Film of the Week #35 - Apocalypse Now

Karl Hungus

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078788/

I'm not sure there's much I can say about this film. It's probably one of the most iconic and influencial films there is, often quoted and referenced in popular culture.

Discuss.

Gillie

+1

What a movie! The stories surrounding production are just as interesting and amazing as the movie itself!

Is Reduex worth getting?

senordingdong

Gillie wrote:

#The stories surrounding production are just as interesting and amazing as the movie itself!

Such as?

Awesome film.
Though as important as I feel it is in modern film...an awful lot of people I've encountered, haven't seen it.

humanji

senordingdong wrote:

Such as?

I suggest getting the movie and watching the documenatries that come with it. The stories behind it really are amazing and bizarre

Gillie

What he said!^

Gillie

Some trivia from IMDB.com (may contain Spoilers):
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078788/trivia

Dont be at yourself

35 weeks in, and we're really getting to the meat-and-potatos of good cinema now. Both last week's movie and Apocalypse Now! stand head and shoulders above much of the list.

Such as?

Brando turned up overweight, coked up and not having read the script. Much of the final scenes of the movie was completely off-the-cuff on his part.

Martin Sheen was also struggling with addiction and apparently he really did cut himself with the mirror in the opening scene - again, unscripted.

Karl Hungus

NekkidBibleMan wrote:

35 weeks in, and we're really getting to the meat-and-potatos of good cinema now. Both last week's movie and Apocalypse Now! stand head and shoulders above much of the list.

I'd argue the point that films like Dr. Strangelove, The Seven Samurai and some others are equally as meat-and-potatos (Interesting term, I like it!) of good cinema as Apocalypse Now... But the FotW hasn't been about making any kind of definitive list about good cinema, it's just that, a Film of the Week. There's no pretention otherwise, and I think it's good to have films that can stimulate discussion moreso than being bonafide classics.

I think that 35 weeks in and The Godfather isn't in the list yet can be seen as a good thing, because it's more refreshing having films like Grave Of The Fireflies, 12 Monkeys and Audition being highlighted as good films, and put in the spotlight, instead of giving lip service to greats that everyone's already seen before. Of course, there is a lot of voting for classics, but there's also a very good amount of smaller films becoming FotW, so I think it's quite even.

Shryke

Fantastic film! Blows me away on every viewing. From the opening with Martin Sheen (actually) drunk falling around his room to the credits sequence, fantastic.

bluto63

Ah possibly the best war film ever. The ending to the tune of the Doors was immense and blew me right away.

The Denouncer

Love this movie..its just amazing looking..the acting, the music, the story..the direction. What a great movie, easily in my top 10 of all time.
The original is much better than the redux.

Note to self: Watch this again very soon.