Laurence Fishburne | 80's Movie Guide

Taglines: The Horror... The Horror... Apocalypse Now! movie storyline. It is the height of the war in Vietnam, and U.S. Army Captain Willard is sent by Colonel Lucas and a General 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. The army believes Kurtz has gone completely insane and Willard's job is to eliminate him! Willard, sent up the Nung River on a U.S. Navy patrol boat, discovers that his target is one of the most decorated officers in the U.S. Army. His crew meets up with surfer-type Lt-Colonel Kilgore, head of a U.S Army helicopter cavalry group which eliminates a Viet Cong outpost to provide an entry point into the Nung River. After some hair-raising encounters, in which some of his crew are killed, Willard, Lance and Chef reach Colonel Kurtz's outpost, beyond the Do Lung Bridge. Now, after becoming prisoners of Kurtz, will... Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic adventure war film set during the Vietnam War, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall and Martin Sheen. The film follows the central character, Captain Benjamin L. Willard (Sheen), on a secret mission to assassinate the renegade and presumed insane Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Brando). The screenplay by John Milius and Coppola updates the setting of Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness to that of the Vietnam War. It also draws from Michael Herr's Dispatches and Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972). The film has been noted for the problems encountered while making it, which were chronicled in the documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, which recounted the stories of Brando arriving on the set overweight and completely unprepared; expensive sets being destroyed by severe weather and its lead actor (Sheen) having a breakdown and suffering a near-fatal heart attack while on location. Problems continued after production as the release was postponed several times, while Coppola edited thousands of feet of footage. Apocalypse Now! (1979) Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola Starring: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne, Albert Hall, Harrison Ford Screenplay by: John Milius, Francis Ford Coppola Production Design by: Dean Tavoularis Cinematography by: Vittorio Storaro Film Editing by: Lisa Fruchtman, Gerald B. Greenberg, Walter Murch Set Decoration by: George R. Nelson Art Direction by: Angelo P. Graham Music by: Francis Ford Coppola Distributed by: United Artists Release Date: August 15, 1979