Apocalypse Now (1979)

Note Générale:

8,6/10   

Réalisateur:

Francis Ford Coppola

Scénaristes:

John Milius (screenplay) and
Francis Ford Coppola (screenplay) ...

Date de sortie:

15 août 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drame | Guerre

Accroche:

The Horror. . . The Horror. . .

Intrigue:

During the on-going Vietnam War, Captain Willard is sent on a dangerous mission into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade Green Beret who has set himself up as a God among a local tribe.

Plot Keywords:

Colonel | Jungle | Army | Boat | Vietnam

Récompenses:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 13 wins & 32 nominations

Avis des utilisateurs:

My All Time Favourite Movie

Ensemble

Marlon Brando	...	Colonel Walter E. Kurtz
Martin Sheen	...	Captain Benjamin L. Willard
Robert Duvall	...	Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore
Frederic Forrest	...	Jay 'Chef' Hicks
Sam Bottoms	...	Lance B. Johnson
Laurence Fishburne	...	Tyrone 'Clean' Miller (as Larry Fishburne)
Albert Hall	...	Chief Phillips
Harrison Ford	...	Colonel Lucas
Dennis Hopper	...	Photojournalist
G.D. Spradlin	...	General Corman
Jerry Ziesmer	...	Jerry, Civilian
Scott Glenn	...	Lieutenant Richard M. Colby
Bo Byers	...	MP Sergeant #1
James Keane	...	Kilgore's Gunner
Kerry Rossall	...	Mike from San Diego

Autre(s) titre(s):

Apocalypse Now Redux (International: English title) (longer version)

MPAA:

Rated R for disturbing violent images, language, sexual content and some drug use. (2001 director's cut)

Durée:

153 min | 202 min (Redux version)

Pays:

USA

Langue:

Anglais | Français | Vietnamien | Khmer

Couleur:

Couleur

Rapport de forme:

2,00 : 1

Son:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby Digital (Redux version) | Dolby (35 mm prints) | DTS (Redux version)

Classification:

USA:R (certificate no. 25751) | Canada:18 (Nova Scotia) (Redux version) | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia) (Redux version) | Canada:AA (Ontario) (Redux version) | Canada:AA (Ontario) (re-rating) (1992) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Canada:R (Nova Scotia/Ontario) (original rating) | Italy:VM14 | Hungary:16 | Italy:T (re-rating) (Redux version) | Philippines:R-18 | Brazil:14 (original version) | Brazil:16 (Redux version) | Argentina:18 | Australia:R | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Chile:18 | Finland:K-15 (Redux version) | Finland:K-16 (original rating) | France:-12 | Germany:16 (bw) (Redux version) | Iceland:16 | Ireland:18 | Israel:PG | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16 (Redux version) | Norway:15 (Redux version) | Norway:18 (original rating) | Peru:18 | Portugal:M/16 (Redux version) | Singapore:M18 (Redux version) (re-rating) | Singapore:R(A) (Redux version) | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 (Redux version) | UK:18 (re-rating) (1985) | UK:X (original rating) | West Germany:16

Lieux de tournage:

Philippines

Société:

Zoetrope Studios

Anecdotes:

John Milius originally wrote the script in 1969. It was then known as "The Psychedelic Soldier".

Goofs:

Continuité: After the helicopter carrying the wounded child leaves, Lance's clothing has changed from his Army fatigues to a pair of shorts (this is because of a scene cut from the original theatrical version in which Kilgore gives him a pair of shorts to surf in. The scene was restored in the Redux edition of the film.)

Guillemet:

[first lines]
Willard: [voiceover] Saigon... shit; I'm still only in Saigon... Every time I think I'm gonna wake up back in the jungle.
Willard: When I was home after my first tour, it was worse. I'd wake up and there'd be nothing. I hardly said a word to my wife, until I said "yes" to a divorce. When I was home after my first tour, it was worse.
[grabs at flying insect]
Willard: I'd wake up and there'd be nothing. I hardly said a word to my wife, until I said "yes" to a divorce. When I was here, I wanted to be there; when I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the jungle. I'm here a week now... waiting for a mission... getting softer. Every minute I stay in this room, I get weaker, and every minute Charlie squats in the bush, he gets stronger. Each time I looked around the walls moved in a little tighter.

Connexions:

Référencé sur Extreme Prejudice (1987)

Bande son:

Collection Musee de l'homme

My All Time Favourite Movie

I first saw APOCALYPSE NOW in 1985 when it was broadcast on British television for the first time . I was shell shocked after seeing this masterpiece and despite some close competition from the likes of FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING this movie still remains my all time favourite nearly 20 years after I first saw it

This leads to the problem of how I can even begin to comment on the movie . I could praise the technical aspects especially the sound , editing and cinematography but everyone else seems to have praised ( Rightly too ) these achievements to high heaven while the performances in general and Robert Duvall in particular have also been noted , and everyone else has mentioned the stark imagery of the Dou Long bridge and the montage of the boat traveling upriver after passing through the border

How about the script ? Francis Ford Coppola is best known as a director but he's everyway a genius as a screenwriter as he was as a director , I said " was " in the past tense because making this movie seems to have burned out every creative brain cell in his head , but his sacrifice was worth it . In John Milius original solo draft we have a script that's just as insane and disturbing as the one on screen , but Coppola's involvement in the screenplay has injected a narrative that exactly mirrors that of war . Check how the screenplay starts off all jingoistic and macho with a star turn by Bill Kilgore who wouldn't have looked out of place in THE GREEN BERETS but the more the story progresses the more shocking and insane everything becomes , so much so that by the time reaches Kurtz outpost the audience are watching another film in much the same way as the characters have sailed into another dimension . When Coppola states " This movie isn't about Vietnam - It is Vietnam " he's right . What started off as a patriotic war to defeat communist aggression in the mid 1960s had by the film's setting ( The Manson trial suggests it's 1970 ) had changed America's view of both the world and itself and of the world's view of America

It's the insane beauty of APOCALYPSE NOW that makes it a masterwork of cinema and says more in its running time about the brutality of conflict and the hypocrisy of politicians ( What did you do in the Vietnam War Mr President ? ) than Michael Moore could hope to say in a lifetime . I've not seen the REDUX version but watching the original print I didn't feel there was anything missing from the story which like all truly great films is very basic . In fact the premise can lend itself to many other genres like a western where an army officer has to track down and kill a renegade colonel who's leading an injun war party , or a sci-fi movie where a UN assassin is to eliminate a fellow UN soldier who's leading a resistance movement on Mars , though this is probably down to Joseph Conrad's original source novel

My all time favourite movie and it's very fitting that I chose this movie to be my one thousandth review at the IMDb