Apocalypse Now is a 1979 epic war movie set in the Vietnam War. It tells the story that Army Captain Benjamin L Willard (martin sheen) was sent to the jungle to assassinate Colonel Walter E. Courths (Marlon Brando), a US Army special forces colonel, who went AWOL and was considered insane. The film was produced and directed by francis ford coppola, and the script was adapted by Coppola, john milius and Michael Herr. It was based on Joseph Conrad's novella black heart, and borrowed from Conrad's film version of Lord Jim (with the same name as Marlowe in black heart) and Werner Herzog's aguirre, The Wrath of God (1972). [ 1]
This film became notorious in the entertainment media because its long and troublesome production was recorded in black heart: The Enlightenment of a Filmmaker. Marlon Brando was overweight on the set, and martin sheen had a heart attack. The production was also plagued by extreme weather, which destroyed several sets of expensive scenery. In addition, the release date of the film was delayed several times because Coppola tried to come up with an ending and edited his millions of feet of shots.
The film won the Palme d 'Or in Cannes, and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Film and the Golden Globe for Best Drama.
plot
Now it is 1968, and the war is at its climax. Captain Ban Jieming L Willard (martin sheen) has returned to Saigon; As an experienced veteran, he was deeply troubled and obviously no longer suitable for civilian life. A group of intelligence officers (G. D. Spradlin, Harrison Ford and Jerry Ziesmer) approached him with a special task: to enter the remote Cambodian jungle along the fictional Nung River and look for Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, a former member of the US Army Special Forces.
They say that Courths, once regarded as a model officer and a future general, is said to have gone crazy and commanded his own mountain people's army in the middle of the neutral Cambodian forest. Their statement was supported by Courths's own very disturbing radio broadcast and/or recording. Willard was ordered to perform a task, find Courths, and "with extreme prejudice" to terminate the colonel's orders.
Willard studied the intelligence documents on the way to the river entrance by boat, and learned that Courths, who was isolated in his yard, played the role of a warlord and was worshipped by the local people and his own loyal subordinates. Willard learned much later that another police officer, Colby (Scott Glenn), who was sent to kill Courths earlier, may have become one of his deputies.
Willard took a PBR (patrol boat, along the river) to start his trip to the Nong River. His crew consisted of stubborn and formal Captain Phillips (Albert Hall), who was a naval speedboat commander. GM3 Lance B. Qiang Sen (sam bottoms), a tanned California surfer; GM3 Tyrone Miller (laurence fishburne), also known as "Mr. Clean", a black man of 17 years old from "a shit hole in the South Bronx"; Jay Hicks (Frederic Forrest), an engineer from New Orleans, Willard described him as "too wrapped up in the Vietnam War, and maybe too wrapped up in New Orleans".
After a large-scale and intense sweeping operation on a conquered enemy village, the PBR arrived at a landing zone, where Willard and the crew met Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore (robert duvall), the eccentric commander of the 1/9cav Air Force. Kilgore, who is keen on surfing, recognized Johnson and became friends with him. Later, he learned from one of his men, Mike, that the beach marking the opening of the river was very suitable for surfing, which prompted him to catch it. His troops explained that the problem was that this was "Charlie Point" and it was heavily guarded. Kilgore dismissed the complaint with the explanation that "Charlie doesn't surf" and ordered his soldiers to get saddles ready in the morning to occupy the town and the beach. Kilgore drove a Huey fleet escorted by H-6 hovering over the coast and attacked the beach. This scene is famous for using Richard Wagner's Ride of Valkyria, and ends with soldiers surfing on an almost unclaimed beach during the conflict between infantry and Viet Cong. After the helicopter raided the village and destroyed all visible signs of resistance, a huge napalm attack in the nearby jungle dramatically marked the climax of the fighting. Kilgore cheered Willard, "I like the smell of napalm in the morning", and he said it smelled "like" ... He recalled that in a battle, a hill was bombed by napalm 12 hours.
As the ship sailed upstream, the lights and atmosphere dimmed, and Willard's obsession with Courths's silence deepened. Events during the trip included a conflict between Willard and the chef when they were looking for mangoes. Then the boat sailed upstream to watch a performance organized by the American Labor Army, showing playboy bunnies and chaotic centerfolds.
Moving upstream, Phillips found a sampan, and they ignored Willard's suggestion and stopped the boat for inspection. When the chef searched the sampan with hostility, a civilian suddenly moved, causing Clean to open fire on the wooden boat, killing all the civilians, leaving only one seriously injured survivor. An argument broke out between Willard and Phillips, the focus of which was whether to take the survivor to receive treatment. Willard shot the survivor and said quietly, "I told you not to stop."
The ship sailed upstream and stopped at the American outpost at Do Long Bridge, the last American outpost on the river. The ship arrived when North Vietnam launched an attack on the bridge under construction. Upon arrival, Willard received the last file from an officer named Lieutenant Carlson, as well as the mail sent to the crew. Willard and Lance went ashore. They crossed the trench, where they met many panicked and leaderless soldiers. Willard asked where a gunner commander was, but the gunner replied, "Isn't that you?" This means that there are no officers left. While they were talking, a North Vietnamese soldier hid under a pile of dead comrades-in-arms and screamed obscenity at them. A soldier named Roach (Herb Rice) quickly dispatched the NVA soldier with a tiger-patterned M79 Grenade launcher. Willard asked Roach if he knew who the commander was. Roach just smirked and replied that he did. Realizing that the situation was in chaos, Willard and Lance returned to the boat. The director tried to persuade Willard not to continue his task (he didn't really know the details). He compared this mission to the Do Long Bridge, which was destroyed every night, but was rebuilt, so it can be said that the road is smooth, and this mission is insignificant. In response, Willard snapped, "Take me to the upper reaches of the river"! When the ship left, the NVA shelled the bridge, enveloped it in smoke and destroyed it.
The next day, while the crew of the PBR was busy reading the mail, they were ambushed by the Viet Cong hiding in the trees by the river, which led to the death of Clean because he listened to a tape of his mother. Chief, who has a father-son relationship with Clean, is openly hostile to Willard. As they approached the outskirts of Courths camp, villagers in Monta Gnad began to shoot toy arrows at them. The crew fired until the chief was hit by a real spear. When Willard hovered over the fatally wounded chief, the chief tried to strangle Willard. Willard then suffocated the sheriff with his bare hands.
After arriving at the outpost in Courths, Willard left the chef behind and ordered him to air raid the village if he didn't come back. They met a seemingly crazy freelance photographer (dennis hopper), who explained Courths's greatness and philosophical skills to arouse people to follow him. Willard also met Colby, who was obviously in a state of shock. Willard was brought to Courths and imprisoned in a dark temple. When Courths taught him his theory of war, humanity and civilization, his physique seemed to weaken. Courths explained his motivation and philosophy in a famous and unforgettable monologue, in which he praised the cruelty of the Viet Cong he witnessed after one of his humanitarian missions.
When Willard was trapped in the downpour, Courths approached him and put the cut chef's head on his lap. Coppola is rarely clear, but we begin to believe that Willard and Courths have developed understanding; Courths hoped to die at Willard's hands, and Willard subsequently granted Courths's wish and gave him the opportunity to inherit his warlord-demigod role. Accompanied by the buffalo slaughter ceremony, Willard entered his room in an information record in Courths and killed him with a machete. The whole sequence is set to "end" by the door, just like the beginning sequence of the movie. Courths was lying on the ground, covered in blood and dying. He whispered "Horror ... Horror", which was taken directly from Conrad's novella. Willard walked through the now silent indigenous people, holding Johnson's hand (he is now fully integrated into the indigenous society). He took Johnson to PBR. When Courths's last words echoed in the wind, he drifted away and the screen gradually turned black.