#captain benjamin l. willard

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Apocalypse Now (1979)

[vents-anon]

thinkiung sbout. apocalypse now.

[world-cinema-research]

The Hearts of Darkness: Apocalypse Now Short Essay

By: Jillian Arnold

"The horror... the horror..."

The movie Apocalypse Now is a war-horror film that came out in 1979 that has been named one of the best war films ever made. Its troubles in the film and outside with filming makes it memorable to film makers and audiences alike.

The movie is set at the height of the Vietnam War in 1969 and follows the mission of U.S. Army Captain Willard. He is sent on a mission by Lieutenant Lucas and a General that “does not exist nor will it ever exist” to travel up the Nung River in the U.S. Navy patrol boat to assassinate a Colonel Kurtz, who's gone AWOL and acts like a demi-god to a group of tribal natives in the jungle. After some hair-raising encounters, in which some of his crew are killed, Willard, Lance and Chef reach Colonel Kurtz's outpost, beyond the Do Lung Bridge. As Willard nears the end of his mission, he soon finds himself reeling in the horrors and sanity of war itself as he confronts the colonel face to face in which Willard's true nature begins to emerge slowly. Willard confronts not only the same horrors and hypocrisy that pushed the level headed Colonel Kurtz over the edge into an abyss of insanity, but the primal violence of human nature and the darkness of his own heart.

Here is a newer trailer to the movie, Apocalypse Now. I used this trailer because I felt as though it gave more insight to the plot of the movie and allowed audiences to gauge how much violence is in the movie. It is also a somewhat chaotic trailer that reflects the chaos of the movie with the war and the turbulence in the main character, Captain Willard’s, mind. 

The movie was released into theatre on August 15th, 1979 and was directed by Francis Ford Coppala. With the movie’s budget of $31,500,000, it earned $104,920,499 worldwide. The film starred Martin Sheen as Capt. Benjamin L. Willard, Marlon Brando as Col. Walter E. Kurtz, and Robert Duvall and Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore. The film had twenty-one wins and thirty-three nominations with two Oscar wins in best cinematography and best sound. The movie is rated fifty-six in top rated movies. 

Although the movie is one of the most highly regarded films of all time and had brought fame to the director and the actors, it was a war and chaos while filming the movie. A huge stressor on the film was the fact that the crew was filming so close to an actual war site and because of that, the movie was loaned real military equipment, but on the downside, it caused numerous lengthy production delays, inspired fear in much of the on-set personnel, and dead body props brought to the set were actually real human remains. There were also problems with the cast of the movie. Francis Ford Coppola originally casted and shot footage with Harvey Keitel in the role of Captain Willard, but when Keitel wasn’t giving Coppola what he wanted, he was fired and replaced with Martin Sheen. Sheen’s struggles with alcoholism made the shooting miserable and he later nearly died after suffering a heart attack on set. Besides Sheen, other cast and crew members suffered from drug addictions and various tropical diseases. All of these problems and even a hurricane caused shooting and post-production to be delayed by months, even years. Even through all the hardships, the film is celebrated as one of, if not the ultimate film about the Vietnam War and is regarded as one of Coppola’s finest films.

A photo of Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Sheen on the set of Apocalypse Now. Although the filming was hell, the movie is highly regarded by audiences still to this day. 

An event that was happening at the time of this movie was Vietnam fought a successful border war with China and took over Cambodia from the murderous Khmer RougeThis was an important event during that year because even after the Vietnam War was ended, the country was still in conflict and had problems going on, even after the war ended. During this time, this movie was important because it brought attention to what happened in Vietnam and brought attention to the things still happening. This was during the Sino-Vietnamese War which was between China, Vietnam, and the Soviet Union. This war was fought over the border that is between China and Vietnam. 

Photos of soldiers re-grouping during the Sino-Vietnamese War in 1979. 

After watching this movie, it took me hours if not the whole day to truly process what I had witnessed during the movie. I saw and realized what happened during the Vietnam War and the highs and lows. I watched this movie after reading the book, Heart of Darkness, for my english class, which is what the movie is loosely based on, and it was crazy to watch these events happening because reading them and watching them are two different things. If anyone wants to watch a war film, this is the one to watch with its gore and trauma. "We train young men to drop fire on people, but their commanders won't allow them to write "fuck" on their airplanes because it's obscene!"

[ziggyyyystardust]

Can someone PLEASE tell me if there is any fanfic of Captain Benjamin L. Willard from apocalypse now.. he was so hot but no fanfic writers have seen the movie so if anyone has recommendations please give them to me🙏🏼🙏🏼

[burningexeter]

I realized very early on that I've always been attracted to in media and fiction, unconventional protagonists that while are heroic, they're NOT at all the typical type of "heroes" you'd expect. I've always found that way more interesting and compelling than most other regular or conventional type of stories. Here's a list of the ones that I think are some (or in this case, a LOT) of my biggest influences when it comes to the characters that I write, the protagonists that I write where it's unconventional main characters fighting the odds or facing the highest stakes possible or BOTH in incredible situations or scenarios BUT are again NOT the generic "heroes" you'd think or expect them to be:

• Andy Dufrense & Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding — The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

• Paul Edgecomb & John Coffey — The Green Mile (1999)

• John McClane — Die Hard (1988)

• Arthur Morgan — Red Dead Redemption 2

• Mrs. Brisby — The Secret Of NIMH (1982)

• Norman Babcock — ParaNorman

• Frank — Thief (1981)

• Alice Johnson — A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master & A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child

• Miguel Rivera — Coco (2017)

• Eddie Valiant & Roger Rabbit — Who Framed Roger Rabbit

• Marty McFly & Emmett "Doc" Brown — The Back To The Future Trilogy

• Samantha "Charly" Caine — The Long Kiss Goodnight

• Walter "Heisenberg" White — Breaking Bad

• Ezekiel "EZ" Reyes — Mayans MC

• Peter "Spider-Man" Parker — Spider-Man 2 (2004)

• Michael De Santa, Franklin Clinton & Trevor Philips — Grand Theft Auto V

• Niko Bellic — Grand Theft Auto IV

• Jaguar Paw — Apocalypto (2006)

• Jack Sparrow, Will Turner & Elizabeth Swann — The Pirates Of The Caribbean Trilogy

• Poindexter "Fool" Williams, Alice Robeson & Roach — The People Under The Stairs

• Shane Vendrell — The Shield (FX)

• Matt Parkman — Heroes (Season 1)

• Bob & Helen Parr — The Incredibles (2004)

• The Man With No Name & Tuco Benedicto Pacífico Juan María Ramírez — The Dollars Trilogy

• Matt Murdock, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Frank Castle & David "Micro" Lieberman — Marvel Netflix

• Robyn Goodfellowe & Mebh Og MacTire — Wolfwalkers (2020)

• Kevin Garvey — The Leftovers (HBO)

• El Mariachi — The Mexico Trilogy

• John Hartigan, Marv & Dwight McCarthy — Sin City (2005)

• Andrea Grimes — The Walking Dead (Comic Series)

• Kenny McCormick — South Park

• Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture, Malcom "The Monarch" Fitzcarraldo & Gary "Henchmen 21" Fischer — The Venture Bros.

• Gwen Tennyson — Ben 10: Alien Force & Ben 10: Ultimate Alien

• Literally all of the protagonists — Generator Rex

• Virgil Ovid Hawkins/Static Shock & Richard "Richie" Osgood Foley/Gear — Static Shock

• Al "Spawn" Simmons — Todd McFarlane's Spawn (HBO)

• Billy "Shazam!" Batson & Frederick "Freddy" Freeman — SHAZAM! (2019)

• Frank Bannister — The Frighteners

• Ann Darrow — King Kong (2005)

• Sarah Bowman, John "Flyboy" & Bill McDermott — Day Of The Dead (1985)

• Rick O'Connell, Evelyn "Evie" & Jonathan Carnahan — The Mummy (1999)

• U.S. Army Captain Benjamin L. Willard — Apocalypse Now

• Staff Sergeant Mikhail "Mike" Vronsky — The Deer Hunter

• Mikasa Ackerman — Attack On Titan

• Max Rockatansky — Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

• Sheriff Hassan — Midnight Mass

• Historia Reiss — Attack On Titan (Manga)

• Grey Trace — Upgrade (2018)

• Seth Gecko — From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

• Cecilia "Cee" Kress — The Invisible Man (2020)

• Private Cooper — Dog Soldiers

• Quintus Dias — Centurion (2010)

• Lucius Vorenus & Titus Pullo — Rome (HBO)

• Seth Bullock & Al Swearengen — Deadwood (HBO)

• Alita — Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

• O.J. Haywood — Nope (2022)

• Puss In Boots & Perrito — Puss In Boots: The Last Wish

• Po — Kung Fu Panda 2

• Bob Belcher — Bob's Burgers

• Atticus Finch — To Kill A Mockingbird

• John Rambo — First Blood

• Bruce Wayne/Batman — Batman (1989)

• Logan/Wolverine — Logan (2017)

• Charlie Shakespeare — Deathwatch (2002)

• Edward Boyce & Lewis Ford — Overlord (2018)

• Solomon Kane — Solomon Kane (2009)

• Alan Wake — Alan Wake (2010)

• Private/Sergeant J.T. "Joker" Davis — Full Metal Jacket

• Lee Everett — Telltale's The Walking Dead (Season 1)

• Bigby Wolf — Telltale's The Wolf Among Us

• Heather Mason — Silent Hill 3

And that's just merely the tip of the iceberg.

[against1a1dark1background]

[cinemgc]

Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979, Estados Unidos)

[brody75]

Apocalypse Now (1979)

[eltonjohndenver]

im so tired on everyone sucking marlon brando’s dick for his like 15 minutes of mumbling in Apocalypse Now when martin sheen is out here popping his whole pussy for 3 hours and 15 minutes

[harrypotterhousequotes]

SLYTHERIN:

"COLONEL WALTER E. KURTZ: Are you an assassin? CAPTAIN BENJAMIN L. WILLARD: I'm a soldier. COLONEL WALTER E. KURTZ: You're neither. You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill."

–Francis Ford Coppola + John Milius (Apocalypse Now)

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Source

[pedroam-bang]

Apocalypse Now (1979)

[storypraxis]

The horror... the horror...

[shinigabi-tan]

MARTIN SHEEN as Captain Benjamin L. Willard APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)

[dailyflicks]

Martin Sheen as Captain Benjamin L. Willard in APOCALYPSE NOW dir. Francis Ford Coppola | 1979

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MARTIN SHEEN as Captain Benjamin L. Willard APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)