Apocalypse Now

« My film is not on Vietnam... my film is Vietnam. » (Francis Ford Coppola)

LIGHTS AND SHADES OF THE SOUL: APOCALYPSE NOW


Apocalypse Now is a 1979 drama movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

It tells a fictional (made-up) story that takes place during the Vietnam War. It tells the story of an Army Captain who is sent on a boat deep into the jungle to capture a Special Forces colonel who has gone insane.

It was partly based on Joseph Conrad's novel about colonialism, Heart of Darkness.

Plot
U.S. Army Captain Benjamin L. Willard has returned to 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: go 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 allegedly gone insane and is commanding a legion of his own Montagnard troops deep inside the forest in neutral Cambodia.
Their claims are supported by very disturbing radio broadcasts and/or recordings made by Kurtz himself. Willard is ordered 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.

After arriving at Kurtz' outpost, 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 philosophical skills to provoke his people into following him.

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.

Lying bloody and dying on the ground, Kurtz whispers "The horror... the horror," a line taken directly from Conrad's novella.


Cast:



• Martin Sheen as Captain Benjamin L. Willard

• Marlon Brando as Colonel Walter E. Kurtz

• Robert Duvall as Lieutenant Colonel William Kilgore

• Harrison Ford as Colonel Lucas

• Dennis Hopper as American Photojournalist