Apocalypse Now

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Template:Infobox Film

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, the film tells the story of a taciturn American soldier who 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.

Contents

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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 Air Force 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 some of the long shots 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. Recent rumors have persisted that Coppola is considering releasing the true original cut on DVD, but there has been no fruition or confirmation of this.) For background information on the film, see Eleanor Coppola's documentary, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, released in 1991.

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Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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 "terminate...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 Mekong River on a PBR (Patrol Boat, Riverine), 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.

Image:Apocalype Now Huey.jpg

The PBR arrives at a Landing Zone where Willard and the crew meet up with Lt. Colonel Bill Kilgore, the eccentric 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, Mike, 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 between 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.

Image:Apocalypse Now Smell Like Victory.jpg

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. Kurtz explains his motives and philosophy in a famous and haunting monologue:

I've seen horrors... horrors that you've seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that... but you have no right to judge me. It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror. Horror has a face... and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies. I remember when I was with Special Forces. Seems a thousand centuries ago. We went into a camp to inoculate the children. We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for Polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn't see. We went back there and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile. A pile of little arms. And I remember... I... I... I cried. I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want to forget.
And then I realized... like I was shot... like I was shot with a diamond... a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought: My God... the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we. Because they could stand that these were not monsters. These were men... trained cadres. These men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love... but they had the strength... the strength... to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral... and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling... without passion... without judgment... without judgment.

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 water buffalo, Willard enters Kurtz's chamber during one of his message recordings, and kills him with a machete (This entire sequence is set to "The End" by The Doors). 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 as Kurtz's final words echo in the wind as the screen fades to black.

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Redux

In 2001 Coppola released Apocalypse Now: Redux on DVD, an extended version that restores 49 minutes of scenes that were cut from the original film. The major additions are:

  • A scene in which Willard's team steals Kilgore's surfboard as they begin their journey up the river.
  • In a follow-up scene to the dance of the Playboy playmates, Willard's team finds the playmates awaiting evacuation after their helicopter has crashed. Some of the soldiers talk to the playmates, and try to sleep with or photograph them. One of the playmates tells her life story, revealing her feelings of shame and exploitation.
  • After the death of Mr. Clean, the team encounters a French rubber plantation, a hangover from the French colonization of Vietnam. They bury Mr. Clean and later have an elegant and proper dinner where the French and Willard discuss the origins of the war. Afterward, Willard sleeps with a French woman.
  • At Kurtz's base, Kurtz reads from a Time magazine article about the war, surrounded by Vietnamese children. This is the only scene in which Kurtz appears in daylight.

The Redux cut polarized audiences to a greater degree than the original version with several of the film's admirers criticizing it as overlong and that it added little to the original. Template:Fact Coppola himself continues the circulation of the original version.

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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 70 mm release, ends with no credits, and shows the boat pulling away. This mirrors the lack of any opening titles, and supposedly stems from Coppola's original intention to "tour" the film as one would a play, with the credits appearing on programmes provided. Another version, for the 35 mm wide release, rolls the credits (in silence) while the Kurtz compound is destroyed in what must be assumed was an air strike (in actuality, this was apparently the destruction of the set at the end of shooting). Yet another version ends silently, without the explosions, and the credits roll over a black background. Finally, the credits to Apocalypse Now: Redux are essentially conventional, with music over a black background.

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Themes

Apocalypse Now is a thematically rich film. The primary motif of the film is that of Heart of Darkness, i.e., an odyssey into the darkness of humanity.

Willard's constant narration gives us a glimpse into his fractured psychological state particularly in the opening scenes where he lies in his bed and stares blankly into the ceiling. He relates that he is on his second tour of duty and that he returned because he was unable to re-integrate himself into civilian life.

Saigon... shit; I'm still only in Saigon... Every time I think I'm gonna wake up back in the jungle. When I was home after my first tour, it was worse. I'd wake up and there'd be nothing. I hardly said a word to my wife, until I said "yes" to a divorce. When I was here, I wanted to be there; when I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the jungle. I'm here a week now... waiting for a mission... getting softer; every minute I stay in this room, I get weaker, and every minute Charlie squats in the bush, he gets stronger. Each time I looked around, the walls moved in a little tighter.

This chilling monologue besides suggesting how man is connected to war is also an allusion to post traumatic stress disorder, a condition common to many Vietnam veterans. Willard's quest for Kurtz's compound parallels Kurtz's own descent into madness. He never tells his fellow shipmates of the PBR the true purpose of the mission and in a chilling scene, after his crew massacres people sailing on a sampan, Willard murders the surviving girl. Kurtz, who was a committed family man and a highly respected colonel, is driven insane after witnessing a vile incident committed by his enemies while on a peacekeeping mission. He realised that he can never win the war unless he surrenders his morality and kill without judgment. For Kurtz, this action drove him insane and so he gathered other disillusioned soldiers and started a bizarre civilization in the Cambodian forest.

This is a subtle allusion to the bureaucracy that directs soldiers in the war. The bureaucrats propagandized the Vietnam War as a just cause to save the world from the evil of Communism.

The general public and several Vietnam war veterans fiercely condemned the war and believed that the government lied and misled the public. Even Willard who is assigned the mission is cynical about it from the beginning:

Charging a man with murder in this place was like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The climax at Kurtz's compound is the most confusing and the most frequently debated aspect of the film. Several critics believe it to be an anticlimax after the earlier more action-oriented scenes and also the fact that it differs greatly from other war films in that there's no final battle scenario.

Roger Ebert in his original review defends the ending:

Coppola doesn't have an ending, if we or he expected the closing scenes to pull everything together and make sense of it. Nobody should have been surprised. "Apocalypse Now" doesn't tell any kind of a conventional story, doesn't have a thought-out message for us about Vietnam, has no answers, and thus needs no ending. The way the film ends now, with Brando's fuzzy, brooding monologues and the final violence, feels much more satisfactory than any conventional ending possibly could.

When Willard arrives, he is captured and put into containment as he is 'interrogated' by Kurtz who lectures and drones on about his philosophies. While other interpretations exist, it can be assumed that Kurtz wishes to die a soldier's death and has been waiting for his death. But his followers refuse to kill him and Colby (Scott Glenn) who was sent to kill him ended up joining his 'tribe'. He wishes or rather hopes that Willard would be able to do so. Willard, at first does not want to as he too is converted by Kurtz's beliefs but after Kurtz's monologue and his statement on judgment, Willard understands Kurtz's desire and so decides to complete his mission by subverting his moral judgment and justifies it to himself

Everybody wanted me to do it, him most of all. I felt like he was up there, waiting for me to take the pain away. He just wanted to go out like a soldier, standing up, not like some poor, wasted, rag-assed renegade. Even the jungle wanted him dead, and that's who he really took his orders from anyway.

The 'jungle' is seen as a metaphor to nature or more specifically man's human nature. After killing Kurtz, Willard is revered by the denizens of Kurtz's tribe but he instead leaves suggesting that perhaps he is capable of escaping the horror of war.

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Responses

Apocalypse Now premiered in 1979 to mixed reviews and received polarized responses from the audiences. It is said that it was as lauded as it was reviled. Many critics slammed the film, calling it overly pretentious, while others felt that it ended anticlimatically after a splendid first act.

Roger Ebert, who hailed it as the best film of 1979 and added it to his list of Great Movies stated:

"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."

Today, the film is regarded by many as a masterpiece of the New Hollywood era. It is on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list at number 28. Kilgore's quote "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" was number 12 on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes list. Sight and Sound magazine polled several critics to name the best film of the last 25 years and Apocalypse Now was named number 1.

The catastrophic production of the film unfortunately made it symbol of the dangers of excessive directorial control over a film. The production was said to have taken a toll on Coppola, both mentally and emotionally. To many cinephiles, Apocalypse Now is the last great film of a legendary director whose subsequent films have failed to match it in quality.

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Adaptation

Although inspired by Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, the film deviates extensively from it. The novel takes place in the Belgian Congo in the 19th century; Kurtz and Marlow (who is named Willard in the movie) are commercial agents of a Belgian ivory company that brutally exploits its African native workers. In the novel, Marlow is sent to bring the ailing Kurtz home; in the movie, Willard is sent to kill Kurtz.

The character of Kilgore is an invention of the screenwriters. Nevertheless, Coppola has maintained many episodes (the spear and arrow attack on the boat, for example) that respect 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]

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Influence

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

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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. Martin Sheen, appearing once again as Willard, 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.
  • In Jarhead, shortly before "Swoff" and the guys are sent into action, they are watching Apocalypse Now in a theater inside the base, singing along and interacting with the infamous helicopter attack scene, much in the way one would at a Rocky Horror Picture Show screening. Oddly enough, Walter Murch was editor/sound designer for both Apocalypse Now & Jarhead.
  • In Back to the Future Part II, right after Marty meets up with Doc and the police take Jennifer away, you can see a sign behind them reading "Surf Vietnam."
  • In the 1998 film Rushmore, there are multiple references to Apocalypse Now in a play put on by protagonist Max Fischer. Taking place in Vietnam, the play he puts on depicts soldiers running off with surfboards.
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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. Also in episode where Homer's long lost mother returns as a fugitive, Monty Burns hunts her down in a tank. He eagerly puts on a tape blaring out "Ride of the Valkyries" mimicking the helicopter scene in "Apocalypse Now". In another episode, "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore" Homer is relocated to India, where he assumes the role of a god. When Marge Lisa Mr Burns and Bart go to retrieve him, The End plays, mimicing the river journey in Apocalypse Now.
  • 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 janitor's 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 beginning, the beginning of our story, the beginning." He does the same for the middle and end of the episode.
  • "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man," an X-Files episode features a flashback scene where "the Cigarette Smoking Man" is tasked with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The scene has many things similar or identical to the Scene where Willard is tasked with the assassination 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"
  • In a sketch in Alas Smith and Jones, Mel Smith sits in a darkened room and expresses philosophies similar to that of Kurtz at length to a man who has been sent to find him, at the end of the sketch Griff Rhys Jones switches on the light to reveal that they are in fact sitting in a rather mundane bathroom with Smith sitting in the bath. Jones (a fairly dull tax inspector perched on the toilet) reveals that he is merely investigating Smith for Child benefit fraud.
  • A special presidential election show of "Dead Ringers" parodies the plot of "Apocalypse Now"
  • An Australian television comedy program that used greek stereotypes for most of its jokes was title "Acropolyse Now".
  • In the television drama Invasion one of the characters Sherrif Tom Underlay (William Fichtner) awakes in a hospital after being shot. The doctor enters and asks him to repeat the words "Snail, Razor, Napalm" an obvious nod to Apocalypse Now and Kurtz's quote in particular.
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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."
  • The band Sodom uses the full quote, including "smells like... victory" in their song "Napalm in the Morning".
  • The band Ministry uses a sample of Dennis Hopper saying "Alright, it's alright" on their song "N.W.O."
  • Additionally, the guitar sample at the end of Ministry's "N.W.O." is taken from the Soundtrack of Apocalypse Now. It is the music playing on a tape player owned by "Roach", one of the soldiers in the Bridge scene.
  • The band The Clash's song "Charlie Don't Surf" from their album Sandinista! derives its title and concept from the movie.
  • The band Milhaven samples extensively from Kurtz's monologue at the end of the film in their song "Drink a Pint of Blood a Day."
  • Jedi Mind Tricks use a few clips on their CD release Violent By Design.
  • 2Pacalypse Now was rapper Tupac Shakur's debut album, released in November 1991.
  • The Dead Milkmen song "Beach Party Vietnam" is a parody of the surfing scene, and the Vietnam War in general.
  • Fall Silent incorporates a clip of Marlow's "The Horror...the horror" in their song entitled "The Great White Death."
  • UK Goth/dance band Shriekback used samples of Kurtz' monologue in their 1985 single, "Nemesis".
  • The album Fancy by Idiot Flesh quotes the film several times, along with referencing several of Joseph Conrad's works. The Hollow Men, a T.S. Elliot poem quoted in the film, is turned into a song at one point (complete with a man saying at the beginning "Mistah Kurtz, he dead."). The very end of the album has an audio sample of the film with the photojournalist stating "And with a whimper, I'm fucking splitting, Jack!"
  • Radio transmissions from end of movie when Willard leaves on a boat ("PBR Streetgang, do you copy?") are sampled in tune "Jailbreak" by Paradox
  • In The Beach Richard dismisses those tourists who visit Thailand only to indulge in their own culture. This is against a backdrop of Apocolypse Now in a cinema.
  • On the track "Incubus" by Recoil from the album "Unsound Methods" (Mute 1997), Douglas McCarthy (from Nitzer Ebb) speaks parts of the Willard opening voiceover during the track. The original demo used dialogue direct from the film, but Recoil was not given sample rights. McCarthy does his best - and impressive - Martin Sheen inpersonation.
  • The quote, "I've seen horrors... horrors that you've seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that... but you have no right to judge me. It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror. Horror has a face... and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies." is used by the metalcore band Poison the Well on their album Tear From the Red. The song is titled "Karsey Street".
  • The band GWAR sampled parts of Kurtz' monologue in the song "Horror of Yig" from the album titled Scumdogs Of The Universe.
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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.
  • In a homage to the infamous village attack scene, the computer game "Battlefield Vietnam" offers up "Ride of the Valkyries" as a song to be played while inside helicopters and other vehicles. One of the maps in the game even features a village modeled after the very same scene.
  • 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).
  • In StarCraft, one of the Firebat's quotes is "I love the smell of napalm." The Firebats are flamethrower wielding infantry.
  • In Soldier of Fortune 2, the main character is extracted from the Columbian Jungle at one point by an army helicopter. The pilot asks your character to man the door machine gun for the trip back and begins playing "Ride of the Valkyries". This only lasts a few seconds before a bullet knocks out the radio.
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Literature

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Primary cast

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Academy Awards

Award Person
Academy Award for Best Cinematography Vittorio Storaro
Academy Award for Sound Richard Beggs
Mark Berger
Nathan Boxer
Walter Murch
Nominated:
Best Actor in a Supporting Role Robert Duvall
Best Picture Francis Ford Coppola
Fred Roos
Gray Frederickson
Tom Sternberg
Best Director Francis Ford Coppola
Academy Award for Best Art Direction - Set Decoration Dean Tavoularis
Angelo P. Graham
George R. Nelson
Academy Award for Film Editing Richard Marks
Walter Murch
Gerald B. Greenberg
Lisa Fruchtman
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium Francis Ford Coppola
John Milius

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 Now did not win the Best Picture Oscar in 1979 due to the fact that another Vietnam 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, Kramer vs. Kramer.

Award nominations:

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Quotes

  • "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
  • "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
  • "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? Bullshit!" - The photojournalist to Willard, on how Kurtz will be remembered
  • "Never get out of the boat!" - Chef
  • "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 after it was done, I'd never want another." - Willard
  • "Tear 'em in half with a machine-gun and then give 'em a Band-Aid." - Willard
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Trivia

  • Boat which carried Willard and crew on their mission was called "PBR Streetgang"
  • Sheen had a heart attack during filming. He made a full recovery and filming resumed some weeks later.
  • Dennis Hopper's character quotes from Rudyard Kipling's poem If- when he says; "If you can keep your head when all about you/Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;/If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you." He goes on to quote T. S. Eliot's early poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock when he says "I should have been a pair of ragged claws, scuttling across the floors of silent seas."
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External links

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de:Apocalypse Now es:Apocalypse Now fa:اینک آخرالزمان fr:Apocalypse Now he:אפוקליפסה עכשיו io:Apocalypse Now it:Apocalypse Now ja:地獄の黙示録 nl:Apocalypse Now no:Apokalypse nå! pl:Czas Apokalipsy pt:Apocalypse Now ru:Апокалипсис сегодня (фильм) sk:Apokalypsa (film) sv:Apocalypse zh:现代启示录

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