Apocalypse Now

APOCALYPSE NOW (Francis Ford Coppola, USA 1976-79) is loosely based on Joseph Conrad's novella "Heart of Darkness", set in the Congo during the colonial era, and Michael Herr's Vietnam War report "Dispatches": In 1969, Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) is ordered by the CIA to liquidate the highly decorated Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who has seemingly gone mad because of the war and retreated into the Cambodian jungle and set up, far from the official chain of command, his own empire, in which he is worshipped like a god. Traveling through the jungle in a patrol boat, Willard is confronted with the insanity of war and begins to doubt the justification for his mission. Francis Ford Coppola has edited his film several times over the decades. In 2001, he released a director's cut with a running time of 202 minutes called Apocalypse Now Redux; in 2019, he presented the final cut, the 183-minute final version. We are showing the 153-minute 70mm first-run print, which has slight color changes. (Hans-Joachim Fetzer)