Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now is an Academy Award-winning film by director Francis Ford Coppola that revolves around U.S. Army Captain Benjamin Willard and his mission to assassinate Colonel Walter E. Kurtz during the Vietnam War. Starring Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen (as Kurtz and Willard respectively), the film is notorious for its troubled production and brutal filming schedule - including a near-fatal heart attack by Sheen while filming the movie. Despite the difficulties in making the picture, the movie is considered to be one of the most influential movies of the time and one of Coppola's best films.

Fast Facts

1. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
2. Released: August 15, 1979
3. Starring: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando and Robert Duvall
4. Apocalypse Now Redux, released in 2001, restored 49 minutes cut from the 1979 theatrical version
5. Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness served as the main inspiration for the movie
6. The film Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse documents the making of Apocalypse Now

Quote

• "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning...It smells like...victory" - Lt. Colonel Bill Kilgore
• "The horror..." - General Kurtz

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