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Apocalypse Now (1979)
Starring Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, and Dennis Hopper. Cinematography by Vittorio Storaro. Edited by Lisa Fruchtman, Gerald B. Greenberg, and Walter Murch. Produced by Francis Ford Coppola. Written by Francis Ford Coppola, John Milius, and Michael Herr. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
Already battle-weary in the Vietnam War, Captain Benjamin L. Willard (played by Martin Sheen) is given the order to take a crew of four and travel deep into the jungles of Cambodia to find a renegade officer, Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (played by Marlon Brando), who is being worshiped as a god by a small tribe. He is instructed to terminate Colonel Kurtz “with extreme prejudice”. As he travels further and further into the depths of the jungle, Willard slips deeper and deeper into a state of insanity.
The stories of Apocalypse Now’s troubled production are legendary. Francis Ford Coppola was under such stress that he threatened to commit suicide. At only thirty six years of age Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack. The shoot that was scheduled to last only six weeks took nearly a year and a half.
The two hundred hours of footage took nearly three years to edit. But here’s a story that is a bit lesser known… When he became frustrated with his lack of progress on his feature film debut, THX 1138, George Lucas called up his old friend John Milius and asked him if he wanted to pick up where they left off on the Vietnam story that they had started developing together in college. But Lucas’ business partner and friend Coppola had not given up on THX 1138 yet, and when he worked the deal with Warner Brothers to produce it he threw in the Vietnam story to help seal the deal.
Lucas did not know that Coppola was going to pitch his unfinished idea, but Coppola promised him twenty five thousand dollars to write and direct the picture. Lucas went ahead and finished THX 1138, but sadly it turned out to be a financial disaster. In fact it was such a failure that Warner Brothers discontinued their contract with Zoetrope; dropping the seven pictures they had in development with them. Apocalypse Now was one of those projects.
Coppola paid the Warners back the money that they had fronted Zoetrope after their deal went south and subsequently owned the rights to the projects that they had refused. When Lucas approached Coppola asking if he could make his picture, Coppola offered him a percentage that would have been about half of what Coppola would make out of the arrangement. Lucas refused the unfair deal and started developing his Star Wars project instead.
Coppola contacted Lucas the next year and offered him a chance to go ahead with the production, but Lucas was already elbow deep in Star Wars and could not back out at that point. Coppola insisted that the film be released around America’s bicentennial, a time that he thought the film could leave its strongest impression, so he went ahead with the project himself. On and off, Lucas had invested about six years of his life into the picture and ended up with just a couple points on the film’s profit. He has since said that he holds no grudges against Coppola for taking over Apocalypse Now, though their professional relationship has never been the same.
Budget: $31,500,000
Total US Gross: $78,800,000
Genre: War
Runtime: 153 Minutes
US Release Date: 8/15/79
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Awards:
Academy Awards:
Won for best cinematography and best sound.
Nominated for best art direction/set decoration, best editing, best screenplay based on previous material, best director, best supporting actor, and best picture.
Golden Globes:
Won for best score, best supporting actor, and best director.
Nominated for best dramatic picture.
Cannes Film Festival:
Won the FIPRESCI Prize and the Golden Palm.
Directors Guild of America:
Nominated for the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures.
Writers Guild of America:
Nominated for Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen.
American Film Institute’s Top 100 Lists:
100 Years… 100 Movies (#28)
100 Years… 100 Movie Quotes (#12 – “I love the smell of napalm in the morning!”).
Tagline: none
Quote: “Everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted a mission, and for my sins they gave me one. Brought it up to me like room service. It was a real choice mission, and when it was over… I never wanted another.”
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