Apocalypse Now

Theatrical Release Date: 1979 08 15 (USA)

UPC: 031398126201

Studio: Lionsgate

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Nudity, Not For Children, Profanity, Sexual Situations, Drug Content, War Violence]

Summary: One of a cluster of late-1970s films about the Vietnam War, Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now adapts the Joseph Conrad novella Heart of Darkness to depict the war as a descent into primal madness. Capt. Willard (Martin Sheen), already on the edge, is assigned to find and deal with AWOL Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), rumored to have set himself up in the Cambodian jungle as a local, lethal godhead. Along the way Willard encounters napalm and Wagner fan Col. Kilgore (Robert Duvall), draftees who prefer to surf and do drugs, a USO Playboy Bunny show turned into a riot by the raucous soldiers, and a jumpy photographer (Dennis Hopper) telling wild, reverent tales about Kurtz. By the time Willard sees the heads mounted on stakes near Kurtz's compound, he knows Kurtz has gone over the deep end, but it is uncertain whether Willard himself now agrees with Kurtz's insane dictum to "Drop the Bomb. Exterminate them all." Coppola himself was not certain either, and he tried several different endings between the film's early rough-cut screenings for the press, the Palme d'Or-winning "work-in-progress" shown at Cannes, and the final 35 mm U.S. release (also the ending on the video cassette). The chaotic production also experienced shut-downs when a typhoon destroyed the set and star Sheen suffered a heart attack; the budget ballooned and Coppola covered the overages himself. These production headaches, which Coppola characterized as being like the Vietnam War itself, have been superbly captured in the documentary, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. Despite the studio's fears and mixed reviews of the film's ending, Apocalypse Now became a substantial hit and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Duvall's psychotic Kilgore, and Best Screenplay. It won Oscars for sound and for Vittorio Storaro's cinematography. This hallucinatory, Wagnerian project has produced admirers and detractors of equal ardor; it resembles no other film ever made, and its nightmarish aura and polarized reception aptly reflect the tensions and confusions of the Vietnam era. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Category: War

Awards: Best Picture – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – British Academy of Film and Television Arts 100 Greatest American Movies – American Film Institute Best Director – Directors Guild of America Best Picture - Drama – null Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – null Best Director – null Best Original Score – null Best Original Score – null Best Adapted Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Adapted Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Art Direction – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Art Direction – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Art Direction – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Cinematography – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Palme d'Or – Cannes Film Festival Best Picture – National Board of Review Film Presented – Telluride Film Festival Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Original Score – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Director – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Supporting Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Original Score – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Supporting Actor – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Supporting Actor – National Society of Film Critics

Features: Audio commentary with Francis Ford Coppola
"A conversation with Martin Sheen and Francis Ford Coppola"
"An interview with John Milius" by Francis Ford Coppola
"Fred Roos: casting apocalypse"
Never-before-seen complete Francis Ford Coppola interview with Roger Ebert and the 2001 cannes film festival
Original 1938 mercury theate recording of "heart of darkness," featuring Orson Welles
"Monkey sampan" lost scene
"Destruction of the kurtz compound" end credits with audio commentary by Francis Ford Coppola
"The hallow men," video of Marlon Brando readin TS Eliot's poem
"The birth of 5.1 sound"
Additional scenes:
"Ghost helicopter flyover" sound effects demonstration
"A million feet of film: the editing of Apocalypse Now"
"The music of Apocalypse Now"
"The synthesizer soundtrack" article by music synthesizer inventor Bob Moog
"Heard any good movies lately? the sound design of Apocalypse Now"
"The final mix"
"Apocalypse then and now"
"The color palette of Apocalypse Now"
"Pbr streetgang"
Bd touch and metamenu remote enabled for iphone/ipod/ipad interactivity

Apocalypse Now

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 10/19/2010

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Cinemascope

Audio: DHMA null

Runtime: 202 Minutes

Sides: 2

Number of Discs: 2

Language(s) English

Subtitles: English,Spanish,French

Mark Deming

Filmmaking masterpieces are often products of fate rather than design, and while Francis Ford Coppola's fierce ambition to create a great work of art is obvious in Apocalypse Now, the same ambition often threatens to crush the picture under its own weight. Apocalypse Now is an elaborate but often haphazard construction that starts to run out of gas at the three-quarter point without delivering a satisfying ending, and Marlon Brando's often lackadaisical performance as Col. Kurtz never lives up to the massive buildup the story gives it. And yet there are moments as powerful as anything Coppola (or anyone else) ever put on screen, and there are enough of them to make the film a flawed but unmistakable triumph. The air attack set to Wagner's The Ride of the Valkyries and the Battle at Do Lung Bridge capture the terror and madness of war as few films have, and the further Capt. Willard (Martin Sheen) and his men travel up the river, the deeper they are drawn into a surreal nightmare where right and wrong, danger and security, past and present, have begun to blur. Coppola also drew a superb performance from Martin Sheen as Willard; a fine but inconsistent actor, Sheen rarely had a role as good as Willard, and he rises to the occasion. There's also excellent supporting work from Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, G.D. Spradlin, and particularly Albert Hall, who, as Chief, has the burden of being the sole unambiguously disciplined and dedicated soldier in the film. Coppola was famously quoted as saying "This isn't a film about Viet Nam, this film is Viet Nam." If, like that war, Apocalypse Now doesn't quite achieve its objective, it comes close enough to stand as Coppola's last great film. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Cast and Crew: R. Lee Ermey  Actor 
Marc Coppola  Actor 
Ron McQueen  Actor 
George Canters  Actor 
Damien Leake  Actor 
Vittorio Storaro  Actor 
Jerry Ross  Actor 
Bo Byers  Actor 
Scott Glenn  Actor 
Glenn Walken  Actor 
Kerry Rossall  Actor 
Colleen Camp  Actor 
James Keane  Actor 
Jerry Ziesmer  Actor 
Linda Carpenter  Actor 
Tom Mason  Actor 
Jack Thibeau  Actor 
Herb Rice  Actor 
George Cantero  Actor 
Carmine Coppola  Composer (Music Score) 
Francis Ford Coppola  Director 
Francis Ford Coppola  Producer 
Francis Ford Coppola  Screenwriter 
Michael Herr  Screenwriter 
John Milius  Screenwriter 
Martin Sheen  Actor 
Marlon Brando  Actor 
Robert Duvall  Actor 
Frederic Forrest  Actor 
Dennis Hopper  Actor 
Samuel Bottoms  Actor 
Albert Hall  Actor 
Laurence Fishburne  Actor 
Harrison Ford  Actor 
G.D. Spradlin  Actor 
Bill Graham  Actor 
Cynthia Wood  Actor 
Francis Ford Coppola  Actor 

Country: USA