Review: Film: Apocalypse Now, by Julie Renee Phelan

Thumps from 1 to 5: Thumps of 4.5

This film “Apocalypse Now” has a release date of 1979. It is a war movie set in Vietnam. This film is inspired by a novel “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad.The movie stars Martin Sheen, playing Captain Benjamin L. Willard, Marlon Brando, playing Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, Robert Duvall, playing Lieutenant Colonel William "Bill" Kilgore, Sam Bottoms, playing Gunner's Mate 3rd Class Lance B. Johnson, Frederic Forrest, playing Engineman 3rd Class Jay "Chef" Hicks, Laurence Fishburne, playing Gunner's Mate 3rd Class Tyrone "Mr. Clean" Miller, Albert Hall, playing Chief Quartermaster George Phillips, G.D. Spradlin, playing Lieutenant General Corman, Dennis Hopper, playing an American Photojournalist, Harrison Ford, playing Colonel Lucas, Scott Glenn, playing Captain Richard M. Colby, Cynthia Wood, playing Playmate of the Year, Colleen Camp, playing Playmate, "Miss May," Linda Carpenter, playing Playmate, "Miss August" and Francis Coppola, playing himself.

“Apocalypse Now” received two Academy Awards for Best Cinematography by Vittorio Storaro, and for Best Sound, by Walter Murch, Mark Berger, Richard Beggs, and Nathan Boxer. This film was nominated for eight Academy Awards for Best Picture by Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Roos, Gray Frederickson and Tom Sternberg, for Best Supporting Actor by Robert Duvall, for Best Art Direction — Set Decoration by Angelo P. Graham, George R. Nelson and Dean Tavoularis, for Directing by Francis Ford Coppola, for Film Editing by Lisa Fruchtman, Gerald B. Greenberg, Richard Marks and Walter Murch, for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, by Francis Ford Coppola and John Milius.

“Apocalypse Now” begins with film found by Francis Ford Coppola in the garbage can in the editing room. This film begins with an explosion and The Doors song “The End.” The film introduces Captain Benjamin L. Willard, played by Martin Sheen, a deeply disturbed special operations veteran, assassin. Two intelligence officers, Lt. General Corman, G. D. Spradlin, Colonel Hardy, Harrison Ford, and a government man, approach Capitan Willard with an assignment. The assignment is to go up the fictional Nung River on a boat into the remote Cambodian jungle to find Colonel Walter E. Kurtz , played by Marlon Brando, a member of the US Army Special Forces, and terminate his command “with extreme prejudice.”

The United States government tells Willard that Kurtz, once considered a model officer and future general, has gone insane and is commanding a legion of his own Montagnard troops deep inside the forest in neutral Cambodia. Their claims are supported by a disturbing radio broadcasts and recordings made by Kurtz.

However, Colonel Walter E. Kurtz is not insane. Colonel Kurtz is the only sane United States military personnel in Vietnam or Cambodia. Kurtz simply displays and projects the insanity of war without lies, misinformation, hidden truths and deception. At the end, Kurtz capsulate the outcome of war with a whisper “The horror... the horror.”