'APOCALYPSE NOW : FINAL CUT' which I saw late last week is rated MA15+, and this 1979 and now a classic American epic war film about the Vietnam War was Directed, Produced and Co-Written by Francis Ford Coppola and now gets it's 40th anniversary re-release in the manner that Coppola had seemingly always intended. Starring Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Harrison Ford, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne, Scott Glenn and Dennis Hopper with the Screenplay, Co-Written by Coppola and John Milius was loosely based on the 1899 novella 'Heart of Darkness' by Joseph Conrad. 'Apocalypse Now' was honoured with the Palme d'Or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered unfinished before it was finally released on August 15, 1979. The film is today considered to be one of the greatest films ever made. It was nominated for eight Oscars at the 52nd Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor for Robert Duvall, and went on to win for Best Cinematography and Best Sound among its total awards haul of twenty wins and another 31 nominations. The film took US$150M at the global Box Office off the back of a US$32M Budget. With a running time of 183 minutes, backed up by a 4k restoration and all the technological advancements in sound design, Coppola reportedly said that it now 'looks better than it has ever looked, and sounds better than it has ever sounded', and that he's 'thrilled beyond measure to present the best version of the film to the world.' 
In Vietnam in 1969, Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) a veteran U.S. Army special operations officer is sitting in his Saigon hotel room locked up and gradually going insane without a mission to satisfy his hunger to be on the front line. He drinks and smokes heavily and sleeps for days on end reminiscing about his former marriage, his previous tours of duty, the stupefying heat of Vietnam and the sheer boredom of being holed up in the confines of his hotel room. Then there is a knock on the door. With his hand bleeding profusely from where he smashed a plate glass mirror and drunk too, he is manhandled into a cold shower by the two officers who came knocking. Next up he is in a room with Colonel Lucas (Harrison Ford), Lieutenant General Corman (G.D. Spradlin) and a plain clothed mystery man Jerry (Jerry Ziesmer). They have a mission for Willard - to head up river into Cambodia and 'terminate with extreme prejudice' the highly decorated United States Army Special Forces Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) who has gone rogue and supposedly completely insane at an outpost in Cambodia, is running his own military unit based there and is feared as much by the U.S. military as by the North Vietnamese and Vietcong.
They rendezvous with seemingly fearless and mad keen surfing enthusiast Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore (Robert Duvall), 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment commander, to discuss going up the Nung River. Kilgore is at first offhandish but befriends Lance after discovering he is a famous surfer and agrees to escort them through the Nung's Viet Cong-held coastal mouth which is tidal and the lads can get in a long overdue surf. The helicopter squadron raids at dawn, with Kilgore ordering a napalm strike on the local hostiles practically wiping them all out but not without suffering casualties also, and at the same time muttering those immortal words 'I love the smell of napalm in the morning'.
As Willard continues the journey up river studying the extensive dossier he has on Kurtz, he learns that a Captain Richard Colby (Scott Glenn) was previously assigned Willard's current mission before he defected to Kurtz's private army and sent a message to his wife, intercepted by the U.S. Army, telling her that he was never coming back and to sell everything they owned. As the crew read letters from home, Lance activates a smoke grenade, attracting the attention of an enemy hiding in the dense undergrowth along the riverbank, and Mr. Clean is shot dead. Further upriver, Chief is impaled by a spear thrown by the natives and killed too. Willard reveals the purpose of their mission to Chef, and in spite of Chef's anger towards their end game, he rejects Willard's offer for him to continue alone and insists that they complete the mission together.
Continuing along their journey, the remaining crew members come across a French family holed up on their remote rubber plantation living the colonial lifestyle, and they spend the night having been welcomed by their well to do hosts dining on good food, fine wine, cognac and cigars. The next day the crew arrives at Kurtz's outpost, and the surviving crew are greeted by an American freelance photojournalist (Dennis Hopper), who crazily praises Kurtz's genius. As they wander through the camp, they come across a near-comatose Colby, along with other US servicemen now in Kurtz's renegade army. Learning that Kurtz is not at the camp at that time, Willard returns to the boat later taking Lance with him back to the camp and instructing Chef to stay behind and call in an air strike of the compound if they do not return within a certain time. 
After Willard's initial introduction to Kurtz in a darkened temple he is subdued, bound and then tortured and imprisoned for several days during which time Kurtz drops Chefs severed head into the lap of Willard while he is tied up. Willard is subsequently released and allowed to freely roam the compound. Kurtz lectures him on his theories of war, the human psyche and civilisation, while praising the ruthlessness and dedication of the Viet Cong. 
That night, as the locals ceremonially slaughter a water buffalo, Willard stealthily enters Kurtz's chamber as he is making a recording and attacks him with a machete. Mortally wounded, Kurtz utters 'The horror, The horror' and dies. As the sun rises all in the compound see Willard departing the temple covered in blood spatter, carrying a collection of Kurtz's writings, and bow down to him. Willard then leads Lance to the boat and they depart unhindered.
The original shoot for 'Apocalypse Now' was fraught with challenges, including Marlon Brando arriving on set completely unprepared and overweight; entire sets being wiped out by Typhoon Olga in May 1976; Martin Sheen suffering a mental breakdown and a near fatal heart attack whilst on location; a production schedule that was due to last five months ran to over a year; the initial budget estimations of US$15M blowing out to closer to US$32M; the entire payroll being stolen overnight whilst under the watchful eye of bodyguards; and the final release of the film being delayed several times while Coppola edited over one million feet of film. All of that said, these challenges faced now over forty years ago will have dimmed into the far recesses of cinematic history and gave way ultimately to a classic Vietnam War film that has stood the test of time in all its visceral, hallucinatory, surreal and at times bizarre glory. The original film had a running time of 153 minutes, 2001's 'Apocalypse Now Redux' ran for 202 minutes and this version 'Apocalypse New : Final Cut' has a running time of 183 minutes and has been remastered frame by frame in stunning 4K quality, with the sound production enhanced by Dolby Atmos. This is the complete package and deserves to be either revisited or viewed for the first time on the big screen while you still can in selected theatres - you won't be disappointed by the experience as a chance to see one of the greatest films of all time just as Coppola had originally intended.
'Apocalypse Now : Final Cut' merits five claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard out of a potential five.
The original shoot for 'Apocalypse Now' was fraught with challenges, including Marlon Brando arriving on set completely unprepared and overweight; entire sets being wiped out by Typhoon Olga in May 1976; Martin Sheen suffering a mental breakdown and a near fatal heart attack whilst on location; a production schedule that was due to last five months ran to over a year; the initial budget estimations of US$15M blowing out to closer to US$32M; the entire payroll being stolen overnight whilst under the watchful eye of bodyguards; and the final release of the film being delayed several times while Coppola edited over one million feet of film. All of that said, these challenges faced now over forty years ago will have dimmed into the far recesses of cinematic history and gave way ultimately to a classic Vietnam War film that has stood the test of time in all its visceral, hallucinatory, surreal and at times bizarre glory. The original film had a running time of 153 minutes, 2001's 'Apocalypse Now Redux' ran for 202 minutes and this version 'Apocalypse New : Final Cut' has a running time of 183 minutes and has been remastered frame by frame in stunning 4K quality, with the sound production enhanced by Dolby Atmos. This is the complete package and deserves to be either revisited or viewed for the first time on the big screen while you still can in selected theatres - you won't be disappointed by the experience as a chance to see one of the greatest films of all time just as Coppola had originally intended.'Apocalypse Now : Final Cut' merits five claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard out of a potential five.
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
Agree. Well deserved 5 claps
ReplyDelete