Synopsis: It is the height of the war in Vietnam,
and U.S. Army Captain Willard is sent to carry out a mission that,
officially, 'does not exist - nor will it ever exist'. The mission:
To seek out a mysterious Green Beret Colonel, Walter Kurtz, whose
army has crossed the border into Cambodia and is conducting
hit-and-run missions against the Viet Cong and NVA.
This film won Golden Palm at Cannes film festival
and 2 Oscars. The director Coppola was attracted by the original of
this film, novel and wanted to make a film with a philosophical
theme in a background of Vietnam War. The scriptwriter started
working on it and the real film-making began. But nobody actually
expected that this film-making would be extremely rough and
difficult. The problems occurred from the beginning. The government
of Philippines at that time didn't manage to supply facilities that
were promised in advance. Besides the jungle met the worst climate
ever (the worst hurricane in 40 years) and forced to suspend filming
for 6 weeks. Actors suffered both physically and mentally in the
poor filming conditions. Director Coppola himself also lost
confidence about his film and failed to control himself. The most of
staff was often in a state of panic. The scenario kept being
modified during filming and people sometimes administered drugs. The
initial planned period of filming was 4 months but the period
exceeded 15 months and the film was about 370 hours long. In order
to screen this film in theaters in 1979, Coppola had to cut the 5
hour long film into 2 hour long as he was short of money. In 2001 in
the Cannes film festival the director Coppola introduced 'Apocalypse
Now Redux' which is the full 5 hour long 'Apocalypse Now'.
