This cult antiwar film about Vietnam by Francis Ford Coppola will be screened in a 4K restoration.
Saigon, 1969: in the heat of the Vietnam War, Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) is dreaming of returning to the frontline, as he has lost the ability to live without the war. He is assigned a secret mission: to locate and kill ex-Colonel Walter Kurtz (Marlon Brando) who has deserted to the Cambodian jungle with his paramilitary troops. Despite his seemingly perfect military past, Kurtz is accused of killing agents of South Vietnam and utilizing unsound methods. As he searches for Kurtz in a country consumed by fighting, Willard delves deeper into the absurdity, cruelty, and madness of war.
The novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, on which the script for Apocalypse Now was based, has inspired many works, including a radio play by Orson Welles, Werner Herzog’s Aguirre, the Wrath of God, and more recent films such as Ad Astra starring Brad Pitt. But none of these works quite compare to Coppola’s film in their mythmaking power.
The depiction of the Vietnam War in Apocalypse Now informed the public imagination of the period for decades, making the film a quasi-historical artefact. Its excerpts—phrases, music, its depiction of post-traumatic stress disorder—were endlessly quoted and became part of the myth of the Vietnam War. Nevertheless, Apocalypse Now is not a historical document: Coppola’s impressive directorial work conveys his views on the absurdity of war.
The film will be screened in English with Russian subtitles.
Apocalypse Now
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
USA, 1979. 147 min.
18+