wary captain
 * Frederic Forrest as Jay "Chef" Hicks: A former chef horrified by his surroundings
 * Albert Hall as George “Chief” Phillips: The stern captain of the PBR
 * Sam Bottoms as Lance B. Johnson: A former professional surfer addicted to LSD
 * Laurence Fishburne as Tyrone "Mr. Clean" Miller: The PBR's wisecracking seventeen year old member
 * Dennis Hopper as the Photojournalist: A manic photographer who praises Kurtz
 * Harrison Ford as Colonel Lucas: The officer who assigns Willard his mission

The cast also includes Scott Glenn as Richard M. Colby, a captain who was previously assigned Willard's current mission before he defected to Kurtz's private army. G. D. Spradlin and Jerry Ziesmer portrayed Lieutenant General R. Corman and C.I.A. agent Jerry Moore, Lucas' colleagues who assign Willard his mission. James Keane appears as Kilgore's Gunner, a man ready to battle to the tune of "Ride of the Valkyries" and Kerry Rossall as Mike from San Diego, a soldier who surfs against incoming attacks. Colleen Camp, Cynthia Wood and Linda Beatty portrayed the Playboy Playmates who entertained the soldiers. Director Francis Ford Coppola and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro portray a television news crew, and R. Lee Ermey is uncredited as a helicopter pilot. Sheen’s brother Joe Estevez is uncredited as stand ins and voice-overs while Sheen’s son Charlie makes an uncredited appearance as one of the children in Kurtz’s outpost.

Production
Sources:

https://collider.com/apocalypse-now-production-true-story-explained/

https://movieweb.com/wildest-things-apocalypse-now-controversial/#:~:text=A%20Typhoon%20Destroyed%20Half%20the%20Sets&text=As%20if%20the%20production%20of,pitiful%20wages%20for%20dangerous%20work.

https://movieweb.com/why-apocalypse-nows-production-was-such-a-disaster/

https://www.slashfilm.com/783841/the-apocalypse-now-controversy-explained/

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-strained-making-of-apocalypse-now-1758689.html

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/how-marlon-brando-almost-derailed-francis-ford-coppola-movie-apocalypse-now/?amp

https://variety.com/2019/vintage/features/apocalypse-now-production-1203309358/amp/

https://www.thedigitalfix.com/apocalypse-now/production-story

https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/67464

https://www.nytimes.com/1979/08/12/archives/francis-coppolas-cinematic-apocalypse-is-finally-at-hand-coppolas.html

Early development
Joseph Conrad's 1899 novella Heart of Darkness had been the subject of numerous failed attempts of a film adaptation between 1939 and 1975. Orson Welles first attempted to adapt the novel in 1939 with the backing of RKO Pictures. However, Welles abandoned the project when the funding would be beyond the financial capabilities of RKO and the Invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, which would limit the commercial potential in European markets. Welles moved on to develop Citizen Kane (1941) with RKO. Producers Robert L. Lippert and Jeffrey Selznick and directors Andrzej Wajda and James B. Clark were also interested in developing an adaptation.

John Milius, an aspiring filmmaker and writer, tried to enlist in the United States Marines Corps to fight the Vietnam War, but was medically rejected because of him having asthma. Disappointed, he was encouraged by his friend George Lucas to write a screenplay on the Vietnam War. While attending school at the University of Southern California, Milius's professor, Irwin Blacker, encouraged him and his class to adapt a book that is considered difficult to film and brought up Heart of Darkness. Carroll Ballard, a classmate of Milius, teamed up with producer Joel Landon to acquire the rights to Heart of Darkness, but later abandoned the project because the novel had already been in public domain, meaning that any film on the novel can be made. With the support of Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, Milius decided to use the novel as a the source for his Vietnam War script, which was originally titled The Psychdelic Soldier before retitling it Apocalypse Now, which was inspired the badge Nirvana Now that was worn by the counterculture movement of the 1960s.

Writing
When Milius began writing the screenplay in the 1960s, Coppola acquired the rights to the script and paid him $15,000 to write and an additional $10,000 if it were to be produced into a feature film, as well as a percentage of the profits. Coppola encouraged Milius to write as much as possible he believed would be used in the film. Milius made it a goal to use Conrad's novel as "a sort of allegory. It would have been too simple to have followed the book completely."

By 1975, Milius had written over ten drafts and a total of one-thousand pages. Coppola had problems with the second half of the script, particularly in regards to the imagery after the conclusion of the French Plantation scene, as well as missing scenes regarding the American photographer at Kurtz's outpost. Milius would later be disappointed in the removal of several scenes from his drafts in the final draft.

Development under Lucas
After completing work on THX 1138 (1971), Lucas had decided to direct Apocalypse Now as his next film for Coppola's American Zoetrope, which had a development deal with Warner Bros. Pictures. Lucas' plan was to film Apocalypse Now as a documentary in a similar manner to The Battle of Algiers (1967). He had a inital budget of $1.5 million to be filmed in 16mm with a second unit dispatched to Vietnam to capture footage of the actual war which would be intercut with the rest of the film. Lucas had also planned to film parts of the film in rice fields between Stockton and Sacramento, while Lucas' producing partner Gary Kurtz was also scouting locations in the Phillipines. However, Warner Bros. become concerned with filming it during the height of the war, with one executive asking Lucas and Kurtz why would are they "send those hippies over there? They’re a bunch of nuts. Some of them will be killed. There’s a real war over there." After Warner Bros. decline the finance the project, Coppola and Kurtz sought financing from Columbia Pictures, but the studio declined as well.

The lack of support from studios due to safety concerns and the unpopularity of the war led Lucas to take a hiatus on Apocalypse Now. In the interim, Lucas moved on to develop American Graffiti (1973) in an effort to obtain financial capital to fund Apocalypse Now should he return to the project. Lucas was also developing Star Wars (1977) after he failed to acquired the film rights to Flash Gordon. Film editor and American Zoetrope co-founder Walter Muruch said that Lucas used several elements from his version of Apocalypse Now into Star Wars, writing the screenplay as a metaphor of the war.

Development under Coppola
After completing work on both The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974), Coppola had decided that Apocalypse Now would be the next project for the filmmaker. The rights to Millius' script were reverted back to Coppola by 1974. Coppola offered Lucas a chance to return to direct; Lucas considered, but declined after 20th Century Fox greenlighted Star Wars after the success of American Graffiti. The lack of studio interference on The Godfather Part II gave Coppola the confidence to direct Apocalypse Now on a grand scale.

By 1975, Coppola and his co-producers Gary Frederickson and Fred Roos were assembling a production team for Apocalypse Now. Coppola hired production designer Dean Tavoluaris, who had collaberated with Coppola on the two Godfather films. Coppola had initally considered Godfather director of photography Gordon Willis to shoot the film before becoming interested in Vittorio Storaro after seeing his work on Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist (1970). Roos offered the job to Storaro during a visit on the production of Bertolucci's 1900 (1976) in Rome and Coppola offered Storaro a trip to Sydney, Australia for scout location. During the flight to Sydney, Storaro wrote down several notes while he was reading the script and Heart of Darkness, developing ideas for the look of the film with Coppola.

Paramount Pictures had planned a press tour in the Oceania region to promote The Godfather Part II, but none of the film's actors were interested in traveling. With much with cast declining to travel, Coppola and his production team spend much of the tour scouting locations. After the United States Department of Defense refused to participate in the film because of its anti-war message, Coppola negotiated a cooperation with the Australian Army due to having equipment similar to the United States Army. However, the deal collapsed when the Australian Screen Actors Guild insisted that the film's cast be primarly Australian. After Roos and Frederickson pursued Coppola to use the Phillipines for prinicpal photography, Coppola negotiated a deal with Phillipines president Ferdinand Marcos, who agreed to loan the country's military equipment to Coppola with no fees. The deal was done by Frederickson, who had met with Fillipino generals to gain access to Fillipino military equipment and facilities.

Towards the end of 1975, Coppola was concentrated on rewriting much of Milius' script while he sought financing from several studios for a proposed budget of $12-14 million. Zoetrope (Cinema Coppola Seven) offered Apocalypse Now to multiple studios such as Paramount, Warner Bros., and Universal Pictures. They rejected it due to the percenatge of the profits going to Coppola because of his ownership of the film, but also because of the fall of Saigon earlier in the year, which studios saw as a symbolic defeat to America. Enlisting financial assistance from Barry Hirsch, a lawyer who represented Al Pacino, Coppola decided to finance Apocalypse Now independently from the studio system in an effort to have creative control.

Executives from United Artists (UA) learned that Coppola was in discussions with Marlon Brando to star in the film, prompting UA to meet with Coppola over obtaining financing. According to Hirsch, UA was the only studio interested in Apocalypse Now; Hirsch also stated that Coppola couldn't let UA know that they were the only interested studio. A contract was signed on November 3, 1975 between UA and Coppola Cinema Seven. The contract dictated that UA would invest $7 million into Apocalypse Now in exchange for North American distribution rights, have no creative input, and that the rights would revert to Coppola seven years after its release. Gross-rentals would be split 50-50 between UA and Coppola Cinema Seven up to $20 million and a higher profit perctange to Coppola if the film exceed revenues over $100 million. Filming had to began by March 1976 and be ready for release on April 8, 1977. The $7 million from UA only covered half of the $12-14 million budget. Coppola recruited producer Tom Sternberg and Hirsch to raise additional funding through pre-sales of Apocalypse Now to international distributors. Sternberg and Hirsch managed to raise $8 million after they persuaded prominent distributors in Japan, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom to pay for distrubtion rights in their respective countries.

Casting
Lee Marvin and Welles were both offered the role of Kurtz by Coppola, but both actors declined. Coppola had spent several months convincing Brando, who worked with Coppola on The Godfather, to play Kurtz. Accepting the role solely for financial gain, Brando had several stipulations for Coppola. Coppola Cinema Seven was contractually obligated to pay Brando $3 million for four weeks of filming on weekedays only, and would not work past evenings, as well as additional profits from gross rentals and a advance of $1 million. Brando was also guarentee a additional $250,000 per week if filming went over scheduled. Coppola's only requirement for Brando was to read Heart of Darkness. Coppola used still photographs of Brando as the character of Major Penderton used in drama Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) for Kurtz's dossier. Gene Hackman was offered the role of Kilgore before Duvall was cast in the role.

The role of Willard took several months to cast, as several actors refused to traveled to the Phillipines and shoot in severe weather.

Filming
https://collider.com/apocalypse-now-production-true-story-explained/

https://movieweb.com/wildest-things-apocalypse-now-controversial/#:~:text=A%20Typhoon%20Destroyed%20Half%20the%20Sets&text=As%20if%20the%20production%20of,pitiful%20wages%20for%20dangerous%20work.

https://movieweb.com/why-apocalypse-nows-production-was-such-a-disaster/

https://www.slashfilm.com/783841/the-apocalypse-now-controversy-explained/

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-strained-making-of-apocalypse-now-1758689.html

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/how-marlon-brando-almost-derailed-francis-ford-coppola-movie-apocalypse-now/?amp

https://variety.com/2019/vintage/features/apocalypse-now-production-1203309358/amp/

https://www.thedigitalfix.com/apocalypse-now/production-story

https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/67464

https://www.nytimes.com/1979/08/12/archives/francis-coppolas-cinematic-apocalypse-is-finally-at-hand-coppolas.html

Context
A total of thirty four films were expected to be released in the theatrical summer of 1979, with many industry professionals expecting a healthy attendance rate amid the gas shortage crisis and economic uncertainty. Marketing had become a major focus in the wake of the success of Jaws and Star Wars, which studios used to ensure a film’s ability to attract audiences week after week based on the critical reception. The sports drama Rocky II was expected to dominate the box office, while industry executives had high expectations for Alien, Escape from Alcatraz, the latest James Bond film Moonraker, and More American Graffiti. Conversely, expectations were low for Apocalypse Now due to its delays and production difficulties, as well as poor test screenings for various work-in-progress showings. In addition to its lengthy running time that would restrict the number of screenings, industry analysts also suggested that the film would also be negatively compared to Coming Home and The Deer Hunter (both 1978), both of which became successful theatrical films that were critical of the American involvement in Vietnam following 1975 when the war officially ended. However, Roos believed that the film would benefit from those comparisons and indicated that audiences were ready to acknowledge the war.

Critical Reception
Upon its release, Apocalypse Now received polarizing reviews from critics. Some reviews were published upon its premiere at Cannes.

Awards
At the 1980 Academy Awards, Apocalypse Now won the awards for Best Cinematography (Storaro) and Best Sound (Murch, Mark Berger, Richard Beggs, and Nat Boxer). The film received a further six nominations: Best Picture (Coppola, Roos, Frederickson, and Sternberg), Best Director (Coppola), Best Supporting Actor (Duvall), Best Adapted Screenplay (Coppola and Milius), Best Art Direction (Tavoularis, Graham, and Nelson), and Best Film Editing (Marks, Murch, Greenberg, and Fruchtman).

Post-Release
Extended Versions

Home Media

Other Media

Thematic Analysis
Themes

Analysis

Critical Reassessment
Despite polarizing reviews upon its release, Apocalypse Now has since been reevaluated by critics and is now often considered one of the greatest films ever made. It is also regarded as one the greatest war films ever made ansd among the best films about the Vietnam War. It is regarded among the best films in Brando and Coppola’s credits. Publications and critics also rank Apocalypse Now as among the best films of the 1970s decade and of the New Hollyood era.

Ebert ranked the film in his list for the 2002 Sight & Sound poll for the greatest films ever made. As part of his The Great Movies series, Ebert wrote that "Apocalypse Now is the best Vietnam film, one of the greatest of all films, because it pushes beyond the others, into the dark places of the soul. It is not about war so much as about how war reveals truths we would be happy never to discover."

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Apocalypse Now holds an approval rating of 98% based on 98 reviews, with an average rating of 9/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Francis Ford Coppola's haunting, hallucinatory Vietnam War epic is cinema at its most audacious and visionary." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 94 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".