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Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic war film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The screenplay, co-written by Coppola, John Milius, and Michael Herr, is loosely based on the 1899 novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, with the setting changed from late 19th-century Congo to the Vietnam War. The film follows a river journey from South Vietnam into Cambodia undertaken by Captain Willard (Martin Sheen), who is on a secret mission to assassinate Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a renegade Special Forces officer who is accused of murder and presumed insane. The ensemble cast also features Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne and Dennis Hopper. Harrison Ford, who at the time of filming was not yet a major star, appears in a minor role. Milius became interested in adapting Heart of Darkness for a Vietnam War setting in the late 1960s, and initially began developing the film with Coppola as producer and George Lucas as director. After Lucas became unavailable, Coppola took over directorial control, and was influenced by Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) in his approach to the material. Initially set to be a five-month shoot in the Philippines starting in March 1976, a series of problems lengthened it to over a year. These problems included expensive sets being destroyed by severe weather, Brando showing up on set overweight and completely unprepared, and Sheen having a breakdown and suffering a near-fatal heart attack on location. After photography was finally finished in May 1977, the release was postponed several times while Coppola edited over a million feet of film. Many of these difficulties are chronicled in the documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991). Apocalypse Now was honored with the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered unfinished. When it was finally released on August 15, 1979, by United Artists, it performed well at the box office, grossing over $80 million in the United States and Canada and over $100 million worldwide. Initial reviews were polarized; while Vittorio Storaro's cinematography was widely acclaimed, several critics found Coppola's handling of the story's major themes anticlimactic and intellectually disappointing. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Coppola), and Best Supporting Actor (Duvall); it went on to win Best Cinematography and Best Sound. Apocalypse Now is today considered one of the greatest films ever made; it ranked 14th and 19th in Sight & Sound's greatest films poll in 2012 and 2022 respectively. Film critic Kyle Smith dubbed it "the greatest war movie ever made", while The Guardian called it "the best action and war film of all time." In 2000, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the U.S. Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". Plot In 1969 during the Vietnam War, jaded MACV-SOG operative Captain Benjamin L. Willard is summoned to I Field Force headquarters in Nha Trang. The officers there tell him that U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel Walter E. Kurtz is waging a brutal war against NVA, Viet Cong, and Khmer Rouge forces without permission from his commanders. He is based at a remote jungle outpost in eastern Cambodia, where he commands American, Montagnard, and local Khmer militia troops. These troops view him as a demigod. Willard is ordered to "terminate Kurtz's command... with extreme prejudice." He joins a U.S. Navy river patrol boat (PBR) commanded by Chief Petty Officer Phillips, with crewmen Lance, "Chef," and "Mr. Clean" to quietly navigate up the Nùng River to Kurtz's outpost. Before reaching the coastal mouth of the Nùng, they rendezvous with the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment—a helicopter-borne air assault unit of the elite 1st Cavalry Division, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore—to discuss safe entry into the river. Kilgore is initially inattentive, as he has not received word about their mission through normal channels. However, he becomes more engaged after discovering that Lance is a well-known surfer. Kilgore, an avid surfer himself, agrees to escort them through the Nùng's Viet Cong-held coastal mouth. The helicopter squadron, playing "Ride of the Valkyries" on loudspeakers, raids at dawn with a napalm strike. Resisting Kilgore’s attempts to convince Lance to surf with him on the newly conquered beach, Willard gathers the sailors to board the PBR and continue on their mission. Tension arises as Willard insists on the priority of his mission over the Chief's usual patrol objectives. Slowly making their way upriver, Willard partially reveals his orders to the Chief to convince him that the mission is important and should proceed despite the difficulties they’ve encountered. As Willard studies Kurtz's dossier, he is struck by the mid-career sacrifice Kurtz made by leaving a prestigious Pentagon assignment to join Special Forces, with no prospect of advancing beyond the rank of colonel. At a remote U.S. Army outpost, Willard and Lance seek information on what is upriver and receive a dispatch bag containing official and personal mail. Unable to find any commanding officer, Willard orders the Chief to continue. Willard learns via the dispatch that another MACV-SOG operative, Special Forces Captain Richard Colby, was sent on an earlier mission identical to Willard's and has since joined Kurtz. Lance activates a smoke grenade while under the influence of LSD, attracting enemy fire, causing Mr. Clean's death. Further upriver, Chief is impaled by a spear thrown by Montagnards and attempts to kill Willard with the spear point protruding from his chest, but Willard overpowers him. Willard reveals his mission to Chef, who is now in charge of the PBR. The PBR arrives at Kurtz's outpost, a Khmer temple teeming with Montagnards and strewn with remains of victims. Willard, Chef, and Lance are greeted by an American photojournalist, who praises Kurtz's genius. Willard encounters Colby and two other soldiers among the Montagnards. He sets out with Lance to find Kurtz, leaving Chef with orders to call in an airstrike on the outpost if the two do not return. In the camp, Willard is bound and brought before Kurtz, after which he is locked in a bamboo cage. One night Kurtz appears and drops Chef's severed head into Willard's lap. Willard is released, and warned not to attempt escape from the camp or he will be shot. Kurtz lectures him on his theories of war, praising the ruthlessness of the Viet Cong. Willard agrees with a lot of Kurtz's ideologies, and deduces he wants to "go out like the soldier" but instead survived multiple traumatic events. Kurtz admits he knows Willard will kill him, and humbly asks him to tell his son the truth of his death. That night, as the Montagnards ceremonially kill a water buffalo, Willard murders Kurtz with a machete. Everyone in the camp.... Discover the Willard Martin popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Willard Martin books.