Apocalypse Now (1979)

I’ve always heard about this movie since it was re-released in 2001 as an extended version. But I’ve only seen the theatrical version of Director Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 Vietnam War epic drama APOCALYPSE NOW. Written by Coppola and John Milius (director of CONAN THE BARBARIAN and RED DAWN), the film tells the story of two US Army Special Operations officers, one of whom, MACV-SOG Captain Benjamin L. Willard (Martin Sheen –Gettysburg, TV’s “The West Wing”, The Departed), is sent along with an eclectic group of Navy PBRs to the jungles of Cambodia to assassinate the other officer, the rogue and presumably insane Special Forces Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando – The Godfather, A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront). The film also stars Frederic Forrest (Falling Down) as the tightly-wound New Orleans native Engineman 3rd class Jay “Chef” Hicks, Sam Bottoms (The Outlaw Josey Wales) as drugged up California native Gunner’s Mate 3rd Class and former professional surfer Lance B. Johnson, Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix), who was fourteen years old and lied about his age when he got cast to play the cocky seventeen year old Bronx, NY native Gunner’s Mate 1st Class Tyrone “Mr. Clean” Miller, Albert Hall (Rookie of the Year) as Chief Quartermaster George Phillips, Robert Duvall (The Godfather) as 1st Squadron, 9th Air Cavalry Regiment commander and surfing fanatic Lt. Colonel William “Bill” Kilgore, Dennis Hopper (Easy Rider) as a crazed American photojournalist, G.D. Spradlin (The Godfather Part II) as Military Intelligence Lt. General Corman, Scott Glenn (Backdraft) as Captain Richard M. Colby, with R. Lee Ermey (Full Metal Jacket) as a helicopter pilot, and Harrison Ford (the Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies) as Military Intelligence officer Colonel Lucas. I’ve seen other Vietnam War films such as PLATOON and BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, but thought this film was both very visual and made me feel like I was at that war. The scene I really enjoyed was when we see both Sheen and Brando’s characters for the first time as Brando says “You’re neither. You’re an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill”. Out of all the actors, I really enjoyed both Hopper and Brando’s performances. I also thought that Brando played a really scary looking character, especially when he looks at Sheen as he’s wearing war paint all over his face and head. I’m used to seeing Laurence Fishburne in movies, such as THE MATRIX, RED HEAT, and ARMORED, but I thought it was so weird seeing him in this film as a young 14 year old kid. Harvey Keitel was originally to be played as Willard, but was replaced by Sheen after the first two weeks of shooting. The shooting of this film in the Philippines was a nightmare. It was originally to be a six week shoot, but ended up for 16 month from March 1976 to June 1977. Why? Because there were problems such as Brando showing up to the set overweight, Sheen having a heart attack and struggled for a quarter of a mile to reach help, and the 1976 Typhoon Olga destroying several sets that caused filming to be delayed for several months. For the next two years, the release date for the film was delayed several times, till it was finally released on August 15th, 1979. Performing well at the box office with $322,489 the first five days, then later grossed over grossed over $78 million domestically with a worldwide total of approximately $150 million. To end this review, I thought APOCALYPSE NOW was an entertaining and well-crafted film that Francis Ford Coppola made. And if you haven’t seen it, then I recommend for you.