Apocalypse Now

Theatrical release poster by Bob Peak

***Apocalypse Now*** is a 1979 American epic war film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The screenplay, co-written by Coppola, John Milius and Michael Herr, is loosely based on the 1899 novella *Heart of Darkness* by Joseph Conrad, with the setting changed from late 19th-century Congo to the Vietnam War. The film follows a river journey from South Vietnam into Cambodia undertaken by Captain Willard (Martin Sheen), who is on a secret mission to assassinate Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a renegade Special Forces officer who is accused of murder and presumed insane. The ensemble cast also features Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne and Dennis Hopper.

Milius became interested in adapting *Heart of Darkness* for a Vietnam War setting in the late 1960s, and initially began developing the film with Coppola as producer and George Lucas as director. After Lucas became unavailable, Coppola took over directorial control, and was influenced by Werner Herzog's *Aguirre, the Wrath of God* (1972) in his approach to the material. Initially set to be a five-month shoot in the Philippines starting in March 1976, a series of problems lengthened it to over a year. These problems included expensive sets being destroyed by severe weather, Brando showing up on set overweight and completely unprepared, and Sheen having a breakdown and suffering a near-fatal heart attack on location. After photography was finally finished in May 1977, the release was postponed several times while Coppola edited over a million feet of film. Much of these difficulties are chronicled in the documentary *Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse* (1991).

*Apocalypse Now* was honored with the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered unfinished. When it was finally released on August 15, 1979, by 20th Century Fox, it performed well at the box office, grossing $40 million domestically and eventually over $100 million worldwide. Initial reviews were mixed; while Vittorio Storaro's cinematography was widely acclaimed, several critics found Coppola's handling of the story's major themes anticlimactic and intellectually disappointing. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Coppola), and Best Supporting Actor (Duvall); it went on to win Best Cinematography and Best Sound.

*Apocalypse Now* is today considered one of the greatest films ever made; for instance, it ranked 14th and 19th in *Sight & Sound*'s greatest films poll in 2012 and 2022 respectively. In 2000, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the U.S. Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

## Plot

This summary excludes events only seen in the Redux or the Final Cut.

During the Vietnam War, U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel Walter E. Kurtz has apparently gone insane and is waging a brutal guerrilla war against NVA and PLAF forces without permission from his commanders. At an outpost in Cambodia, he commands American and Montagnard troops, who see him as a demigod.

Burnt-out MACV-SOG operative Captain Benjamin L. Willard is summoned to I Field Force headquarters in Nha Trang. He is ordered to "terminate Kurtz's command... with extreme prejudice".

Ambivalent, 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. Before reaching the coastal mouth of the Nùng, they rendezvous with the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment—a helicopter-borne air assault unit commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore—to discuss safe passage. Kilgore is initially uncooperative as he has not received word about their mission through normal channels, but he becomes more engaged after discovering that Lance is a well-known surfer. The commander is an avid surfer himself and agrees to escort them through the Nùng's Viet Cong-held coastal mouth. The helicopter squadron, playing "Ride of the Valkyries" on loudspeakers, raids at dawn with a napalm strike. Before Kilgore can lure Lance out to surf on the newly conquered beach, Willard gathers the sailors to the PBR to continue their mission.

Tension arises as Willard believes himself in command of the PBR, while the Chief prioritizes routine patrol objectives over Willard's. Slowly making their way upriver, Willard partially reveals his mission to the Chief to assuage his concerns about why his mission should proceed. As Willard studies Kurtz's dossier, he is struck by the mid-career sacrifice Kurtz made by leaving a prestigious Pentagon assignment to join Special Forces, with no prospect of advancing beyond the rank of colonel.

At a remote U.S. Army outpost, Willard and Lance seek information on what is upriver and receive a dispatch bag containing official and personal mail. Unable to find any commanding officer, Willard orders the Chief to continue. 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 and has since joined Kurtz.

Lance activates a smoke grenade while under the influence of LSD, attracting enemy fire, and Mr. Clean is killed. Further upriver, Chief is impaled by a spear thrown by Montagnards and attempts to kill Willard by impaling him on the spear point protruding from his own chest before Willard subdues him. Willard reveals his mission to Chef, who is now in charge of the PBR.

The PBR arrives at Kurtz's outpost, an abandoned Angkor Empire temple compound teeming with Montagnards and strewn with corpses and severed heads. Willard, Chef and Lance are greeted by an American photojournalist, who praises Kurtz's genius. They encounter a near-catatonic Colby. Willard sets out with Lance to find Kurtz, leaving Chef with orders to call in an airstrike on the outpost if the two do not return.

In the camp, Willard is bound and brought before Kurtz in a darkened temple. Kurtz places Chef's severed head onto Willard's lap, preventing the airstrike. Willard is released and Kurtz lectures him on his theories of war, praising the ruthlessness of the Viet Cong. Kurtz discusses his family and asks that Willard tell his son about him after his death.

That night, as the Montagnards ceremonially slaughter a water buffalo, Willard attacks Kurtz with a machete. Mortally wounded, Kurtz utters "... The horror ... the horror  ..." and dies. All in the compound see Willard departing, carrying a collection of Kurtz's writings, and bow down to him. Willard gathers Lance, boards the PBR, and heads back down river, away from the now leaderless Montagnards.

## Cast

* Marlon Brando as Colonel Walter Kurtz, a highly decorated United States Army Special Forces officer with the 5th Special Forces Group who goes rogue. He runs his own military unit based in Cambodia and is feared as much by the U.S. military as by the North Vietnamese, Viet Cong and Khmer Rouge.
* Robert Duvall as Lieutenant Colonel William "Bill" Kilgore, commander of 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment and surfing fanatic. His character is a composite of several characters including Colonel John Stockton, General James F. Hollingsworth and George Patton IV, also a West Point officer whom Robert Duvall knew. Duvall reports that he was upset that a scene where Kilgore saves the life of a Vietnamese baby during the beach assault was cut by Coppola, as he felt that it added to the complexity of his character.
* Martin Sheen as U.S. Army Captain Benjamin Willard, a veteran assassin who is serving his third tour in Vietnam. The soldier who escorts him at the start of the film recites that Willard is from the 505th Battalion, of the elite 173rd Airborne Brigade, assigned to MACV-SOG. The opening scene—which features Willard staggering around his hotel room, culminating in him punching a mirror—was filmed on Sheen's 36th birthday when he was heavily intoxicated. The mirror that he broke was not a prop and caused his hand to bleed profusely, but he insisted on continuing the scene, despite Coppola's concerns. Sheen has said this performance where he writhes and smears himself in blood was spontaneous and was an exorcism of his longstanding alcoholism. Sheen's brother Joe Estevez stood in for Willard in some scenes and performed the character's voiceover narrations while his son Charlie appears in the film as an extra. Both went uncredited.
* Frederic Forrest as Engineman 3rd Class Jay "Chef" Hicks, a tightly wound former chef from New Orleans who is horrified by his surroundings.
* Albert Hall as Chief Petty Officer George Phillips. The Chief runs a tight ship and frequently clashes with Willard over authority.
* Sam Bottoms as Gunner's Mate 3rd Class Lance B. Johnson, a former professional surfer from Orange County, California. In the bridge scene, he mentions having taken LSD. As the film progresses Lance scene by scene becomes more and more strung out on drugs to the point that his grip on reality fades to almost nothing, and he becomes completely silent in the last act of the film. At the same time he becomes entranced by the Montagnard tribe and participates in the sacrifice ritual.
* Laurence Fishburne as Gunner's Mate 3rd Class Tyrone "Mr. Clean" Miller, the cocky seventeen-year-old South Bronx-born crewmember. Fishburne was only 14 when shooting began in March 1976, as he had lied about his age to get the role. The production took so long, he was 18 by the time of its release.
* Dennis Hopper as an American photojournalist, a manic disciple of Kurtz who greets Willard. According to the DVD commentary of *Redux*, the character is based on Sean Flynn, a famed news correspondent who disappeared in Cambodia in 1970. The character may also have been partially inspired by the British-Australian photojournalist Tim Page.
* G. D. Spradlin as Lieutenant General R. Corman, military intelligence (G-2), an authoritarian officer who fears Kurtz and wants him removed. The character is named after filmmaker Roger Corman, for whom Coppola had previously directed his early works.
* Jerry Ziesmer as Jerry, a mysterious man in civilian attire who sits in on Willard's initial briefing. His only line in the film is "terminate with extreme prejudice". Ziesmer was also the film's assistant director.
* Harrison Ford as Colonel G. Lucas, aide to Corman and a general information specialist who gives Willard his orders. The character is named for George Lucas, who had directed Ford in *American Graffiti* and *Star Wars*, and with whom Coppola had founded American Zoetrope in 1969.
* Scott Glenn as Captain Richard M. Colby, previously assigned Willard's current mission before he defected to Kurtz's private army and sent a message to his wife, intercepted by the U.S. Army, telling her that he was never coming back and to sell everything they owned, including their children.
* James Keane as Kilgore's Gunner, a man ready to battle to the tune of *Ride of the Valkyries*.
* Kerry Rossall as Mike from San Diego, a soldier who surfs against incoming attacks.
* Colleen Camp, Cynthia Wood and Linda Beatty as *Playboy* Playmates. Wood was the 1974 Playmate of the Year, and Beatty was the August 1976 Playmate of the Month.
* Bill Graham as Agent, the announcer in charge of the Playmates' show.
* Francis Ford Coppola (*cameo*) as a TV news director filming beach combat; he shouts "Don't look at the camera, go by like you're fighting!" Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro plays the cameraman by Coppola's side.
* R. Lee Ermey (*uncredited*) as a helicopter pilot. Ermey was himself a former USMC drill instructor and Vietnam War veteran, and later achieved fame for his role as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in the 1987 film *Full Metal Jacket*.

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