Apocalypse Now

Well, More American Graffiti, but yeah...



It's one of the very rare American films ever made shot in 3 different aspect ratios: 1.85 35mm, 2.39 anamorphic scope 35mm, and 1.33 16mm. This stuff was a nightmare to edit back in the day.

 

Ha! I just read about all that this morning in the Secret History Of Star Wars book (great book, by the way). I got the impression that Lucas wasn't miffed at Coppola- he was sorta glad Coppola took the Apocalypse Now idea off his plate, especially once Lucas expanded the scope of his Star Wars story. Once Star Wars got going I think George knew he'd never have the time to dedicate to Apocalypse Now, sorta like how he was more than happy to hand over his Indiana Jones idea to Steven Spielberg.

Sorta like the "Club Obi Wan" in Temple Of Doom.

 

Coppola said he has met three people in his lifetime who he thought were geniuses...Marlon Brando is one of them.

Love the movie. Have the Laserdisc that I burned to DVD-R. Need to watch again soon.

 

I couldn't imagine anybody other than Brando playing Kurtz, but I must admit for the life of me I have a hard time wrapping my head around Harvey Keitel originally being slated to play Captain Willard...I can't see Keitel in that role at all. Martin Sheen knocked it outta the park, though, even if it did damn near kill him (his infamous heart attack during the filming)

 

Keitel would have been a good fit in the CIA man role, but that was only one line.

 

The Roach had a wonderful economy of words, too.

 

Who's "The Roach"?

 

Boy I wish You Tube wasn't blocked on my work computer...

 

I love how they drew Mackenzie with her eyes closed. She certainly spent the whole movie like that.

 

Your post reminded me that I saw Stripes in 1981 during my AIT stint at Aberdeen Proving Grounds. Almost the anti-Apocalypse Now movie.

 

I caught about half of Apocalypse Now Redux on cable last night (up to the scene where they were doing a "routine" search of the junk where the puppy was found). I went to bed confused on the point of two of the added scenes: The scene where they stole the surf-board. Kind of pointless and it came off as making Colonel Kilgore look a little (more) goofy in the end. As I recall the original stopped at Colonel Kilgore stating "Someday this war's gonna end". Perfect scene close. Then there's the Playmates prostituting themselves for helicopter fuel. Again, completely pointless scene. I found it didn't add anything (except some gratuitous nipple shots) and actually distracted from the flow of the story.

 

The first time I saw Apocalypse Now was in late 1979-early 1980. A few buddies and I saw it in the theatre while tripping on lsd. We were peaking right around the point in the movie when Lance said "Remember that tab of acid I was saving? I dropped it". Blew our minds.

 

The Redux is interesting in that any cut scenes from almost any movie are interesting. But the original is the best.

I despised the scene of them stealing the surf board. Both Willard and Kilgore jump right out of character. Willard goes from dark and cynical to a prankster. Kilgore is no longer the invincible soldier.

 

I also disliked the surfboard scene. the bunnies scene I didn't have an issue with, cause it showed the way the war, like a vortex, sucked everything and everybody in.
It also answered why these guys stuck with this fool through all this s**te. They could very easily have found a way to leave him or kill him.

 

Oh boy, now you guys got me wanting to watch this movie again. Once a year I watch this and Platoon and Full Metal Jacket. I like the second half of Jacket better than the other two films, but the first half I do not care for much.

I saw Now in the theater and was not impressed because to me the ending dragged. I own it and have seen it dozens of times and I still cannot deal with the ending. They spend all this time looking for this hero Kurtz and he turns out to be a bloated blob of nothing. Just a bad ending to me that has never got better. Like 2001, if I turn it off ten minutes before the end I am happier with it.

I always thought the girl scene was out of place, which I guess was the point of it being in the movie, the absurdity of it. I thought the full story of the girls would make it more meaningful so I also bought the redux version. That made the movie even worse. I think if they had just added the girls crash scene it would have made it better.

I wish Kurtz would have strung the Captian up and left him to hang outside with the others. That too me would have made for a better ending.

 

you can't get that from any movie.

 

The best thing about redux is the Time Magazine sequence.

 

I'm a sucker for the French plantation scene. Yes, it needed to be edited from the movie, but I still enjoy the whole piece almost as a stand alone work.

 

I kinda like it too. Someone said to me it's like it's from a different film

 

That's the only additional scene that was added that I liked too. When I watch it on Blu-Ray I watch the theatrical release.

 

I watched Missouri Breaks again the other night and loved Brando in that one.

 

Apocalypse Now. Among my friends it re-launched the Doors career when it came out. Every time I listen to The End, I see helicopters.