Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American war film that is set during the Vietnam War, directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola. The film follows the central character, U.S. Army special operations officer Captain Benjamin L. Willard(Sheen), of MACV-SOG, on a mission to kill the renegade and presumed insane Walter E. Kurtz.
The screenplay came from changing Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness into the Vietnam War era. It also draws from the film version of Conrad's Lord Jim.The film has been noted for the problems encountered while making it. These problems were chronicled in the documentary which recounted the stories of Brando arriving on the set overweight and completely unprepared; costly sets being destroyed by severe weather; and its lead actor suffering a heart attack while on location. Problems continued after production as the release was postponed several times while Coppola edited millions of feet of footage.
Coppola gave John Millius $15,000 to write the screenplay with the promise of an additional $10,000 if it were green-lit. Milius claims that he wrote the screenplay in 1969 and originally called The Psychedelic Solider. He wanted to use Conrad's novel as an allegory. He wrote ten drafts, with a total of over a thousand pages. Millius changed the film's title to Apocalypse Now after being inspired by a button badge that was popular with hippies during the 1960's, which state "Nirvana Now". He was also influenced by an article written by Michael Herr titled, "The Battle for Khe Sanh", which referred to drugs and rock 'n' roll. Apocalypse Now is now known as one of the greatest films of all time.
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