December 29th: APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979/2001)
NOTE: This film will be shown in the high-definition Blu-ray format.
During the Vietnam War, a special ops officer is given a top secret mission to follow a river into the Cambodian jungle and assassinate a U.S. colonel who is believed to have gone insane.
In the mid-1970's, Francis Ford Coppola was riding a wave of financial and critical success after his two Godfather films, and used his new-found clout to begin production on an idea that had bounced around his social circle of filmmakers since the late 60s: an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness, with the action transposed from the African Congo at the turn of the century to present-day Southeast Asia. Written by friend John Milius, the project was originally slated to be directed by George Lucas, who left after securing funding for his first Star Wars film.
Coppola assembled a powerhouse cast including Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall (from both Godfather films), Dennis Hopper, Laurence Fishburne (then only 18 years-old), Harrison Ford, and the towering presence of Marlon Brando, who earned $3.5 million for a relatively small amount of work, and showed up to the set overweight and unprepared, having not read the source material as requested by Coppola.
The production would turn out to be one of the most notorious in film history, weathering such obstacles as a typhoon which destroyed most of the sets, a lead actor's heart attack, theft, and a director who hadn't quite worked out how he was going to end the film. Refused cooperation by the U.S. Army, Coppola secured helicopters and other vehicles from the Philippine government. Originally planned for a 5-month shoot but lasting almost a year, the film went way over budget and led Coppola to mortgage his house and winery to continue.
The post-production process would take almost another two years, with a groundbreaking sound design team led by Walter Murch creating a dizzying atmosphere of music and sound effects, the first film presented in Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound. Vietnam veteran and author Michael Herr was brought in to write narration covering the entire film for Sheen's character. A traditional score was eschewed in favor of a tribal, drum heavy accompaniment provided by former Grateful Dead drummer Micky Hart and Coppola's father Carmine.
The film appeared in an unfinished version at the Cannes Film Festival in 1979, and wound up sharing the prestigious Palme d'Or prize for Best Film. It was an international box office success and would win other awards including Oscars for its cinematography (the first of third for Vittorio Storaro) and sound, and Golden Globes for Coppola's direction, Duvall's performance, and the original score.
In 2001 Coppola released a "Redux" version into theatres containing approximately 45 minutes of extended and deleted scenes, edited by Murch and with a new Technicolor transfer overseen by Storaro. An international poll in 2002 by Sight and Sound magazine, saw participating directors place Apocalypse Now #6 on the list of The Greatest Films of All Time, and their critic counterparts ranked it the best film of the last 25 years.
Running time is approx. 3 hours, 15 min.
During the Vietnam War, a special ops officer is given a top secret mission to follow a river into the Cambodian jungle and assassinate a U.S. colonel who is believed to have gone insane.
In the mid-1970's, Francis Ford Coppola was riding a wave of financial and critical success after his two Godfather films, and used his new-found clout to begin production on an idea that had bounced around his social circle of filmmakers since the late 60s: an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness, with the action transposed from the African Congo at the turn of the century to present-day Southeast Asia. Written by friend John Milius, the project was originally slated to be directed by George Lucas, who left after securing funding for his first Star Wars film.
Coppola assembled a powerhouse cast including Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall (from both Godfather films), Dennis Hopper, Laurence Fishburne (then only 18 years-old), Harrison Ford, and the towering presence of Marlon Brando, who earned $3.5 million for a relatively small amount of work, and showed up to the set overweight and unprepared, having not read the source material as requested by Coppola.
The production would turn out to be one of the most notorious in film history, weathering such obstacles as a typhoon which destroyed most of the sets, a lead actor's heart attack, theft, and a director who hadn't quite worked out how he was going to end the film. Refused cooperation by the U.S. Army, Coppola secured helicopters and other vehicles from the Philippine government. Originally planned for a 5-month shoot but lasting almost a year, the film went way over budget and led Coppola to mortgage his house and winery to continue.
The film appeared in an unfinished version at the Cannes Film Festival in 1979, and wound up sharing the prestigious Palme d'Or prize for Best Film. It was an international box office success and would win other awards including Oscars for its cinematography (the first of third for Vittorio Storaro) and sound, and Golden Globes for Coppola's direction, Duvall's performance, and the original score.
In 2001 Coppola released a "Redux" version into theatres containing approximately 45 minutes of extended and deleted scenes, edited by Murch and with a new Technicolor transfer overseen by Storaro. An international poll in 2002 by Sight and Sound magazine, saw participating directors place Apocalypse Now #6 on the list of The Greatest Films of All Time, and their critic counterparts ranked it the best film of the last 25 years.
Running time is approx. 3 hours, 15 min.
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