Original Release Date
August 15, 1979
Rotten Tomatoes
91%
Letterboxd Score
4.4/5
Official Synopsis
At the height of the Vietnam War, Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) is sent on a dangerous mission into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade Special Forces Colonel, Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who has set himself up as a god among a local tribe. As Willard travels deeper into the jungle aboard a Navy patrol boat, the journey becomes a surreal and hallucinatory odyssey into the darkest recesses of the human soul. Based loosely on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
The Patrol
- Marlon Brando: Colonel Walter E. Kurtz
- Martin Sheen: Captain Benjamin L. Willard
- Robert Duvall: Lt. Colonel Bill Kilgore
- Frederic Forrest: Jay 'Chef' Hicks
- Laurence Fishburne: Tyrone 'Clean' Miller
- Dennis Hopper: Photojournalist
The Architects
- Director: Francis Ford Coppola
- Writers: John Milius & Francis Ford Coppola
- Cinematography: Vittorio Storaro
- Music: Carmine & Francis Ford Coppola
- Sound Design: Walter Murch
The Official Trailer
The Accolades
- 🏆 Academy Award Winner: Best Cinematography and Best Sound.
- ✨ Cannes Film Festival: Winner - Palme d'Or (1979).
- 📽️ National Film Registry: Selected for preservation in 2000.
- 📜 AFI Legacy: Ranked #30 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary).
Vault Intelligence
- The production in the Philippines was famously disastrous, involving a typhoon that destroyed sets, Marlon Brando arriving overweight and unprepared, and Martin Sheen suffering a near-fatal heart attack during filming.
- Laurence Fishburne lied about his age to get cast in the film; he was only 14 years old when production began.
- Coppola famously sank his own fortune into the film to finish it, leading to his quote: "My film is not about Vietnam. It is Vietnam."
Film Specifications
| Financial Backing | $31.5 Million Budget |
| Theatrical Earnings | $150 Million (Global Gross) |
| Primary Location | Luzon, Philippines |
| Cinematic Format | 35mm / 2.39:1 Anamorphic (Technovision) |
Retrospective Pending
"Ray’s full 2026 Northstar analysis for this harrowing descent into madness is currently being restored from the vault."
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The Ultimate Cinematic Experience
