HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola 1979) A film that is as infamous for its troubled production as it is for its epic scale, Apocalypse Now sort of rewrote the book on that a war movie could be with its surreal and hallucinatory imagery and was an immensely ambitious and truly unique film. Loosely adapted from the book Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Francis Ford Coppola and John Milius changed the setting from colonial Africa to war-torn Vietnam but stuck to the books underlying themes of madness and the duality of man. The film follows Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) as he is sent deep into the Cambodian jungle to kill a Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who has gone AWOL and is rumoured to have lost his mind. Willard and his crew, which consists of “Chief” (Albert Hall), Lance (Sam Bottoms), “Chef” (Frederic Forrest) and “Mr. Clean” (Lawrence Fishburne), first meet up with Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall) who clears the river mouth with his troops and escorts them to their River Patrol Boat. From there, the men start their long journey along the Nung river, deeper into jungle and the madness of war. Along the way, they are attacked by the indigenous people, make a stop at an American camp where a Playboy Bunny show is being staged for the soldiers and finally arrive at Kurtzs camp. There they meet a manic photographer (Dennis Hopper), who thinks that Kurtz is a genius and find out that the Colonel has been living a god-like and brutal existence amongst the natives. Despite its lengthy and trouble-ridden production process and going way over budget, Apocalypse Now became both a critical and financial hit when it finally appeared in theaters in 1979. The film was first shown at Cannes where, despite it being labelled a “work in progress”, it won the Palme dOr and went on to receive eight Academy Award nominations upon its release in the United States, ultimately only winning two for Best Cinematography and Best sound. Both Francis Ford Coppola and Robert Duvall won Golden Globes as well as BAFTA awards for Best Direction and Best Supporting Actor. A landmark in cinema and a perfect representation of the madness of war, Apocalypse Now ranks amongst the best films ever made. https://youtube/watch?v=snDR7XsSkB4
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 10:45:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015