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1941, Empire of the Sun, Apocalypse Now, Hook, The Good Dinosaur, Finding Dory and Blackfish Wikipedia film pages
1941 (film)
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Not to be confused with 1941 in film or 1941.
1941
1941 movie.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Steven Spielberg
Produced by
Buzz Feitshans
Screenplay by
Robert Zemeckis
Bob Gale
Story by
Robert Zemeckis
Bob Gale
John Milius
Starring
Dan Aykroyd
Ned Beatty
John Belushi
Lorraine Gary
Murray Hamilton
Christopher Lee
Tim Matheson
Nancy Allen
Warren Oates
Robert Stack
Treat Williams
Music by
John Williams
Cinematography
William A. Fraker
Editing by
Michael Kahn
Studio
A-Team Productions
Columbia Pictures
Universal Pictures
Distributed by
Universal Pictures (US)
Columbia Pictures (International)
Release dates
December 14, 1979
Running time
118 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$32 million[1]
Box office
$94,875,000[1]
1941 is a 1979 period comedy film directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, and featuring an ensemble cast including Dan Aykroyd, Ned Beatty, John Belushi, John Candy, Christopher Lee, Toshiro Mifune and Robert Stack. The story involves a panic in the Los Angeles area after the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
Although not as financially or critically successful as many of Spielberg's other films, it received belated popularity after an expanded version aired on ABC, and its subsequent home video reissues, raising it to cult status.[2]
Co-writer Gale stated the plot is loosely based on what has come to be known as the Great Los Angeles Air Raid of 1942 as well as the shelling of the Ellwood oil refinery, near Santa Barbara by a Japanese submarine. Many other events in the film were based on real incidents, including the Zoot Suit Riots and an incident in which the U.S. Army placed an anti-aircraft gun in a homeowner's yard on the Maine coast.[3]
Contents [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Musical score and soundtrack
5 Alternate versions
6 Reception
7 Accolades
8 References
9 External links
Plot[edit]
On Saturday, December 13, 1941 at 7:01 a.m., a woman goes swimming somewhere on the California coast, only to find a Japanese submarine surfacing beneath her. The submarine crew believes they have arrived in Hollywood, and the vessel submerges while the woman swims to safety.
Later that morning, a 10th Armored Division tank crew, consisting of Sergeant Frank Tree, Corporal Chuck Sitarski, and Privates Foley, Reese, and Henshaw, are at a restaurant where dishwasher Wally Stephens works. Wally is planning to enter a dance contest with Betty Douglas, against the wishes of Ward, her father. Sitarski takes an instant dislike to Wally, particularly his civilian attire, and trips him. A fight ensues, leading to Wally losing his job. Wally later takes his friend Dennis shopping for a zoot suit and steals one.
In Death Valley, cigar-chomping, unruly Army Air Corps Captain Wild Bill Kelso lands his Curtiss P-40 fighter near a grocery store and gas station; while refueling, Kelso accidentally blows up the station.
In Los Angeles, Major General Joseph W. Stilwell attempts to keep the public calm. At a press conference at Daugherty Field in Long Beach, Captain Loomis Birkhead is attracted to the General's secretary, Donna Stratten. He lures her into a bomber to seduce her, aware that Donna is sexually aroused by airplanes. When his attempts at seduction fail, she punches him and accidentally knocks him out; as he falls, he lands on a bomb release control, sending a bomb rolling towards the podium just as the General promises, "There will be no bombs dropped here." It explodes, though Stilwell escapes.
At the Douglas family home in Santa Monica, Wally is told by Betty and her friend Maxine, both USO hostesses, that he cannot enter the USO dance because he is not a serviceman. Wally is forced to hide when Ward shows up. Sgt. Tree and his tank crew arrive to deliver an anti-aircraft battery; Sitarski is attracted to Betty and about to ask her to the dance when Wally falls on him from a loft. Ward and Sitarski dump him in a garbage truck.
The Japanese sub becomes lost trying to find Los Angeles when the ship's compass is broken. A landing party looking for "Hollywood" instead captures Hollis "Holly" Wood, who reveals only his name, occupation, and social security number. They see he has a small Cracker Jack compass, but he swallows it. Hollis escapes, hoping to find the authorities.
That night, Stilwell goes to a showing of Dumbo. Birkhead and Donna are at the 501st Bomb Disbursement Unit in Barstow, where Colonel "Mad Man" Maddox shows them the unit's aircraft. Maddox, convinced the Japanese are sending paratroops into the hills near Pomona, lets Birkhead and Donna borrow a plane, assuming they are going on a reconnaissance flight. Donna, stimulated by the entire experience, eagerly ravishes Birkhead during the flight.
Outside the USO, Sitarski kicks aside Wally and drags Betty into the dance. Maxine tags along. Wally sneaks in by wearing a stolen Shore Patrol uniform, He steals away Betty and they win the dance contest whilst evading Sitarski, who is pursued by Maxine. As the contest ends, Sitarski finally punches Wally, setting off a brawl between soldiers and sailors.
Sgt. Tree arrives with his team, just as L.A. goes to Red Alert with an unknown aircraft in the air. At the Douglas' home, Ward spots the sub. Birkhead and Donna fly over L.A., causing anti-aircraft batteries to open fire. Kelso shoots down Birkhead's plane, which lands in the La Brea Tar Pits (the crash only momentarily interrupting his tryst with Donna). Kelso then sees the submarine, only to be shot down by two spotters (who were positioned on the ferris wheel) who mistake his plane for a Japanese fighter.
Sitarski is about to make off with Betty when she is rescued by Wally, who knocks Sitarski cold. They find Kelso, who informs them about the sub. Wearing an army uniform, Wally commandeers Tree's tank and heads toward Pacific Ocean Amusement Park. Ward begins firing at the submarine, causing massive damage to his house in the process. The submarine returns fire, hitting the ferris wheel, which rolls into the ocean. The tank sinks when the pier collapses. Kelso drives a motorbike into the ocean and swims to the submarine, where he is captured by the Japanese; undaunted, he declares, "Take me to Tokyo!"
On Sunday morning, December 14, Stilwell arrives at the remains of the Douglas home, where most of the other protagonists have been drawn. Ward delivers an inspirational speech to those present, vowing that Christmas will not be ruined; to punctuate his point, he nails a wreath to his front door, and the impact destabilizes the unstable house, bringing it crashing down. The General simply mutters as he walks away, "It's gonna be a 'long' war."
Cast[edit]
Dan Aykroyd as Motor Sergeant Frank Tree
Ned Beatty as Ward Douglas
John Belushi as Captain "Wild" Bill Kelso, U.S. Army Air Corps
Lorraine Gary as Joan Douglas
Murray Hamilton as Claude Crumn
Christopher Lee as Captain Wolfgang von Kleinschmidt
Tim Matheson as Captain Loomis Birkhead
Toshirō Mifune as Commander Akiro Mitamura
Warren Oates as Colonel "Madman" Maddox
Robert Stack as Major General Joseph W. Stilwell
Treat Williams as Corporal Chuck "Stretch" Sitarski
Nancy Allen as Donna Stratton
Eddie Deezen as Herbie Kazlminsky
Bobby Di Cicco as Wally Stephens
Dianne Kay as Betty Douglas
Slim Pickens as Hollis P. Wood
Wendie Jo Sperber as Maxine Dexheimer
Lionel Stander as Angelo Scioli
Jordan Brian as Macey Douglas
John Candy as Private First Class Foley
Perry Lang as Dennis DeSoto
Patti LuPone as Lydia Hedberg
Frank McRae as Pvt. Ogden Johnson Jones
Steven Mond as Gus Douglas
Michael McKean as Willy
John Landis as Mizerany
Mickey Rourke as Reese
Joe Flaherty as Raoul Lipschitz aka Sal Stewart
Ignatius Wolfington as Meyer Mishkin
Lucille Benson as Gas Mama (Eloise)
Elisha Cook Jr. as The Patron (Dexter)
Susan Backlinie as Polar Bear Woman
Andy Tennant as Babyface
Robert Houston as Maddox's Soldier
Penny Marshall as Miss Fitzroy
James Caan as Soldier in fight
Production[edit]
According to Steven Spielberg's appearance in the documentary Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures, Kubrick suggested that 1941 should have been marketed as a drama rather than a comedy. The chaos of the events following Pearl Harbor attack in 1941 is summarized by Dan Aykroyd's character, Sgt. Tree, who states "he cannot stand Americans fighting Americans."[3]
1941 is also notable as one of the few American films featuring Toshirō Mifune, a popular Japanese actor. It is also the only American film in which Mifune used his own voice in speaking Japanese and English. In his previous movies, Mifune's lines were dubbed by Paul Frees.[3]
Both John Wayne and Charlton Heston were originally offered the role of Major General Stilwell with Wayne still considered for a cameo in the film. After reading the script, he decided not to participate, due to ill health, but also urged Spielberg to not pursue the project. Both Wayne and Heston felt the film was unpatriotic. Spielberg recalled, "[Wayne] was really curious and so I sent him the script. He called me the next day and said he felt it was a very un-American movie, and I shouldn't waste my time making it. He said, 'You know, that was an important war, and you're making fun of a war that cost thousands of lives at Pearl Harbor. Don't joke about World War II'." [4]
Despite John Wayne's opposition to the film, the use of the Irish folk tune The Rakes of Mallow as background music during the riot scenes was something of an homage to his film The Quiet Man, in which the same tune was used during the protracted fistfight between Wayne's character and Victor McLaglen's.
Susan Backlinie reprised her role as the first victim in Spielberg's Jaws by playing the young woman seen at the beginning of the film.[3] The gas station that Wild Bill Kelso accidentally blows up early in the film is the same one seen in Spielberg's 1971 TV film, Duel, with Lucille Benson appearing as the proprietor in both films. Inadvertent comedic effects ensued when John Belushi in character as Captain Wild Bill Kelso slipped off the wing of his aircraft after being lifted by two soldiers. It was a real accident and Belushi had to be hospitalized, but the shot was left in the movie as it fit his eccentric character.[5]
During the USO riot scene, when a naked MP is tossed into the window of a restaurant from the fire truck, John Belushi plays the patron eating spaghetti. He is in makeup to look like Marlon Brando in The Godfather, which he famously parodied on the sketch comedy TV series Saturday Night Live. Belushi told Spielberg he wanted to appear as a second character and the idea struck Spielberg as humorous.[3] At the beginning of the USO riot, one of the "extras" dressed as sailors is actor James Caan. Making his first screen appearance is Mickey Rourke as Private First Class Reese of Sgt. Tree's tank group.[6]
The M3 tank Lulu Belle (named after a race horse) and fashioned from a mocked-up tractor, paid homage to its forebear in Humphrey Bogart's 1943 movie Sahara where an authentic M3 named Lulubelle was prominently featured.[7]
Renowned modelmaker Greg Jein worked on the film, and would later use the hull number "NCC-1941" for the starship USS Bozeman in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.[8]
1941 is dedicated to the memory of Charlsie Bryant, a longtime script supervisor at Universal Studios. She had served in that capacity on both Jaws and Close Encounters, and would have reprised those duties with this film had she not unexpectedly died.[9]
Special effects[edit]
The Oscar-winning team of L. B. Abbott and A.D. Flowers were in charge of the special effects on 1941. Careful consideration for production values was indicated in "...there are no tell-tale lines around any element of the composite photography. This is blue-screen work at its best."[10] 1941 is widely recognized for its Academy Award-nominated special-effects laden progressive action and camera sequences.[11][N 1]
There was a scene shot for the end of the film, in which Slim Pickens's Hollis Wood character caught Christopher Lee's Nazi officer. A still from this scene appeared in the September 1990 issue of Starlog magazine. Lee said: "At the end of 1941, I'm the first Nazi captured in the US by Slim Pickens."
Trailer[edit]
The advance teaser trailer for 1941, directed by the film's executive producer/co-story writer John Milius, featured a voice-over by Aykroyd as Belushi lands his plane and gives the audience a pep-talk to join the armed forces, else they will find one morning that "the street signs will be written in Japanese!" In the trailer, Kelso's name is Wild Wayne Kelso.[13]
Musical score and soundtrack[edit]
The musical score for 1941 was composed and conducted by John Williams. The titular march is used throughout the film and is perhaps the most memorable piece written for it. (Spielberg has said it is his favorite Williams march.) The score also includes swing composition titled "Swing, Swing, Swing" composed by John Williams. In addition, the score includes a sound-alike version of Glenn Miller's "In the Mood", the soundtrack uses two songs by The Andrews Sisters, "Daddy" and "Down by the Ohio", and the Irish song "The Rakes of Mallow" is used during the ballroom fight. The following tracks were released on the initial Arista Records LP (and later issued on CD by Varèse Sarabande Records)
1.The March From 1941
2.The Invasion
3.The Sentries
4.Riot At The U.S.O.
5.To Hollywood And Glory
6.Swing, Swing, Swing
7.The Battle Of Hollywood
8.The Ferris Wheel Sequence
9.Finale of 1941
The LaserDisc and DVD versions of the film have isolated music channels with additional cues not heard on the first soundtrack album.
In 2011, La-La Land Records, in conjunction with Sony Music and NBCUniversal, issued an expanded 2-CD soundtrack of the complete John Williams score as recorded for the film, plus never-before-heard alternate cues, source music, and a remastered version of the original album. Disc One, containing the film score, presents the music as Williams originally conceived based on early cuts of the movie.[14][15][16]
La-La Land 2-CD Album[edit]
Disc One[edit]
The Film Score
No.
Title
Length
1. "“1941” Main Title" 1:36
2. "Chrissie Takes Another Swim**" 4:38
3. "Sub Commander / Wild Bill Kelso**" 3:44
4. "Donna’s Obsession /Birkhead’s Pitch**" 2:59
5. "Poppa’s Got a Gun*" 1:13
6. "You Have Been Chosen / You, You, You*" 2:11
7. "Capture of Hollis /Kelso Lost*" 3:08
8. "The Crackerjack Box*" 1:30
9. "The Sentries**" 2:17
10. "The Escape of Hollis*" 1:17
11. "More About Donna*" 1:02
12. "The Count Down / Swing, Swing, Swing**" 4:41
13. "The Brannigan" 1:19
14. "Here We Go" 4:22
15. "Kelso in Barstow**" 3:42
16. "Service Tunes*" 0:50
17. "Encounters*" 0:56
18. "Kelso’s Attack / Deep in the Heart of Texas**" 3:15
19. "Eat Lead*" 2:48
20. "Defending the Homeland*" 1:46
21. "Wally Saves Betty**" 2:00
22. "Sound Off / Stolen Motorcycle*" 4:23
23. "Ward's Big Gun*" 1:45
24. "Going My Way Sister*" 2:08
25. "More Kelso" 0:59
26. "Taking Aim*" 1:10
27. "The Ferris Wheel**" 3:08
28. "The Tank Approaches /Finale*" 5:26
29. "“1941” End Credits" 6:18
Disc Two[edit]
The 1979 Soundtrack Album
No.
Title
Length
1. "The March From "1941"" 4:11
2. "The Invasion" 8:20
3. "The Sentries" 3:31
4. "Riot at the U.S.O." 1:18
5. "To Hollywood and Glory" 3:14
6. "Swing, Swing, Swing" 4:06
7. "The Battle of Hollywood" 5:39
8. "The Ferris Wheel Sequence" 1:29
9. "Finale" 6:16
Source Music
No.
Title
Length
10. "In the Mood H: Music by Joe Garland and Andy Razaf; Arranged by Glenn Miller; Shapiro Bernstein & Co. Inc." 3:43
11. "Jingle Bells*: Music by James Lord Pierpont" 2:59
12. "Down By the Ohio (Instrumental)*: Music by Abe Olman / Jack Yellen; Cromwell Music Inc / Jack Yellen Music" 3:57
13. "Play-Off*" 0:15
14. "Goodnight, Sweetheart*: Music by Ray Noble, Jimmy Campbell, Rudy Vallee, and Reg Connelly; EMI Robbins Catalog Inc" 1:42
Additional Music
No.
Title
Length
15. "Promo Trailer*" 2:30
16. "Sub Commander / Wild Bill Kelso/Capture of Hollis (alternate)**" 4:23
17. "The Escape of Hollis(alternate)*" 1:14
18. "Kelso in Barstow (alternate)**" 3:43
19. "Defending the Homeland(alternate)*" 1:06
20. "Sound Off (alternate)*" 2:41
21. "More Kelso (alternate)" 0:55
22. "Finale (alternate)*" 3:04
23. ""1941" End Credits(alternate)" 6:55
Note: * Previously unreleased; ** Contains previously unreleased material; * Traditional, Based on "The Rakes Of Mallow," Arranged by John Williams; ** Including “By the Beautiful Sea” Words: Harold R.Atteridge, Music: Harry Carroll; Published by Shapiro, Bernstein & Col,Inc.; Track 16 co-written with A. H. Miles and D. Savino;Track 18, written by D. Swander and J. Hershey; and Track 22 written by W.L.Duckworth.
Alternate versions[edit]
The film was previewed at approximately two and a half hours, but Columbia Pictures and Universal Studios, which both had a major financial investment, felt it was too long to be a blockbuster. The initial theatrical release was edited down to just under two hours, against Spielberg's wishes.[17] After the success of his 1980 "Special Edition" of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Spielberg was given permission to create his own "extended cut" of 1941 to represent his original director's cut. This was done for network television (it was only shown on ABC one time, but it was seen years later on The Disney Channel). A similar extended version (with additional footage and a few subtle changes) was released on LaserDisc, VHS, and later on DVD.[18]
Heavy Metal and Arrow Books produced a magazine sized comic tie in to the film, by Stephen R. Bissette & Rick Veitch, which rather than being a straight adaptation, varies wildly and humorously from the movie.[19]
Reception[edit]
Although a box office success, it did not turn out to be the blockbuster the two studios were hoping for. It was considered a flop in comparison to Spielberg's previous record on Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Writer Bob Gale defended it in a DVD documentary:
It is down in the history books as a big flop, but it wasn't a flop. The movie didn't make the kind of money that Steven's other movies, Steven's most successful movies have made, obviously. But the movie was by no means a flop. And both Universal and Columbia have come out of it just fine.
Spielberg joked at one point that he considered converting 1941 into a musical halfway into production and mused that "in retrospect, that might have helped."[20] In a 1990 interview with British film pundit Barry Norman, Spielberg admitted that the mixed reception to 1941 was one of the biggest lessons of his career citing personal arrogance that had got in the way after the runaway success of Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He also regretted ceding control of 1941s action and miniature sequences (such as the ferris wheel collapse in the film's finale) to second unit directors and model units, something which he would not do in his next film - Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Parodies of 1941 have cropped up in a number of unusual ways, including one by Spielberg himself. In an episode of Spielberg's Animaniacs, where Yakko, Wakko, and Dot inhabit a giant video store, a video copy of 1941 is used as a weapon, an exploding bomb.[21]
According to Jack Nicholson, director Stanley Kubrick allegedly told Spielberg that 1941 was "great, but not funny."[22]
1941 currently holds a 32% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 22 reviews.
Accolades[edit]
The film received three nominations at the 1980 Academy Awards.[23][24]
Nominated:
William A. Fraker, A.D. Flowers and Gregory Jein for Best Effects Visual Effects
William A. Fraker for Best Cinematography
Robert Knudson, Robert Glass, Don MacDougall and Gene S. Cantamessa for Best Sound
References[edit]
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Quote: "The special effects are beautifully done."[12]
Citations[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b "1941, Box Office Information." The Numbers, September 27, 2012.
2.Jump up ^ "What is Cult Film?" for68.com, Beijing ICP, January 13, 2006. Retrieved: April 10, 2009.
3.^ Jump up to: a b c d e The Making of 1941, Universal home video DVD
4.Jump up ^ "John Wayne - John Wayne Urged Steven Spielberg Not To Make War Comedy." contactmusic.com. 2 December 2011. Retrieved: December 2, 2011.
5.Jump up ^ Erickson, Glenn. "1941 - A giant comedy, only with guns!" DVD Savant, 1999. Retrieved: December 16, 2012.
6.Jump up ^ Heard 2006, p. 22.
7.Jump up ^ Nelson, Erik. "The Perfect Double Bill:'The Hurt Locker' and Bogart’s 1943 'Sahara'." Salon, January 12, 2010.
8.Jump up ^ "First Person: Greg Jein." CBS Entertainment. Retrieved: October 19, 2011.
9.Jump up ^ "Review of 1941 (1979)." Time Out, New York.
10.Jump up ^ Culhane 1981, p. 127.
11.Jump up ^ Culhane 1981, pp. 126–129.
12.Jump up ^ Dolan 1985, pp. 98–99.
13.Jump up ^ "Trailer for 1941. Youtube. Retrieved: October 10, 2012.
14.Jump up ^ "La-La Land Records, 1941." La-La Land Records, September 27, 2011. Retrieved: October 8, 2011.
15.Jump up ^ 1941: Complete Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Liner notes by Mike Matessino, La-La Land Records/Sony Music/NBCUniversal, 2011.
16.Jump up ^ "JWFan Exclusive – Interview with Producer Mike Matessino about ’1941′." JWFan.com, September 26, 2011. Retrieved: October 8, 2011.
17.Jump up ^ McBride 2011, p. 298.
18.Jump up ^ Hunt, Bill. "1941 (Collector's Edition)" digitalbits.com, March 23, 1999. Retrieved: September 16, 2011.
19.Jump up ^ [1]
20.Jump up ^ Bonham and Kay 1979
21.Jump up ^ Animaniacs: May 1996. "Animaniacs." Retrieved: February 10, 2007.
22.Jump up ^ Ciment et al. 2003, p. 297.
23.Jump up ^ "Awards listing." Internet Movie Database. Retrieved: September 16, 2011.
24.Jump up ^ "1941 Cast, Credit & Awards." The New York Times, 2011. Retrieved: September 16, 2011.
Bibliography[edit]
Bonham, Joseph and Joe Kay, eds.Bombs Awaayyy!!! The Official 1941 Magazine. New York: Starlog Press, 1979.
Bonham, Joseph and Joe Kay, eds. 1941: The Poster Book. New York: Starlog Press, 1979.
Ciment, Michel, Gilbert Adair and Robert Bononno. "Interview: Jack Nicholson." Kubrick: The Definitive Edition. New York: Faber & Faber, Inc., 2003. ISBN 978-0-571-21108-1.
Clarke, James. Steven Spielberg. London: Pocket Essentials, 2004. ISBN 1-904048-29-3.
Culhane, John. Special Effects in the Movies: How They Do it. New York: Ballantine Books, 1981. ISBN 0-345-28606-5.
Crawley, Tony. The Steven Spielberg Story. New York: William Morrow, 1983. ISBN 0-688-02510-2.
Dolan, Edward F. Jr. Hollywood Goes to War. London: Bison Books, 1985. ISBN 0-86124-229-7.
Erickson, Glenn and Mary Ellen Trainor. The Making of 1941. New York: Ballantine Books, 1980. ISBN 0-345-28924-2.
Freer, Ian. The Complete Spielberg. New York: Virgin Books, 2001. ISBN 0-7535-0556-8.
Heard, Christopher. Mickey Rourke: High and Low. Medford, New Jersey: Plexus Publishing, 2006. ISBN 978-0-85965-386-2.
McBride, Joseph. Steven Spielberg: A Biography. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2011. ISBN 978-1-60473-836-0.
1941, the making of (DVD Commentary). 1999.
Sinyard, Neil. The Films of Steven Spielberg. London: Bison Books, 1986. ISBN 0-86124-352-8.
"Steven Spielberg: The Collectors Edition". Empire Magazine, 2004.
External links[edit]
1941 at the Internet Movie Database
1941 at Rotten Tomatoes
1941 at Box Office Mojo
1941 at allmovie
Time Out, New York: Review of 1941 (1979)
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Empire of the Sun (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article is about the film. For other uses, see Empire of the Sun (disambiguation).
Empire of the Sun
Against the backdrop of orange sun is the smoke trail of a falling aircraft. In the foreground is the silhouette of a boy jumping for joy.
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Steven Spielberg
Produced by
Steven Spielberg
Frank Marshall
Kathleen Kennedy
Robert Shapiro
Screenplay by
Tom Stoppard
Based on
Empire of the Sun
by J. G. Ballard
Starring
Christian Bale
John Malkovich
Miranda Richardson
Nigel Havers
Music by
John Williams
Cinematography
Allen Daviau
Editing by
Michael Kahn
Studio
Amblin Entertainment
Distributed by
Warner Bros.
Release dates
December 11, 1987 (Premiere)
December 25, 1987 (United States)
Running time
154 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Japanese
Mandarin Chinese
Budget
$35 million[1]
Box office
$66.24 million
Empire of the Sun is a 1987 American coming of age war film based on J. G. Ballard's semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. Steven Spielberg directed the film, which stars Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, and Nigel Havers. The film tells the story of Jamie "Jim" Graham, a young boy who goes from living in a wealthy British family in Shanghai, to becoming a prisoner of war in a Japanese internment camp, during World War II.
Harold Becker and David Lean were originally to direct before Spielberg came on board, initially as a producer for Lean.[2] Spielberg was attracted to directing the film because of a personal connection to Lean's films and World War II topics. He considers it to be his most profound work on "the loss of innocence".[1] The film received critical acclaim but was not initially a box office success, earning only $22,238,696 at the US box office, but it eventually more than recouped its budget through revenues in other markets.[3]
Contents [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Reception
5 Themes
6 Popular culture
7 See also
8 References
9 External links
Plot[edit]
Japan had been at war with China since 1937 before declaring war on the United States and the United Kingdom. Amidst the war, Jamie Graham, a British upper middle class schoolboy fascinated with airplanes, is enjoying a privileged and spoiled life in the Shanghai International Settlement. At a costume party he attends with his parents, he wanders off and encounters a Japanese airplane that had been shot down, nearby, he finds a camp full of Japanese troops in a trench and is taken aback. He leaves, not realizing the impending danger. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese begin to occupy the Shanghai International Settlement and in the ensuing chaos to escape the city and catch the next ferry out of Shanghai, Jamie is separated from his parents in the crowds of panicking people. Jamie spots his mother at a distance but because she is unable to go through the crowd and reach him, she tells him to wait for them back at their house and promises that they will come back for him. He spends some time living in his deserted house, waiting and eating remnants of food but eventually he ventures out into the city and finds it bustling with Japanese troops.
Hungry, he desperately tries to surrender to the Japanese troops who shrug and laugh him off. After being chased by a street kid, he is almost hit by a truck. He is taken in by Basie, an American sailor who nicknames him "Jim", and his companion. Unable to sell his teeth for cash, they intend to leave him in the streets but Jamie promises that he knows where there are houses filled with opulent things they can sell and leads them to his neighborhood. After attempting to enter a house, Jamie is captured along with Basie and his companion and are taken to Lunghua Civilian Assembly Center in Shanghai. Later, a truck arrives to take selected internees to the Soochow Creek Internment Camp. Basie is among those selected to go but Jamie is not. Because he knows of the camp's location, Jamie convinces them to take him by providing directions to the driver with whom he is in constant disagreement about which way to go.
By 1945, a few months before the end of the Pacific War, Jim has established a good living, despite the poor conditions of the camp. He has an extensive trading network, even involving the camp's commanding officer, Sergeant Nagata. Dr. Rawlins, the camp's British doctor, becomes a father figure to Jim. Through the barbwire fencing, Jim befriends a Japanese teenager, who shares Jim's dream of becoming a pilot. Still idolizing Basie, Jim frequently visits him in the American soldiers' barracks. At one point, Basie charges him to set snare traps outside the wire of the camp and while Jim succeeds, thanks to the help of the Japanese teenager from the other side, the real reason for sending Jim into the marsh was actually to test the area for land mines. As a reward, Basie allows Jim to move into the American barracks with him. Basie then plots to escape.
Nagata visits Basie's barracks and beats him severely after discovering a stolen bar of Japanese soap. While Basie is in the infirmary, his possessions are stolen by other men in the barracks. One morning at dawn, Jim witnesses a kamikaze ritual of three Japanese pilots at the air base. Overcome with emotion at the solemnity of the ceremony, he begins to sing the Welsh song "Suo Gân". A few minutes later the camp comes under attack by a group of American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft. As a result of the attack the Japanese decide to evacuate the camp. During the confusion, Basie escapes, leaving Jim behind, although he had promised to take Jim with him. The camp's prisoners march through the wilderness where many die of fatigue, starvation, and disease. During the march, Jim witnesses a flash from the atomic bombing of Nagasaki hundreds of miles away, and later hears news of Japan's surrender and the end of the war.
Jim sneaks away from the group at a football stadium near Nantao, filled with items confiscated by the Japanese, and goes back to Soochow Creek, nearly dead from starvation. He encounters the Japanese teenager he knew earlier, who has since become a pilot and appears distraught at the surrender of his country. The youth remembers Jim and offers him a mango, cutting it for him with his katana. As Jim is about to eat it, Basie reappears with a group of armed Americans, who have arrived to loot the Red Cross containers. One of the Americans, thinking Jim is in danger, shoots and kills the Japanese youth. Jim, furious, beats the American who shot his friend. Basie drags him off and promises to take him back to Shanghai to find his parents, but Jim refuses the offer and stays behind. He is found by American soldiers and put in an orphanage in Shanghai with other children who had lost their parents. When his parents come looking for him, Jim is so scarred from his experiences that he does not recognize them at first.
Cast[edit]
Christian Bale as Jamie "Jim" Graham, who goes from living in a wealthy British family in Shanghai, to becoming a prisoner of war during World War II. J. G. Ballard felt Bale had a physical resemblance to himself at the same age.[4] The actor was 12 years old when he was cast. Amy Irving, Bale's co-star in the television movie Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna, recommended Bale to her then-husband, Steven Spielberg, for the role. Over 4,000 child actors auditioned.[5]
John Malkovich as Basie: An American ship steward stranded in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation. He forms a friendship with Jamie, giving him the nickname "Jim".
Joe Pantoliano as Frank Demarest: A companion of Basie, he was the one who almost hit Jamie with a truck. He joins Frank and Jamie at the prison camp.
Miranda Richardson as Mrs. Victor: A British woman who was Jim's "neighbor" at Suzhou. She dies in a stadium to which they moved right after the bombing of the prison camp. Jim sees a bright light in the sky to the East. He believes it is her soul floating to Heaven but finds out later it was the flash from the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, hundreds of miles away.
Nigel Havers as Dr. Rawlins: Jim's father figure at Suzhou. Rawlins finds difficulty teaching Jim humility.
Cast notes[edit]
Smaller roles in the film by notable actors include Leslie Phillips, Burt Kwouk, Robert Stephens, Emily Richard, Paul McGann, Joe Pantoliano, and Ben Stiller, with Masatō Ibu and Guts Ishimatsu as Japanese soldiers. Ballard himself makes a cameo appearance at the costume party scene.[4] Stiller conceived the idea for Tropic Thunder while performing in Empire of the Sun.[6]
Production[edit]
Warner Bros. purchased the film rights, intending Harold Becker to direct and Robert Shapiro to produce.[7] Tom Stoppard wrote the first draft of the screenplay, on which Ballard briefly collaborated.[8] Becker dropped out, and David Lean came to direct with Spielberg as producer. Lean explained, "I worked on it for about a year and in the end I gave it up because I thought it was too similar to a diary. It was well-written and interesting, but I gave it to Steve."[7] Spielberg felt "from the moment I read J. G. Ballard's novel I secretly wanted to direct myself."[7] Spielberg found the project to be very personal. As a child, his favorite film was Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai, which similarly takes place in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. Spielberg's obsession with World War II and the aircraft of that era was stimulated by his father's stories of his experience as a radio operator on North American B-25 Mitchell bombers in the China-Burma Theater.[7] Spielberg hired Menno Meyjes to do an uncredited rewrite before Stoppard was brought back to write the shooting script.[8]
Empire of the Sun was filmed at Elstree Studios in the United Kingdom, and on location in Shanghai and Spain. The filmmakers searched across Asia in an attempt to find locations that resembled 1941 Shanghai. They entered negotiations with Shanghai Film Studios and China Film Co-Production Corporation in 1985.[9] After a year of negotiations, permission was granted for a three-week shoot in early March 1987. It was the first American film shot in Shanghai since the 1940s.[8] The Chinese authorities allowed the crew to alter signs to traditional Chinese characters, as well as closing down city blocks for filming.[9] Over 5,000 local extras were used, some old enough to remember the Japanese occupation of Shanghai 40 years earlier. Members of the People's Liberation Army played Japanese soldiers.[4] Other locations included Trebujena in Andalusia, Knutsford in Cheshire and Sunningdale in Berkshire.[9] Lean often visited the set during the England shoot.[8]
Spielberg attempted to portray the era accurately, using period vehicles and aircraft including three A6M Zero full-scale replicas and three restored P-51D Mustang warbirds from the UK. These P-51s were flown by Ray Hanna (who was filmed flying past the child star with the canopy back, waving), his son Mark and "Hoof" Proudfoot and took over 10 days of filming to complete due to the complexity of the planned aerial sequences, which included the P-51s actually dropping plaster-filled replica 500 lb bombs at low level (although bomb blasts were simulated). A number of large scale flying models were also used, but as the results were, in some cases, disappointing, Spielberg himself extended the film contract with the full-size examples and pilots on set in Trebujena, Spain.[10]
Industrial Light & Magic designed the visual effects sequences with some computer-generated imagery also used for the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. Norman Reynolds was hired as the production designer while Vic Armstrong served as the stunt coordinator.[10]
Reception [edit]
Empire of the Sun was given a limited release on December 11, 1987, before being wide released on December 25, 1987. The film earned $22.24 million in North America,[3] and $44.46 million in other countries, accumulating a worldwide total of $66.7 million, earning more than its budget but still considered a box office disappointment by Spielberg.[N 1][8]
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 81% based on reviews from 36 critics.[12] By comparison Metacritic calculated an average score of 60%, based on 17 reviews.[13] J. G. Ballard gave positive feedback, and was especially impressed with Christian Bale's performance.[4] Critical reaction was not universally affirmative,[7] but Richard Corliss of Time stated that Spielberg "has energized each frame with allusive legerdemain and an intelligent density of images and emotions."[14] Janet Maslin from The New York Times called the film "a visual splendor, a heroic adventurousness and an immense scope that make it unforgettable."[15] Julie Salamon of The Wall Street Journal wrote that the film as "an edgy, intelligent script by playwright Tom Stoppard, Spielberg has made an extraordinary film out of Mr. Ballard's extraordinary war experience."[16] J. Hoberman from the Village Voice decried that the serious subject was undermined by Spielberg's "shamelessly kiddiecentric" approach.[7] Roger Ebert gave a mixed reaction, "[D]espite the emotional potential in the story, it didn't much move me. Maybe, like the kid, I decided that no world where you can play with airplanes can be all that bad."[17] On his TV show with Gene Siskel, Ebert said that the film “is basically a good idea for a film that never gets off the ground”. Siskel added, “I don’t know what the film is about. It’s so totally confused and taking things from different parts. On one hand, if it wants to say something about a child’s-eye view of war, you got a movie made by John Boorman called Hope and Glory that was just released that is much better, and much more daring in showing the whimsy that children’s view of war is. On the other hand, this film wants to hedge its bet and make it like an adventure film, so you’ve got like Indiana Jones with the John Malkovich character helping the little kid through all the fun of war. I don’t know what Spielberg wanted to do.”[18]
Awards [edit]
In his second starring role, Bale received a special citation for Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, an award specially created for his performance in Empire of the Sun.[19] At the 60th Academy Awards, Empire of the Sun was nominated for Art Direction, Cinematography, Editing, Original Music Score, Costume Design, and Sound (Robert Knudson, Don Digirolamo, John Boyd and Tony Dawe). It did not convert any of the nominations into awards.[20] Allen Daviau, who was nominated as cinematographer, publicly complained, "I can't second-guess the Academy, but I feel very sorry that I get nominations and Steven doesn't. It's his vision that makes it all come together, and if Steven wasn't making these films, none of us would be here."[8] The film won awards for cinematography, sound design, and music score at the 41st British Academy Film Awards. The nominations included production design, costume design, and adapted screenplay.[21] Spielberg was honored by his work from the Directors Guild of America,[22] while the American Society of Cinematographers honored Allen Daviau.[23] Empire of the Sun was nominated for Best Motion Picture (Drama) and Original Score at the 45th Golden Globe Awards.[24] John Williams earned a Grammy Award nomination.[25]
Themes[edit]
Flying symbolizes Jim's possibility and danger of escape from the prison camp. His growing alienation from his prewar self and society is reflected in his hero-worship of the Japanese aviators based at the airfield adjoining the camp. "I think it's true that the Japanese were pretty brutal with the Chinese, so I don't have any particularly sentimental view of them," Ballard recalled. "But small boys tend to find their heroes where they can. One thing there was no doubt about, and that was that the Japanese were extremely brave. One had very complicated views about patriotism [and] loyalty to one's own nation. Jim is constantly identifying himself, first with the Japanese; then, when the Americans start flying over in their Mustangs and B-29s, he's very drawn to the Americans."[7]
The apocalyptic wartime setting and the climactic moment when Jim sees the distant white flash of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki gave Spielberg powerful visual metaphors "to draw a parallel story between the death of this boy's innocence and the death of the innocence of the entire world."[26] Spielberg reflected he "was attracted to the idea that this was a death of innocence, not an attenuation of childhood, which by my own admission and everybody's impression of me is what my life has been. This was the opposite of Peter Pan. This was a boy who had grown up too quickly."[1] Other topics that Spielberg previously dealt with, and are presented in Empire of the Sun, include a child being separated from his parents (The Sugarland Express, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Poltergeist)[N 2] and World War II (1941, and Raiders of the Lost Ark).[27] Spielberg explained "My parents got a divorce when I was 14, 15. The whole thing about separation is something that runs very deep in anyone exposed to divorce."[1]
Popular culture[edit]
The dramatic attack on the Japanese prisoner of war camp carried out by P-51 Mustangs is accompanied by Jim's whoops of "...the Cadillac of the skies!", a phrase believed to be first used in Ballard's text as "Cadillac of air combat"[28] and in the screenplay that has now entered urban mythology as being attributed to the war years.[citation needed] Steven Bull quotes the catchwords in the Encyclopedia of Military Technology and Innovation (2004) as originating in 1941.[29] John Williams' soundtrack includes the "Cadillac of the Skies" as an individual score cue. The phrase has now been appropriated by other aircraft including the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark in Australian service.[30]
See also[edit]
Empire of the Sun (soundtrack)
References[edit]
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ In 1989, Spielberg was quoted as saying: "...Empire of the Sun wasn't a very commercial project, it wasn't going to have a broad audience appeal... I've earned the right to fail commercially."[11]
2.Jump up ^ Film historian and author Kowalski collectively links these films as Spielberg's "family" or conversely, as his "displaced father" films.[27]
Citations[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b c d Forsberg, Myra. "Spielberg at 40: The Man and the Child." The New York Times, October 1, 2008. Retrieved: September 17, 2008.
2.Jump up ^ McBride 1997, p. 391.
3.^ Jump up to: a b " Empire of the Sun." Box Office Mojo (Amazon.com). Retrieved: September 16, 2008.
4.^ Jump up to: a b c d Sheen, Martin (narrator), Steven Spielberg, J. G. Ballard, and Christian Bale. The China Odyssey: Empire of the Sun American Broadcasting Company, 1987.
5.Jump up ^ Wills, Dominic. "Christian Bale Biography." Tiscali. Retrieved: September 16, 2008.
6.Jump up ^ Vary, Adam B. "First Look: Tropic Thunder." Entertainment Weekly, March 5, 2008. Retrieved: May 27, 2008.
7.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g McBride 1997, p. 392.
8.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f McBride 1997, pp. 394–398.
9.^ Jump up to: a b c Walker 1988, p. 49.
10.^ Jump up to: a b Walker 1988, pp. 63–65.
11.Jump up ^ Friedman and Notbohn 2000, p. 137.
12.Jump up ^ "Empire of the Sun." Rotten Tomatoes (Flixster). Retrieved: September 16, 2008.
13.Jump up ^ "Empire of the Sun (1987): Reviews." Metacritic (CBS). Retrieved: September 16, 2008.
14.Jump up ^ Corliss, Richard. "The Man-Child Who Fell to Earth: Empire of the Sun." Time, December 7, 1987. Retrieved: September 16, 2008.
15.Jump up ^ Maislin, Janet. "Empire of the Sun." The New York Times, December 9, 1987. Retrieved: September 16, 2008.
16.Jump up ^ Salmon, Julie. "Empire of the Sun." The Wall Street Journal, December 9, 1987. Retrieved: January 31, 2011.
17.Jump up ^ Ebert, Roger. "Empire of the Sun." Chicago Sun-Times, December 11, 1987. Retrieved: September 16, 2008.
18.Jump up ^ "Empire of the Sun." Siskel & Ebert. Disney-ABC Domestic Television. December 12, 1987. Television.
19.Jump up ^ "National Board of Review Special Citation: 1987 Awards." National Board of Review, 2003. Retrieved: January 31, 2011.
20.Jump up ^ "Nominees & Winners for the 60th Academy Awards" Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved: January 31, 2011.
21.Jump up ^ "41st British Academy Awards." Internet Movie Database. Retrieved: September 17, 2008.
22.Jump up ^ "DGA Awards: 1988." Internet Movie Database. Retrieved: September 17, 2008.
23.Jump up ^ "ASC Awards: 1988." Internet Movie Database. Retrieved: September 17, 2008.
24.Jump up ^ "The 45th Annual Golden Globe Awards (1988)". Golden Globes. Retrieved: January 31, 2011.
25.Jump up ^ "Grammy Awards: 1988." Internet Movie Database. Retrieved: September 17, 2008.
26.Jump up ^ McBride 1997, p. 393.
27.^ Jump up to: a b Kowalski 2008, pp. 35, 67.
28.Jump up ^ Ballard 1984, p. 151.
29.Jump up ^ Bull 2004, p. 184.
30.Jump up ^ "Hansard: Commonwealth of Australia Parliamentary Debates." House of Representatives Official Hansard, No. 17, November 27, 2006. Retrieved: September 26, 2009.
Bibliography[edit]
Ballard, J.G. Empire of the Sun. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., First edition 1984. ISBN 0-575-03483-1.
Bull, Steven. Encyclopedia of Military Technology and Innovation. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood, 2004. ISBN 978-1-57356-557-8.
Dolan, Edward F. Hollywood Goes to War. London: Hamlyn, 1985. ISBN 0-86124-229-7.
Evans, Alun. Brassey's Guide to War Films. Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books, 2000. ISBN 1-57488-263-5.
Friedman, Lester D. and Brent Notbohm. Steven Spielberg: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series). Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2000. ISBN 978-1-57806-113-6.
Gordon, Andrew and Frank Gormile. The Films of Steven Spielberg. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2002, pp. 109–123, 127–137. ISBN 0-8108-4182-7.
Hardwick, Jack and Ed Schnepf. "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies." The Making of the Great Aviation Films (General Aviation Series), Volume 2, 1989.
Kowalski, Dean A. Steven Spielberg and Philosophy: We're Gonna Need a Bigger Book. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8131-2527-5.
McBride, Joseph. Steven Spielberg: A Biography. New York: Faber & Faber, 1997. ISBN 0-571-19177-0.
Walker, Jeff. "Empire of the Sun." Air Classics, Volume 24, January 1988.
External links[edit]
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Empire of the Sun
Empire of the Sun at the Internet Movie Database
Empire of the Sun at the TCM Movie Database
Empire of the Sun at allmovie
Empire of the Sun at Rotten Tomatoes
Empire of the Sun at Box Office Mojo
Empire of the Sun at Metacritic
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Empire of the Sun
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For other uses, see Empire of the Sun (disambiguation).
Empire of the Sun
EmpireOfTheSun(1stEd).jpg
Cover of the first edition (hardback)
Author
J. G. Ballard
Cover artist
Pat Doyle[1]
Country
United Kingdom
Language
English
Genre
Autobiographical, War novel
Publisher
Gollancz
Publication date
13 September 1984
Media type
Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages
278 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN
ISBN 0-575-03483-1 (first edition, hardback)
OCLC
260149687
LC Class
PR6052.A46 E45x 1984b
Followed by
The Kindness of Women
Empire of the Sun is a 1984 novel by J. G. Ballard which was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Like Ballard's earlier short story, "The Dead Time" (published in the anthology Myths of the Near Future), it is essentially fiction but draws extensively on Ballard's experiences in World War II. The name of the novel is derived from the etymology of the name for Japan.
Ballard later wrote of his experiences in China as a boy and the making of the film of the same name in his autobiography Miracles of Life.
Contents [hide]
1 Plot
2 Film adaptation
3 Production
4 References
5 External links
Plot[edit]
The novel recounts the story of a young British boy, Jamie Graham (named after Ballard's two first names, "James Graham"), who lives with his parents in Shanghai. After the Pearl Harbor attack, Japan occupy the Shanghai International Settlement, and in the following chaos Jim becomes separated from his parents.
He spends some time in abandoned mansions, living on remnants of packaged food. Having exhausted the food supplies, he decides to try to surrender to the Japanese Army. After many attempts, he finally succeeds and is interned in the Lunghua Civilian Assembly Center.
Although the Japanese are "officially" the enemies, Jim identifies partly with them, both because he adores the pilots with their splendid machines and because he feels that Lunghua is still a comparatively safer place for him.
Towards the end of the war, with the Japanese army collapsing, the food supply runs short. Jim barely survives, with people around him starving to death. The camp prisoners are forced upon a march to Nantao, with many dying along the route. Jim then leaves the march and is saved from starvation by air drops from American Bombers. Jim returns to Lunghua camp and finds Dr. Ransome there, soon returning to his pre-war residence with his parents.
Film adaptation[edit]
Main article: Empire of the Sun (film)
The book was adapted by Tom Stoppard in 1987. The screenplay was filmed by Steven Spielberg, to critical acclaim, being nominated for six Oscars and winning three British Academy Awards (for cinematography, music and sound). It starred 13-year-old Christian Bale, as well as John Malkovich and Miranda Richardson; it also featured a cameo by the 21 year old Ben Stiller, in a dramatic role.
Production[edit]
Air sequences were filmed in Spain using two P-51D aircraft from 'The Fighter Collection' of England, and one Mustang from the 'Old Flying Machine Company'.[2] Four Harvard SNJ aircraft were lightly modified in France to resemble Mitsubishi A6M Zero aircraft. Two additional non-flying replicas were used. A 18 foot wingspan B-29 model was used along with six other scale RC planes.[3]
References[edit]
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2007)
1.Jump up ^ Modern first editions - a set on Flickr
2.Jump up ^ Air Classics: 10. January 1988.
3.Jump up ^ Air Classics: 63. January 1988.
Rossi, Umberto. “Mind is the Battlefield: Reading Ballard's ‘Life Trilogy’ as War Literature”, J. Baxter (ed.), J.G. Ballard, Contemporary Critical Perspectives, London, Continuum, 2008, 66-77.
External links[edit]
Listen to J. G. Ballard discussing Empire of the Sun - a British Library recording.
http://www.rickmcgrath.com/jgb.html The Terminal Collection: J. G. Ballard First Editions.
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Works by J. G. Ballard
Novels
The Wind from Nowhere (1961) ·
The Drowned World (1962) ·
The Burning World (1964) ·
The Crystal World (1966) ·
The Atrocity Exhibition (1969) ·
Crash (1973) ·
Concrete Island (1974) ·
High Rise (1975) ·
The Unlimited Dream Company (1979) ·
Hello America (1981) ·
Empire of the Sun (1984) ·
The Day of Creation (1987) ·
Running Wild (1988) ·
The Kindness of Women (1991) ·
Rushing to Paradise (1994) ·
Cocaine Nights (1996) ·
Super-Cannes (2000) ·
Millennium People (2003) ·
Kingdom Come (2006)
Short stories
"Mobile" (1957) ·
"Track 12" (1958) ·
"Zone of Terror" (1960) ·
"The Sound-Sweep" (1960) ·
"The Voices of Time" (1960) ·
"Studio 5, The Stars" (1961) ·
"Deep End" (1961) ·
"Mr F. is Mr F." (1961) ·
"Billennium" (1962) ·
"Minus One" (1963) ·
"The Recognition" (1967) ·
" The Day of Forever" (1967) ·
"The Concentration City" (1967) ·
"Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan" (1968) ·
"Venus Smiles" (1971)
Short story
collections
The Voices of Time and Other Stories (1962) ·
Billennium (1962) ·
Passport to Eternity (1963) ·
The Four-Dimensional Nightmare (1963) ·
The Terminal Beach (1964) ·
The Impossible Man (1966) ·
The Overloaded Man (1967) ·
The Disaster Area (1967) ·
The Day of Forever (1967) ·
Vermilion Sands (1971) ·
Chronopolis and Other Stories (1971) ·
Low-Flying Aircraft and Other Stories (1976) ·
The Best of J. G. Ballard (1977) ·
The Best Short Stories of J. G. Ballard (1978) ·
The Venus Hunters (1980) ·
Myths of the Near Future (1982) ·
The Voices of Time (1985) ·
Memories of the Space Age (1988) ·
War Fever (1990) ·
The Complete Short Stories of J. G. Ballard: Volume 1 (2006) ·
The Complete Short Stories of J. G. Ballard: Volume 2 (2006)
Essays and reviews
A User's Guide to the Millennium (1996)
Autobiography
Miracles of Life (2008)
Film adaptations
and work
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970) ·
Crash! (1971) ·
Empire of the Sun (1987) ·
Crash (1996) ·
The Atrocity Exhibition (2001) ·
Aparelho Voador a Baixa Altitude (2002)
Categories: 1984 novels
Autobiographical novels
Shanghai in literature
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Apocalypse Now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For the Pere Ubu album, see Apocalypse Now (album).
Apocalypse Now
Apocnow.jpg
Theatrical release poster by Bob Peak
Directed by
Francis Ford Coppola
Produced by
Francis Ford Coppola
Written by
John Milius
Francis Ford Coppola
Michael Herr (narration)
Based on
Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad (uncredited)
Starring
Martin Sheen
Robert Duvall
Marlon Brando
Frederic Forrest
Albert Hall
Sam Bottoms
Laurence Fishburne
Dennis Hopper
Music by
Carmine Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Cinematography
Vittorio Storaro
Editing by
Richard Marks
Walter Murch
Gerald B. Greenberg
Lisa Fruchtman
Studio
Zoetrope Studios
Distributed by
United Artists
Release dates
August 15, 1979
Running time
153 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$31.5 million
Box office
$83,471,511[1]
Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic war film set during the Vietnam War, directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, and Marlon Brando. The film follows the central character, U.S. Army special operations officer Captain Benjamin L. Willard (Sheen), of MACV-SOG, on a mission to kill the renegade and presumed insane U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Brando).
The screenplay by John Milius and Coppola came from Milius's idea of adapting Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness into the Vietnam War era. It also draws from Michael Herr's Dispatches,[2] the film version of Conrad's Lord Jim[citation needed] which shares the same character of Marlow with Heart of Darkness, and Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972).[3]
The film has been cited for the problems encountered while making it. These problems were chronicled in the documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, which recounted the stories of Brando arriving on the set overweight and completely unprepared; costly sets being destroyed by severe weather; and its lead actor (Sheen) suffering a heart attack while on location. Problems continued after production as the release was postponed several times while Coppola edited millions of feet of footage.
Upon release, Apocalypse Now earned widespread critical acclaim and its cultural impact and philosophical themes have been extensively discussed since. Honored with the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama, the film was also deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" and was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry in 2000. In the Sight and Sound Greatest Films poll, the film was ranked #14.
Contents [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Adaptation 3.1 Use of T. S. Eliot's poetry
4 Development 4.1 Screenplay
4.2 Pre-production
4.3 Casting
4.4 Principal photography
4.5 Post-production
5 Other versions 5.1 Endings
5.2 Workprint version
5.3 Apocalypse Now Redux
6 Reception 6.1 Cannes screening
6.2 Box office
6.3 Critical response
6.4 Legacy
7 Awards and honors
8 Home video release aspect ratio issues
9 Documentaries
10 See also
11 Notes
12 References
13 Further reading
14 External links
Plot[edit]
U.S. Army Captain and special operations veteran Benjamin L. Willard (Martin Sheen), returned to Saigon since his involvement in the ongoing Vietnam War, drinks heavily and hallucinates alone in his room. One day military intelligence officers Lt. General Corman (G. D. Spradlin) and Colonel Lucas (Harrison Ford) approach him with a top-secret assignment to follow the Nung River into the remote jungle, find rogue Special Forces Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) and kill him. Kurtz apparently went insane and now commands his own Montagnard troops inside neutral Cambodia.
Willard joins a Navy PBR commanded by "Chief" (Albert Hall) and crewmen Lance (Sam Bottoms), "Chef" (Frederic Forrest) and "Mr. Clean" (Laurence Fishburne). They rendezvous with reckless Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore (Robert Duvall), a commander of an attack helicopter squadron, who initially scoffs at them. Kilgore befriends Lance, both being keen surfers, and agrees to escort them through the Viet Cong-filled coastal mouth of the Nung River due to the surfing conditions there. Amid napalm air strikes on the locals and Ride of the Valkyries playing over the helicopter loudspeakers, the beach is taken and Kilgore orders others to surf it amid enemy fire. While Kilgore nostalgically regales about a previous strike, Willard gathers his men to the PBR, transported via helicopter, and begins the journey upriver.
Willard sifts through files of Kurtz, learning that he was a model officer and possible future general. The crew later encounters a tiger and visit a supply depot USO show featuring Playboy Playmates which goes awry. Afterwards, the crew inspect a civilian sampan for weapons, but Mr. Clean panics and machine-guns everyone on board. Willard coldly shoots dead the only woman alive to prevent any further delay of his mission. Tension arises between Chief and Willard as Willard believes himself to be in command of the PBR, while Chief prioritizes other objectives over Willard's still secret mission. Reaching the chaos of a US outpost at a bridge under attack, Willard learns that the missing commanding officer, Captain Colby (Scott Glenn), was sent on an earlier mission identical to his own, of killing Kurtz.
Meanwhile, Lance and Chef are continually under the influence of drugs. Lance in particular smears his face with camouflage paint and becomes withdrawn. The next day the boat is fired upon by an unseen enemy in the trees, killing Mr. Clean and making Chief even more hostile toward Willard. Ambushed again, by Montagnard warriors, they return fire despite Willard's objections. Chief is impaled with a spear and tries to pull Willard onto the spearhead before dying. Afterwards, Willard confides in the two surviving crew members about the true nature of his mission, and they reluctantly agree to continue upriver where they find the banks littered with mutilated bodies. Arriving at Kurtz's outpost at last, Willard takes Lance with him to the village, leaving Chef behind with orders to call an airstrike on the village if they do not return.
In the camp, the two soldiers are met by an American freelance photographer (Dennis Hopper), who manically praises Kurtz's genius. As they proceed, Willard and Lance see corpses and severed heads scattered about the temple that serves as Kurtz's living quarters, and encounter the missing Colby, who is nearly catatonic. Willard is bound and brought before Kurtz in the darkened temple, where Kurtz derides him as an errand boy. Meanwhile, Chef prepares to call in the airstrike but is kidnapped. Later imprisoned, Willard screams helplessly as Kurtz drops Chef's severed head into his lap. After some time, Willard is released and given the freedom of the compound. Kurtz lectures him on his theories of war, humanity, and civilization while praising the ruthlessness and dedication of the Viet Cong. Kurtz discusses his son and asks that Willard tell his son everything about him in the event of his death.
That night, as the villagers ceremonially slaughter a water buffalo, Willard enters Kurtz's chamber as Kurtz is making a tape recording, and attacks him with a machete. Lying mortally wounded on the ground, Kurtz whispers his final words "The horror ... the horror ..." before dying. Willard discovers substantial typed work of Kurtz's personal writings and takes it with him before exiting. Willard descends the stairs from Kurtz's chamber and drops his weapon. The villagers do likewise and allow Willard to take Lance by the hand and lead him to the boat. The two of them ride away as Kurtz's final words echo eerily.
Cast[edit]
Martin Sheen as Captain Benjamin L. Willard, a veteran U.S. Army special operations officer who has been serving in Vietnam for three years. The soldier who escorts him at the start of the film recites that Willard is from 505th Battalion, of the elite 173rd Airborne Brigade, assigned to MACV-SOG. It is later stated in the briefing scene that he worked intelligence/counterintelligence for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, carrying out secret operations and assassinations. Both scenes also establish he worked COMSEC. An attempt to re-integrate into home-front society had apparently failed prior to the time at which the film is set, and so he returns to the war-torn jungles of Vietnam, where he seems to feel more at home.
Marlon Brando as Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, a highly decorated U.S. Army Special Forces with the 5th Special Forces Group who goes rogue. He runs his own operations out of Cambodia and is feared by the US military as much as the North Vietnamese and Vietcong.
Robert Duvall as Lieutenant Colonel William "Bill" Kilgore, 1st Battalion, 9th Air Cavalry Regiment commander and surfing fanatic. Kilgore is a strong leader who loves his men but has methods that appear out-of-tune with the setting of the war. His character is a composite of several characters including Colonel John B. Stockton, General James F. Hollingsworth (featured in The General Goes Zapping Charlie Cong by Nicholas Tomalin), and George Patton IV, also a West Point officer whom Robert Duvall knew.[4]
Frederic Forrest as Engineman 3rd Class Jay "Chef" Hicks, a tightly wound former chef from New Orleans who is horrified by his surroundings.
Albert Hall as Chief Quartermaster George Phillips. The chief runs a tight ship and frequently clashes with Willard over authority. Has a father-son relationship with Clean.
Sam Bottoms as Gunner's Mate 3rd Class Lance B. Johnson, a former professional surfer from California. He is known to drop acid. He becomes entranced by the Montagnard tribe, even participating in the sacrifice ritual.
Laurence Fishburne (credited as "Larry Fishburne") as Gunner's Mate 3rd Class Tyrone "Mr. Clean" Miller, the seventeen-year-old cocky South Bronx-born crewmember.
Dennis Hopper as an American photojournalist, a manic disciple of Kurtz who greets Willard. According to the DVD commentary of Redux, the character is based on Sean Flynn, a famed news correspondent who disappeared in Cambodia in 1970. His dialogue follows that of the Russian "harlequin" in Conrad's story.
G. D. Spradlin as Lieutenant General Corman, military intelligence (G-2) an authoritarian officer who fears Kurtz and wants him removed. The character is named after filmmaker Roger Corman.
Jerry Ziesmer as a mysterious man (who is coincidentally addressed by General Corman as 'Jerry'; document visible on the Blu-ray version mentions a C.I.A. agent named R.E. Moore) in civilian attire who sits in on Willard's initial briefing. His only line in the film is the famous "Terminate with extreme prejudice".
Harrison Ford as Colonel G. Lucas, aide to Corman and a general information specialist who gives Willard his orders. The character's name is a reference to George Lucas, who was involved in the script's early development with Milius and was the original director intended to direct the film.
Scott Glenn as Captain Richard M. Colby, previously assigned Willard's current mission before he defected to Kurtz's private army and sent a message to his wife telling her to sell everything they owned (but he goes on to tell her to sell their children, as well).
Bill Graham as Agent (announcer and in charge of the Playmates' show)
Cynthia Wood (1974 Playmate of the Year) as "Playmate of the Year"
Linda (Beatty) Carpenter (August 1976 Playmate) as Playmate "Miss August"
Colleen Camp as Playmate "Miss May"
R. Lee Ermey as Helicopter Pilot
Francis Ford Coppola (cameo) as a TV director filming beach combat; he shouts "Don't look at the camera, keep on fighting!" Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro plays the cameraman by Coppola's side.
Several actors who were, or later became, prominent stars have minor roles in the movie including Harrison Ford, G. D. Spradlin, Scott Glenn, R. Lee Ermey and Laurence Fishburne. Fishburne was only fourteen years old when shooting began in March 1976, and he lied about his age in order to get cast in his role.[5] Apocalypse Now took so long to finish that Fishburne was seventeen (the same age as his character) by the time of its release.
Adaptation[edit]
Although inspired by Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, the film deviates extensively from its source material. The novella, based on Conrad's real experiences as a steam paddleboat captain in Africa, is set in the Congo Free State during the 19th century.[6] Kurtz and Marlow (who is named Willard in the movie) both work for a Belgian trading company that brutally exploits its native African workers.
When Marlow arrives at Kurtz's outpost, he discovers that Kurtz has gone insane and is lording over a small tribe as a god. The novella ends with Kurtz dying on the trip back and the narrator musing about the darkness of the human psyche: "the heart of an immense darkness".
In the novella, Marlow is the pilot of a river boat sent to collect ivory from Kurtz's outpost, only gradually becoming infatuated with Kurtz. In fact, when he discovers Kurtz in terrible health, Marlow makes an effort to bring him home safely. In the movie, Willard is an assassin dispatched to kill Kurtz. Nevertheless, the depiction of Kurtz as a god-like leader of a tribe of natives and his malarial fever, Kurtz's written exclamation "Exterminate the brutes!" (which appears in the film as "Drop the bomb. Exterminate them All!") and his last words "The horror! The horror!" are taken from Conrad's novella.
Coppola argues that many episodes in the film—the spear and arrow attack on the boat, for example—respect the spirit of the novella and in particular its critique of the concepts of civilization and progress. Other episodes adapted by Coppola, the Playboy Playmates' (Sirens) exit, the lost souls, "taking me home" attempting to reach the boat and Kurtz's tribe of (white-faced) natives parting the canoes (gates of Hell) for Willard, (with Chef and Lance) to enter the camp are likened to Virgil and "The Inferno" (Divine Comedy) by Dante. While Coppola replaced European colonialism with American interventionism, the message of Conrad's book is still clear.[7]
Coppola's interpretation of the iconic Kurtz character is often speculated to have been modeled after Tony Poe, a highly decorated Vietnam-era paramilitary officer from the CIA's Special Activities Division.[8] Poe's actions in Vietnam and in the 'Secret War' in neighbouring Laos, in particular his highly unorthodox and often savage methods of waging war show many similarities to those of the fictional Kurtz; for example, Poe was known to drop severed heads into enemy-controlled villages as a form of psychological warfare and use human ears to record the number of enemies his indigenous troops had killed. He would send these ears back to his superiors as proof of the efficacy of his operations deep inside Laos.[9][10] Coppola, however, denies that Poe was a primary influence and instead says the character was loosely based on Special Forces Colonel Robert B. Rheault, whose 1969 arrest over the murder of suspected double agent Thai Khac Chuyen in Nha Trang generated substantial contemporary news coverage.[11]
Use of T. S. Eliot's poetry[edit]
In the film, shortly before Colonel Kurtz dies, he recites part of T. S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men". Not only is Kurtz in the novel characterized as "hollow at the core", the poem is preceded in printed editions by the epigraph "Mistah Kurtz – he dead", a quotation from Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
In addition, two books seen opened on Kurtz's desk in the film are From Ritual to Romance by Jessie Weston and The Golden Bough by Sir James Frazer, the two books that Eliot cited as the chief sources and inspiration for his poem "The Waste Land". Eliot's original epigraph for "The Waste Land" was this passage from Heart of Darkness, which ends with Kurtz's final words:[12]
Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision, – he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath –
"The horror! The horror!"
When Willard is first introduced to Dennis Hopper's character, the photojournalist describes his own worth in relation to that of Kurtz with: "I should have been a pair of ragged claws/Scuttling across the floors of silent seas", from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock".
Development[edit]
Screenplay[edit]
While working as an assistant for Francis Ford Coppola on The Rain People, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg encouraged their friend and filmmaker John Milius to write a Vietnam War film.[13] Milius came up with the idea for adapting the plot of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness to the Vietnam War setting. He had read the novel when he was a teenager and was reminded about it by one of his college lecturers who had mentioned the several unsuccessful attempts to adapt it into a movie.[14][note 1]
Coppola gave Milius $15,000 to write the screenplay with the promise of an additional $10,000 if it were green-lit.[15][16] Milius claims that he wrote the screenplay in 1969[14] and originally called it The Psychedelic Soldier.[17] He wanted to use Conrad's novel as "a sort of allegory. It would have been too simple to have followed the book completely".[15]
Milius based the character of Willard and some of Kurtz's on a friend of his, Fred Rexer, who had experienced, first-hand, the scene related by Marlon Brando's character wherein the arms of villagers are hacked off by the Viet Cong. Kurtz was based on Robert B. Rheault, head of special forces in Vietnam.[18]
At one point, Coppola told Milius, "Write every scene you ever wanted to go into that movie",[14] and he wrote ten drafts, amounting to over a thousand pages.[19] Milius changed the film's title to Apocalypse Now after being inspired by a button badge popular with hippies during the 1960s that said "Nirvana Now". He was also influenced by an article written by Michael Herr titled, "The Battle for Khe Sanh", which referred to drugs, rock 'n' roll, and people calling airstrikes down on themselves.[14] He was also inspired by such films as Dr Strangelove.
Milius says the classic line "Charlie don't surf" was inspired by a comment Ariel Sharon made during the Six Day War, when he went skin diving after capturing enemy territory and announced "We're eating their fish". He says the line "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning" just came to him.[20]
Milius had no desire to direct the film himself and felt that Lucas was the right person for the job.[14] Lucas worked with Milius for four years developing the film, alongside his work on other films, including his script for Star Wars.[21] He approached Apocalypse Now as a black comedy,[22] and intended to shoot the film after making THX 1138, with principal photography to start in 1971.[15] Lucas' friend and producer Gary Kurtz traveled to the Philippines, scouting suitable locations. They intended to shoot the film in both the rice fields between Stockton and Sacramento, California and on-location in Vietnam, on a $2 million budget, cinéma vérité style, using 16 mm cameras, and real soldiers, while the war was still going on.[14][21][23] However, due to the studios' safety concerns and Lucas' involvement with American Graffiti and Star Wars, Lucas decided to shelve the project for the time being.[15][21]
Pre-production[edit]
Coppola was drawn to Milius' script, which he described as "a comedy and a terrifying psychological horror story".[24] In the spring of 1974, Coppola discussed with friends and co-producers Fred Roos and Gray Frederickson the idea of producing the film.[25] He asked Lucas and then Milius to direct Apocalypse Now, but both men were involved with other projects;[25] in Lucas' case, he got the go-ahead to make Star Wars, and declined the offer to direct Apocalypse Now.[14] Coppola was determined to make the film and pressed ahead himself. He envisioned the film as a definitive statement on the nature of modern war, the difference between good and evil, and the impact of American society on the rest of the world. The director said that he wanted to take the audience "through an unprecedented experience of war and have them react as much as those who had gone through the war".[24]
In 1975, while promoting The Godfather Part II in Australia, Coppola and his producers scouted possible locations for Apocalypse Now in Cairns in northern Queensland, that had jungle resembling Vietnam.[26] He decided to make his film in the Philippines for its access to American equipment and cheap labor. Production coordinator Fred Roos had already made two low-budget films there for Monte Hellman, and had friends and contacts in the country.[24] Coppola spent the last few months of 1975 revising Milius' script and negotiating with United Artists to secure financing for the production. According to Frederickson, the budget was estimated between $12–14 million.[27] Coppola's American Zoetrope assembled $8 million from distributors outside the United States and $7.5 million from United Artists who assumed that the film would star Marlon Brando, Steve McQueen, and Gene Hackman.[24] Frederickson went to the Philippines and had dinner with President Ferdinand Marcos to formalize support for the production and to allow them to use some of the country's military equipment.[28]
Casting[edit]
Steve McQueen was Coppola's first choice to play Willard, but the actor did not accept because he did not want to leave America for 17 weeks.[24] Al Pacino was also offered the role but he too did not want to be away for that long a period of time and was afraid of falling ill in the jungle as he had done in the Dominican Republic during the shooting of The Godfather Part II.[24] Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford, and James Caan were approached to play either Kurtz or Willard.[23]
Coppola and Roos had been impressed by Martin Sheen's screen test for Michael in The Godfather and he became their top choice to play Willard, but the actor had already accepted another project and Harvey Keitel was cast in the role based on his work in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets.[29] After the first week of shooting in the Philippines, Coppola replaced Keitel with Sheen. By early 1976, Coppola had persuaded Marlon Brando to play Kurtz for a then-enormous fee of $3.5 million for a month's work on location in September 1976. Dennis Hopper was cast as a kind of Green Beret sidekick for Kurtz and when Coppola heard him talking nonstop on location, he remembered putting "the cameras and the Montagnard shirt on him, and we shot the scene where he greets them on the boat".[23]
Principal photography[edit]
On March 1, 1976, Coppola and his family flew to Manila and rented a large house there for the five-month shoot.[23] Sound and photographic equipment had been coming in from California on a regular basis since late 1975. Principal photography began three weeks later. Within a few days, Coppola was not happy with Harvey Keitel's take on Willard, saying that the actor "found it difficult to play him a passive onlooker".[23] After viewing early footage, the director took a plane back to Los Angeles and replaced Keitel with Martin Sheen.
Typhoon Olga wrecked the sets at Iba and on May 26, 1976, production was closed down.[30] Dean Tavoularis remembers that it "started raining harder and harder until finally it was literally white outside, and all the trees were bent at forty-five degrees".[30] One part of the crew was stranded in a hotel and the others were in small houses that were immobilized by the storm. The Playboy Playmate set had been destroyed, ruining a month's shooting that had been scheduled. Most of the cast and crew went back to the United States for six to eight weeks. Tavoularis and his team stayed on to scout new locations and rebuild the Playmate set in a different place. Also, the production had bodyguards watching constantly at night and one day the entire payroll was stolen. According to Coppola's wife, Eleanor, the film was six weeks behind schedule and $2 million over budget.[30]
Coppola flew back to the U.S. in June 1976. He read a book about Genghis Khan to get a better handle on the character of Kurtz.[30] After filming commenced, Marlon Brando arrived in Manila very overweight and began working with Coppola to rewrite the ending.[31] The director downplayed Brando's weight by dressing him in black, photographing only his face, and having another, taller actor double for him in an attempt to portray Kurtz as an almost mythical character.[31]
In the days after Christmas 1976, Coppola viewed a rough assembly of the footage he had to date but still needed to improvise an ending. He returned to the Philippines in early 1977 and resumed filming.[31] On March 5, 1977, Sheen had a heart attack and struggled for a quarter of a mile to reach help.[32] He was back on the set on April 19. A major sequence in a French plantation cost hundreds of thousands of dollars but was cut from the final film. Rumors began to circulate that Apocalypse Now had several endings but Richard Beggs, who worked on the sound elements, said, "There were never five endings, but just the one, even if there were differently edited versions".[32] These rumors came from Coppola departing frequently from the original screenplay. Coppola admitted that he had no ending because Brando was too fat to play the scenes as written in the original script. With the help of Dennis Jakob, Coppola decided that the ending could be "the classic myth of the murderer who gets up the river, kills the king, and then himself becomes the king — it's the Fisher King, from The Golden Bough".[32]
A water buffalo was slaughtered with a machete for the climactic scene. The scene was inspired by a ritual performed by a local Ifugao tribe which Coppola had witnessed along with his wife (who filmed the ritual later shown in the documentary Hearts of Darkness) and film crew. Although this was an American production subject to American animal cruelty laws, scenes like this filmed in the Philippines were not policed or monitored, and the American Humane Association gave the film an "unacceptable" rating.[33] Principal photography ended on May 21, 1977.[34]
Post-production[edit]
In the summer of 1977, Coppola told Walter Murch that he had four months to assemble the sound. Murch realized that the script had been narrated but Coppola abandoned the idea during filming.[34] Murch thought that there was a way to assemble the film without narration but it would take ten months and decided to give it another try.[35] He put it back in, recording it all himself. By September, Coppola told his wife that he felt "there is only about a 20% chance [I] can pull the film off".[36] He convinced United Artists executives to delay the premiere from May to October 1978. Author Michael Herr received a call from Zoetrope in January 1978 and was asked to work on the film's narration based on his well-received book about Vietnam, Dispatches.[36] Herr said that the narration already written was "totally useless" and spent a year writing various narrations with Coppola giving him very definite guidelines.[36]
Murch had problems trying to make a stereo soundtrack for Apocalypse Now because sound libraries were devoid of any stereo recordings of any weapons and, specifically, weapons used in Vietnam.[36] In addition, the sound material brought back from the Philippines was inadequate because the small location crew lacked time and resources sufficient to record jungle sounds and ambient noises. Murch and his crew had to fabricate the mood of the jungle on the soundtrack. Apocalypse Now would feature innovative sound technique for movies as Murch insisted on recording the most up-to-date gunfire and employed the Dolby Stereo 70 mm Six Track system for the 70mm release. This used two channels of sound from behind the audience as well as three channels of sound from behind the movie screen.[36] The 35mm release used the then still new Dolby Stereo optical stereo system that has a single surround channel and three screen channels.
In May 1978, Coppola decided that it would not be possible to finish the film for a December release and postponed the opening until spring of 1979. He screened a "work in progress" for 900 people in April 1979 that was not well received.[37] That same year, he was invited to screen Apocalypse Now at the Cannes Film Festival.[38] United Artists were not keen on showing an unfinished version in front of so many members of the press but Coppola remembered that The Conversation won the Palme d'Or and agreed, less than a month prior to the start of the festival, to screen Apocalypse Now at Cannes. The week prior to Cannes, Coppola arranged three sneak previews that each featured their own slightly different versions. He allowed critics to attend the screenings and believed that they would honor the embargo placed on reviews. On May 14, Rona Barrett reviewed the film on television and called it "a disappointing failure".[38] At Cannes, Zoetrope technicians worked during the night before the screening to install additional speakers on the theater walls in order to achieve Murch's 5.1 soundtrack.[38] On August 15, 1979 Apocalypse Now was released in the U.S. in 15 theaters equipped to play the first Dolby Stereo 70mm film with stereo surround sound.
Other versions[edit]
Endings[edit]
At the time of its release, many rumors surrounded the ending of Apocalypse Now. Coppola stated an ending was written in haste in which Willard and Kurtz joined forces and repelled the air strike on the compound; however, Coppola never fully agreed with the two going out in apocalyptic intensity, preferring to end the film in a more encouraging manner.
When Coppola originally organized the ending of the movie, he had two choices. One involved Willard leading Lance by the hand as everyone in Kurtz's base throws down their weapons, and ends with images of Willard's boat pulling away from Kurtz's compound superimposed over the face of a stone idol which then fades into black. Another option showed an air strike being called and the base being blown to bits in a spectacular display, consequently killing everyone left at the base.
The original 1979 70mm exclusive theatrical release ended with Willard's boat, the stone statue, then fade to black with no credits, save for '"Copyright 1979 Omni Zoetrope"' right after the film ends. This mirrors the lack of any opening titles and supposedly stems from Coppola's original intention to "tour" the film as one would a play: the credits would have appeared on printed programs provided before the screening began.[39]
There have been, to date, many variations of the end credit sequence, beginning with the 35mm general release version, where Coppola elected to show the credits superimposed over shots of Kurtz's base exploding.[39] Rental prints circulated with this ending, and can be found in the hands of a few collectors. Some versions of this had the subtitle "A United Artists release", while others had "An Omni Zoetrope release". The network television version of the credits ended with "...from MGM/UA Entertainment Company" (the film made its network debut shortly after the merger of MGM and UA). One variation of the end credits can be seen on both YouTube and as a supplement on the current Lionsgate Blu-ray.
In any case, when Coppola heard that audiences interpreted this as an air strike called by Willard, Coppola pulled the film from its 35 mm run, and put credits on a black screen. (However, prints with the "air strike" footage continued to circulate to "repertory" theatres well into the 1980s.) In the DVD commentary, Coppola explains that the images of explosions had not been intended to be part of the story; they were intended to be seen as completely separate from the film. He had added them to the credits because he had captured the footage during the demolition of the sets (required by the Philippine government), which was filmed with multiple cameras fitted with different film stocks and lenses to capture the explosions at different speeds.[40]
Workprint version[edit]
A 289-minute workprint circulates as a video bootleg, containing extra material not included in either the original theatrical release or the "redux" version.[41]
Apocalypse Now Redux[edit]
Main article: Apocalypse Now Redux
In 2001, Coppola released Apocalypse Now Redux in cinemas and subsequently on DVD. This is an extended version that restores 49 minutes of scenes cut from the original film. Coppola has continued to circulate the original version as well: the two versions are packaged together in the Complete Dossier DVD, released on August 15, 2006 and in the Blu-ray edition released on October 19, 2010.
The longest section of added footage in the Redux version is a chapter involving the de Marais family's rubber plantation, a holdover from the colonization of French Indochina, featuring Coppola's two sons Gian-Carlo and Roman as children of the family. These scenes were removed from the 1979 cut, which premiered at Cannes. In behind-the-scenes footage in Hearts of Darkness, Coppola expresses his anger, on the set, at the technical aspects of the shot scenes, the result of tight allocation of resources. At the time of the Redux version, it was possible to digitally enhance the footage to accomplish Coppola's vision. In the scenes, the French family patriarchs argue about the positive side of colonialism in Indochina and denounce the betrayal of the military men in the First Indochina War. Hubert de Marais argues that French politicians sacrificed entire battalions at Điện Biên Phủ, and tells Willard that the US created the Viet Cong (as the Viet Minh), to fend off Japanese invaders.
Other added material includes extra combat footage before Willard meets Kilgore, a humorous scene in which Willard's team steals Kilgore's surfboard (which sheds some light on the hunt for the mangoes), a follow-up scene to the dance of the Playboy playmates, in which Willard's team finds the playmates awaiting evacuation after their helicopter has run out of fuel (trading two barrels of fuel for two hours with the Bunnies), and a scene of Kurtz reading from a Time magazine article about the war, surrounded by Cambodian children.
There is a deleted scene titled "Monkey Sampan", which was used as a way to represent the whole movie in a three-minute scene. The scene shows Willard and the PBR crew suspiciously eyeing an approaching sampan juxtaposed to Montagnard villagers joyfully singing "Light My Fire" by The Doors. As the sampan gets closer, Willard realizes there are monkeys on it and no helmsman. Finally, just as the two boats pass, the wind turns the sail and exposes a naked dead civilian tied to the sail boom. His body is mutilated and looks as though the man had been whipped. The singing stops. It is assumed the man was tortured by the Viet Cong. As they pass on by, Chef notes out loud, "That's comin' from where we're going, Captain." The boat then slowly passes the giant tail of a shot down B-52 bomber. The scene is ominous and the noise of engines way up in the sky is heard. Coppola said that he made up for cutting this scene by having the PBR pass under an airplane tail in the final cut.
Reception[edit]
Cannes screening[edit]
Palme d'Or awarded to Apocalypse Now at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival
A three-hour version of Apocalypse Now was screened as a "work in progress" at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival and met with prolonged applause.[42] At the subsequent press conference, Coppola criticized the media for attacking him and the production during their problems filming in the Philippines and famously uttered, "We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little we went insane", and "My film is not about Vietnam, it is Vietnam".[42] The filmmaker upset newspaper critic Rex Reed who reportedly stormed out of the conference. Apocalypse Now won the Palme d'Or for best film along with Volker Schlöndorff's The Tin Drum - a decision that was reportedly greeted with "some boos and jeers from the audience".[43]
Box office[edit]
Apocalypse Now performed well at the box office when it opened in August 1979.[42] The film initially opened in one theater in New York City, Toronto, and Hollywood, grossing USD $322,489 in the first five days. It ran exclusively in these three locations for four weeks before opening in an additional 12 theaters on October 3, 1979 and then several hundred the following week.[44] The film grossed over $78 million domestically with a worldwide total of approximately $150 million.[39]
The film was re-released on August 28, 1987 in six cities to capitalize on the success of Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and other Vietnam War movies.[45] New 70mm prints were shown in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, St. Louis, and Cincinnati — cities where the film did financially well in 1979. The film was given the same kind of release as the exclusive engagement in 1979 with no logo or credits and audiences were given a printed program.[45]
Critical response[edit]
Upon its release, Apocalypse Now received near-universal critical acclaim. In his original review, Roger Ebert wrote, "Apocalypse Now achieves greatness not by analyzing our 'experience in Vietnam', but by re-creating, in characters and images, something of that experience".[46] In his review for the Los Angeles Times, Charles Champlin wrote, "as a noble use of the medium and as a tireless expression of national anguish, it towers over everything that has been attempted by an American filmmaker in a very long time".[44]
Ebert added Coppola's film to his list of Great Movies, stating: "Apocalypse Now is the best Vietnam film, one of the greatest of all films, because it pushes beyond the others, into the dark places of the soul. It is not about war so much as about how war reveals truths we would be happy never to discover".[47]
Other reviews were less positive; Frank Rich in Time said: "While much of the footage is breathtaking, Apocalypse Now is emotionally obtuse and intellectually empty".[48]
Various commentators have debated whether Apocalypse Now is an anti-war or pro-war film. Some commentators' evidence of the film's anti-war message include the purposeless brutality of the war, the absence of military leadership, and the imagery of machinery destroying nature.[49] Advocates of the film's pro-war stance, however, view these same elements as a glorification of war and the assertion of American supremacy. According to Frank Tomasulo, “the U.S. foisting its culture on Vietnam,” including the destruction of a village so that soldiers could surf, affirms the film's pro-war message.[49] Additionally, a Marine named Anthony Swofford recounted how his platoon watched Apocalypse Now before being sent to Iraq in 1990 in order to get excited for war.[50] According to Coppola, the film may be considered anti-war, but is even more anti-lie: “...the fact that a culture can lie about what's really going on in warfare, that people are being brutalized, tortured, maimed, and killed, and somehow present this as moral is what horrifies me, and perpetuates the possibility of war”.[51]
In May 2011, a newly restored digital print of Apocalypse Now was released in UK cinemas, distributed by Optimum Releasing. Total Film magazine gave the film a five-star review, stating: "This is the original cut rather than the 2001 ‘Redux’ (be gone, jarring French plantation interlude!), digitally restored to such heights you can, indeed, get a nose full of the napalm."[52]
Rotten Tomatoes ranked the film 99% "Certified Fresh" with an average rating of 8.9/10, and the stated consensus that "Francis Ford Coppola's haunting, hallucinatory Vietnam war epic is cinema at its most audacious and visionary".[53]
Legacy[edit]
The May 1, 2010 cover of the Economist newspaper, illustrating the 2010 European sovereign debt crisis with imagery from the movie, attests to the film's pervasive cultural impact.
Today, the movie is widely regarded by many as a masterpiece of the New Hollywood era, and is frequently cited as one of the greatest films of all time.[54][55][56] Roger Ebert considered it to be the finest film on the Vietnam war and included it on his list for the 2002 Sight and Sound poll for the greatest movie of all time.[57][58] It is on the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Movies list at number 28, but it dropped two spots to number 30 on their 10th anniversary list. Kilgore's quote, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning," written by Milius, was number 12 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes list and was also voted the fourth greatest movie speech of all time in a 2004 poll.[59] It is listed at number 7 on Empire's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time. Entertainment Weekly ranked Apocalypse Now as having one of the "10 Best Surfing Scenes" in cinema.[60]
In 1981, shortly after introduction of martial law in Poland, a British-Polish photographer Chris Niedenthal took an iconic photo presenting a SKOT APC in front of Moscow Cinema (Kino Moskwa) with the film's poster behind it.[61]
In 2002, Sight and Sound magazine polled several critics to name the best film of the last 25 years and Apocalypse Now was named number one. It was also listed as the second best war film by viewers on Channel 4's 100 Greatest War Films and was the second rated war movie of all time based on the Movifone list (after Schindler's List) and the IMDb War movie list (after The Longest Day). It is ranked number 1 on Channel 4's 50 Films to See Before You Die. In a 2004 poll of UK film fans, Blockbuster listed Kilgore's eulogy to napalm as the best movie speech.[62] The helicopter attack scene with the Ride of the Valkyries soundtrack was chosen as the most memorable film scene ever by Empire magazine (although the same track was used earlier in 1915 to similar effect in the score written to accompany the silent film The Birth of a Nation). This scene is recalled in one of the last acts of the 2012 video game Far Cry 3 as the song is played while the character shoots from a helicopter.[63]
In 2009, the London Film Critics' Circle voted Apocalypse Now the best movie of the last 30 years.[64]
In 2011, actor Charlie Sheen, son of Martin Sheen, started playing clips from the film on his live tour and played the film in its entirety during post-show parties. One of Charlie Sheen's films, the 1993 comedy Hot Shots! Part Deux, includes a brief scene in which Charlie is riding a boat up a river in Iraq while on a rescue mission and passes Martin, as Captain Willard, going the other way. As they pass, each man shouts to the other "I loved you in Wall Street!", referencing the 1987 film that had featured both of them. Additionally, the promotional material for Hot Shots! Part Deux included a mockumentary that aired on HBO titled Hearts of Hot Shots! Part Deux—A Filmmaker's Apology, in parody of the 1991 documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, about the making of Apocalypse Now.[65]
Awards and honors[edit]
WinsAcademy Award for Best Cinematography (Vittorio Storaro)[66]
Academy Award for Best Sound (Walter Murch, Mark Berger, Richard Beggs, Nathan Boxer)[66]
Cannes Film Festival: Palme d'Or[67]
Golden Globe Award for Best Director (Francis Ford Coppola)
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor (Robert Duvall)
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score (Carmine Coppola and Francis Ford Coppola)
National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor (Frederic Forrest)
David di Donatello Award for Best Director, Foreign Film (Migliore Regista Straniero) (Francis Ford Coppola)
American Movie Award for Best Supporting Actor (Robert Duvall)
BAFTA Award for Best Direction (Francis Ford Coppola)
BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor (Robert Duvall)
In 2000, Apocalypse Now was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
NominationsAcademy Award for Best Picture (Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Roos, Gray Frederickson and Tom Sternberg)[66]
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (Robert Duvall)[66]
Academy Award for Best Art Direction — Set Decoration (Dean Tavoularis, Angelo P. Graham and George R. Nelson)[66]
Academy Award for Directing (Francis Ford Coppola)[66]
Academy Award for Film Editing (Richard Marks, Walter Murch, Gerald B. Greenberg and Lisa Fruchtman)[66]
Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (John Milius and Francis Ford Coppola)[66]
DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (Francis Ford Coppola)
WGA Award for Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen (John Milius and Francis Ford Coppola)
Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama (Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Roos, Gray Frederickson and Tom Sternberg)
Grammy Award for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture (Carmine Coppola and Francis Ford Coppola)
César Award for Best Foreign Film (Meilleur film étranger) (Francis Ford Coppola)
American Movie Award for Best Actor (Martin Sheen)
BAFTA Award for Best Film Music (Carmine Coppola and Francis Ford Coppola)
BAFTA Award for Best Actor (Martin Sheen)
American Film Institute listsAFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – #28
AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains: Colonel Walter E. Kurtz – Nominated Villain
AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs: "The End" – Nominated
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." – #12
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #30
AFI's 10 Top 10 – Nominated Epic film
Marlon Brando was also ranked #4 of the Top 25 American male screen legends.
Other
Number 7 on Empire magazine's 500 Greatest Movies of all time
Home video release aspect ratio issues[edit]
The first home video releases of Apocalypse Now were pan-and-scan versions of the original 35 mm Technovision anamorphic 2.35:1 print, and the closing credits, white on black background, were presented in compressed 1.33:1 full-frame format to allow all credit information to be seen on standard televisions. The first letterboxed appearance, on Laserdisc on December 29, 1991, cropped the film to a 2:1 aspect ratio (conforming to the Univisium spec created by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro), and included a small degree of pan-and-scan processing at the insistence of Coppola and Storaro. The end credits, from a videotape source rather than a film print, were still crushed for 1.33:1 and zoomed to fit the anamorphic video frame. All DVD releases have maintained this aspect ratio in anamorphic widescreen, but present the film without the end credits, which were treated as a separate feature. The Blu-ray releases of Apocalypse Now restore the film to a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, making it the first home video release to effectively display the film in its true aspect ratio; the theatrical release had an aspect ratio of 2.39:1.
As a DVD extra, the footage of the explosion of the Kurtz compound was featured without text credits but included commentary by Coppola, explaining the various endings based on how the film was screened.
On the cover of the Redux DVD, Willard is erroneously listed as "Lieutenant Willard".
Documentaries[edit]
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (American Zoetrope/Cineplex Odeon Films) (1991) Directed by Eleanor Coppola, George Hickenlooper and Fax Bahr
Apocalypse Now – The Complete Dossier DVD (Paramount Home Entertainment) (2006) Disc 2 extras include:
The Post Production of Apocalypse Now: Documentary (four featurettes covering the editing, music and sound of the film through Coppola and his team)
"A Million Feet of Film: The Editing of Apocalypse Now" (18 minutes)
"The Music of Apocalypse Now" (15 minutes)
"Heard Any Good Movies Lately? The Sound Design of Apocalypse Now" (15 minutes)
"The Final Mix" (3 minutes)
See also[edit]
Reflections in a Golden Eye
Hearts of Darkness - A 1993 adaption of the original novel, starring Tim Roth & John Malkovich
Cinema of the United States
Anthony Poshepny
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ However, filmmaker Carroll Ballard claims that Apocalypse Now was his idea in 1967 before Milius had written his screenplay. Ballard had a deal with producer Joel Landon and they tried to get the rights to Conrad's book but were unsuccessful. Lucas acquired the rights but failed to tell Ballard and Landon.[14]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Apocalypse Now, Box Office Information". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-01-27.
2.Jump up ^ Derek Malcolm (1999) Francis Ford Coppola: Apocalypse Now. The Guardian. Thursday 4 November 1999
3.Jump up ^ Peary, Gerald. "Francis Ford Coppola, Interview with Gerald Peary". Gerald Peary. Retrieved 2007-03-14.
4.Jump up ^ French, Karl (1998) Apocalypse Now, Bloomsbury, London. ISBN 978-0-7475-3804-2
5.Jump up ^ Cowie 2001, p. 19.
6.Jump up ^ Murfin, Ross C (ed.) (1989): Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness. A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism. Boston: St. Martin's Press, pp. 3-16.
7.Jump up ^ "Heart of Darkness & Apocalypse Now: A comparative analysis of novella and film". Cyberpat.com. Retrieved 2010-03-06.
8.Jump up ^ Leary, William L. "Death of a Legend". Air America Archive. Retrieved on 2007-06-10.
9.Jump up ^ Warner, Roger. Shooting at the Moon.
10.Jump up ^ Ehrlich, Richard S. (2003-07-08). "CIA operative stood out in 'secret war' in Laos". Bangkok Post. http://web.archive.org/web/20090806040904/http://geocities.com/asia_correspondent/laos0307ciaposhepnybp.html. Retrieved on 10 June 2007.
11.Jump up ^ Isaacs, Matt (1999-11-17). "Agent Provocative". SF Weekly. Archived from the original on 12 June 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-02.
12.Jump up ^ Davidson, Harriet. "Improper desire: reading The Waste Land" in Anthony David Moody (ed.). The Cambridge companion to T. S. Eliot. Cambridge University Press, 1995, p. 121.
13.Jump up ^ Cowie 2001, p. 2.
14.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Cowie 1990, p. 120.
15.^ Jump up to: a b c d Cowie 2001, p. 5.
16.Jump up ^ *Medavoy, Mike with Josh Young, You're Only as Good as Your Next One, Astria, 2002 p 8
17.Jump up ^ Cowie 2001, p. 3.
18.Jump up ^ Coppola's Vietnam Movie Is a Battle Royal: Francis Ford Coppola's Battle Royal By CHARLES HIGHAM. New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] 15 May 1977: 77.
19.Jump up ^ Cowie 2001, p. 7.
20.Jump up ^ Thom Patterson, "Apocalypse writer: Most scripts today 'are garbage' ", CNN, 9 March 2009 accessed 2012
21.^ Jump up to: a b c Lucas, George (2004). A Legacy of Filmmakers: The Early Years of American Zoetrope (documentary) (DVD). Warner Bros. Home Video.
22.Jump up ^ Marcus Hearn (2005). The Cinema of George Lucas. New York City: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. pp. 79–80. ISBN 0-8109-4968-7.
23.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Cowie 1990, p. 122.
24.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Cowie 1990, p. 121.
25.^ Jump up to: a b Cowie 2001, p. 6.
26.Jump up ^ Cowie 2001, p. 12.
27.Jump up ^ Cowie 2001, p. 13.
28.Jump up ^ Cowie 2001, p. 16.
29.Jump up ^ Cowie 2001, p. 18.
30.^ Jump up to: a b c d Cowie 1990, p. 123.
31.^ Jump up to: a b c Cowie 1990, p. 124.
32.^ Jump up to: a b c Cowie 1990, p. 125.
33.Jump up ^ Burt, Jonathan (2002). Animals In Film: Apocalypse Now. Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1-86189-131-0. Retrieved 2007-11-10.
34.^ Jump up to: a b Cowie 1990, p. 126.
35.Jump up ^ Cowie 1990, pp. 126-127.
36.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Cowie 1990, p. 127.
37.Jump up ^ Cowie 1990, p. 128.
38.^ Jump up to: a b c Cowie 1990, p. 129.
39.^ Jump up to: a b c Cowie 1990, p. 132.
40.Jump up ^ http://homevideo.about.com/od/dvdreview1/a/apocalypsenowra.htm
41.Jump up ^ Coates, Gordon (October 17, 2008). "Coppola's slow boat on the Nung". The Guardian (London). Archived from the original on 18 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
42.^ Jump up to: a b c Cowie 1990, p. 130.
43.Jump up ^ "Sweeping Cannes". Time. June 4, 1979. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-22.
44.^ Jump up to: a b Cowie 1990, p. 131.
45.^ Jump up to: a b Harmetz, Aljean (August 20, 1987). "Apocalypse Now to Be Re-released". New York Times. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
46.Jump up ^ Ebert, Roger (June 1, 1979). "Apocalypse Now". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 008-11-24.
47.Jump up ^ Ebert, Roger (November 28, 1999). "Great Movies: Apocalypse Now". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
48.Jump up ^ Frank Rich (1979-08-27). "Cinema: The Making of a Quagmire by Frank Rich". Time. Retrieved 2010-03-06.
49.^ Jump up to: a b Frank Tomasulo (1990). The Politics of Ambivalence: Apocalypse Now as Prowar and Antiwar Film. Rutgers.
50.Jump up ^ Marilyn B. Young (October 2004). Now Playing:Vietnam. Organization of American Historians. OAH.
51.Jump up ^ Mark J. Lacy (Nov.-Dec. 2003). War, Cinema, and Moral Anxiety. JSTOR 40645126.
52.Jump up ^ "Apocalypse Now Review". Total Film. Archived from the original on 19 May 2011. Retrieved June 8, 2011.
53.Jump up ^ Apocalypse Now at Rotten Tomatoes
54.Jump up ^ "Apocalypse Now (Redux) (1979) (2001)". Archived from the original on 14 November 2010. Retrieved 2010-10-18.
55.Jump up ^ "Apocalypse Now (1979)". Retrieved 2010-10-18.
56.Jump up ^ "DVD Pick: Apocalypse Now - The Complete Dossier". Retrieved 2010-10-18.
57.Jump up ^ "How the directors and critics voted". Retrieved 2010-10-18.
58.Jump up ^ "Apocalypse Now (1979) by Roger Ebert". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2010-10-18.
59.Jump up ^ ""Napalm" Speech Tops Movie Poll". BBC News. 2004-01-02. Retrieved 2007-09-19.
60.Jump up ^ "10 Best Surfing Scenes". Entertainment Weekly. August 8, 2002. Retrieved 2009-04-24.
61.Jump up ^ The photography
62.Jump up ^ 'Napalm' speech tops movie poll, 2 January 2004, BBC News. Retrieved 18 February 2008.
63.Jump up ^ "'Far Cry 3' Review - Part Two: Through The Looking Glass". Forbes. August 8, 2013. Retrieved December 3, 2013.
64.Jump up ^ "War epic Apocalypse Now tops UK film critics poll". BBC. December 1, 2009. Archived from the original on 4 December 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-02.
65.Jump up ^ Hearts of Hot Shots! Part Deux - A Filmmaker's Apology Television show - Hearts of Hot Shots! Part Deux - A Filmmaker's Apology TV Show - Yahoo! TV
66.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h "The 52nd Academy Awards (1980) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-10-07.
67.Jump up ^ "Festival de Cannes: Apocalypse Now". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
Further reading[edit]
Adair, Gilbert (1981) Vietnam on Film: From The Green Berets to Apocalypse Now. Proteus. ISBN 0-906071-86-0
Biskind, Peter (1999) Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock-'n'-Roll Generation Saved Hollywood. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-684-85708-1
Coppola, Eleanor (1979) Notes on the Making of Apocalypse Now. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-87910-150-4
Cowie, Peter (1990) Coppola. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80598-7
Cowie, Peter (2001) "The Apocalypse Now Book. New York: Da Capo Press.ISBN 10-03068-104-68
Fraser, George MacDonald (1988) The Hollywood History of the World: from One Million Years B.C. to Apocalypse Now. Kobal Collection /Beech Tree Books. ISBN 0-688-07520-7
French, Karl (1999) Karl French on Apocalypse Now: A Bloomsbury Movie Guide. Bloomsbury. ISBN 1-58234-014-5
Milius, John & Coppola, Francis Ford (2001) Apocalypse Now Redux: An Original Screenplay. Talk Miramax Books/Hyperion. ISBN 0-7868-8745-1
Tosi, Umberto & Glaser, Milton. (1979) Apocalypse Now - Program distributed in connection with the opening of the film. United Artists
External links[edit]
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now at the Internet Movie Database
Apocalypse Now at Rotten Tomatoes
Apocalypse Now at Metacritic
Apocalypse Now at allmovie
Apocalypse Now at Box Office Mojo
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Heart of Darkness
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For other uses, see Heart of Darkness (disambiguation).
Heart of Darkness
Blackwood's Magazine - 1899 cover.jpg
'Heart of Darkness' first was published as a three-part serial story in Blackwood’s Magazine.
Author
Joseph Conrad
Country
United Kingdom
Language
English
Genre
Frame story, Novella
Publisher
Blackwood's Magazine
Publication date
February 1899
Media type
Print (serial)
ISBN
N/A
Followed by
Lord Jim (1900)
Heart of Darkness (1899) is a short novel by Joseph Conrad, written as a frame narrative, about Charles Marlow’s life as an ivory transporter down the Congo River in Central Africa. The river is “a mighty big river, that you could see on the map, resembling an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land.” In the course of his travel in central Africa, Marlow becomes obsessed with Mr. Kurtz.
The story is a complex exploration of the attitudes people hold on what constitutes a barbarian versus a civilized society and the attitudes on colonialism and racism that were part and parcel of European imperialism. Originally published as a three-part serial story, in Blackwood's Magazine, the novella Heart of Darkness has been variously published and translated into many languages. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Heart of Darkness as the sixty-seventh of the hundred best novels in English of the twentieth century.[1]
Contents [hide]
1 Composition and publication
2 Plot summary
3 Reception
4 Adaptations
5 Notes
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links
Composition and publication[edit]
Joseph Conrad based Heart of Darkness on his own experiences in the Congo.
Joseph Conrad has acknowledged that Heart of Darkness is in part based on his own experiences during his travels in Africa. At the age of 31, he was appointed by a Belgian trading company to serve as the captain of a steamer on the Congo River in 1890. Conrad, who was born in Poland and later settled in England, had eagerly anticipated the voyage, having decided to become a sailor at an early age. While sailing up the Congo river from one station to another, the captain became ill, and Conrad assumed command of the boat and guided the ship to the trading company's innermost station. He reportedly became disillusioned with Imperialism after witnessing the cruelty and corruption perpetrated by the European companies in the area, and the novella's main narrator, Charlie Marlow, is believed to have been based upon him.[2]
There have been many proposed sources for the character of the main antagonist, Kurtz. Georges-Antoine Klein, an agent aboard the same steamer as Conrad who became ill and later died on board, has been identified by scholars and literary critics one basis for the character. The principal figures involved in the disastrous "rear column" of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition have also been identified as likely sources, including column leader Edmund Musgrave Barttelot, slave trader Tippu Tip and the expedition's overall leader, Welsh explorer Henry Morton Stanley.[3][4] Adam Hochschild believes that the Belgian soldier Leon Rom is the most important influence on the character.[5]
When Conrad began to write the novella eight years after returning from Africa, he drew inspiration from his travel journals.[2] In his own words, Heart of Darkness is "a wild story of a journalist who becomes manager of a station in the (African) interior and makes himself worshipped by a tribe of savages. Thus described, the subject seems comic, but it isn't."[6] The tale was first published as a three-part serial, February, March, and April 1899, in Blackwood's Magazine (February 1899 was the magazine's 1000th issue: special edition). Then later, in 1902, Heart of Darkness was included in the book Youth: a Narrative, and Two Other Stories (published November 13, 1902, by William Blackwood).
The volume consisted of Youth: a Narrative, Heart of Darkness, and The End of the Tether in that order, to loosely illustrate the three stages of life. For future editions of the book, in 1917 Conrad wrote an "Author's Note" where he discusses each of the three stories, and makes light commentary on the character Marlow—the narrator of the tales within the first two stories. He also mentions how Youth marks the first appearance of Marlow.
On May 31, 1902, in a letter to William Blackwood, Conrad remarked;
"I call your own kind self to witness [...] the last pages of Heart of Darkness where the interview of the man and the girl locks in—as it were—the whole 30000 words of narrative description into one suggestive view of a whole phase of life and makes of that story something quite on another plane than an anecdote of a man who went mad in the Centre of Africa."[7]
Plot summary[edit]
Aboard the Nellie, anchored in the River Thames near Gravesend, England, Charles Marlow tells his fellow sailors about the events that led to his appointment as captain of a river-steamboat for an ivory trading company. He describes his passage on ships to the wilderness to the Company's station, which strikes Marlow as a scene of devastation: disorganized, machinery parts here and there, periodic demolition explosions, weakened native black men who have been demoralized, in chains, literally being worked to death, and strolling behind them a white Company man in a uniform carrying a rifle. At this station Marlow meets the Company's chief accountant who tells him of a Mr. Kurtz, and explains that Kurtz is a first-class agent.
Old Belgian river station on the Congo River, 1889
Marlow leaves with a caravan to travel on foot some two hundred miles deeper into the wilderness to the Central Station, where the steamboat that he is to captain is based. Marlow is shocked to learn that his steamboat had been wrecked two days before his arrival. The manager explains that they needed to take the steamboat up-river because of rumours that an important station was in jeopardy and that its chief, Mr. Kurtz, was ill. Marlow describes the Company men at this station as lazy back-biting "pilgrims", fraught with envy and jealousy, all trying to gain a higher status within the Company, which in turn, would provide more personal profit; however, they sought these goals in a meaningless, ineffective and lazy manner, mixed with a sense that they were all merely waiting, while trying to stay out of harm's way. After fishing his boat out of the river, Marlow is frustrated by the months spent on repairs. During this time, he learns that Kurtz is far from admired, but is more or less resented (mostly by the manager). Not only is Kurtz's position at the Inner Station a highly envied position, but sentiment seems to be that Kurtz is undeserving of it, as he received the appointment only by his European connections.
The Roi des Belges ("King of the Belgians"—French), the Belgian riverboat Conrad commanded on the upper Congo, 1889
Once underway, the journey up-river to the Inner Station, Kurtz's station, takes two months to the day. On board are the manager, three or four "pilgrims" and some twenty "cannibals" enlisted as crew.
They come to rest for the night about eight miles below the Inner Station. In the morning they awake to find that they are enveloped by a thick, white fog. From the riverbank they hear a very loud cry, followed by a discordant clamour. A few hours later, as safe navigation becomes increasingly difficult, the steamboat is hit with a barrage of sticks—small arrows—from the wilderness. The pilgrims open fire into the bush with their Winchester rifles. The native serving as helmsman gives up steering to pick up a rifle and fire it. Marlow grabs the wheel to avoid snags in the river. The helmsman is impaled by a spear and falls at Marlow's feet. Marlow sounds the steam whistle repeatedly, causing the shower of arrows to cease. Marlow and a pilgrim watch the helmsman die, and Marlow forces the pilgrim to take the wheel so that he can fling his blood-soaked shoes overboard. Marlow presumes (wrongly) that Kurtz is dead. Marlow notes that the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs commissioned Kurtz to write a report, which he did eloquently. A footnote in the report, written much later, states "Exterminate all the brutes!" (Later, Kurtz entreats Marlow to take good care of the pamphlet.) Marlow does not believe Kurtz was worth the lives that were lost in trying to find him. After putting on a pair of slippers, Marlow returns to the wheel-house and resumes steering. By this time the manager is there, and expresses a strong desire to turn back. At that moment the Inner Station comes into view.
At Kurtz's station Marlow sees a man on the riverbank waving his arm, urging them to land. Because of his expressions and gestures, and all the colourful patches on his clothing, the man reminds Marlow of a harlequin. The pilgrims, heavily armed, escort the manager to retrieve Mr. Kurtz. The harlequin-like man, who turns out to be a Russian, boards the steamboat. The Russian is a wanderer who happened to stray into Kurtz's camp. Through conversation Marlow discovers just how wanton Kurtz could be, how the natives worshipped him, and how very ill he had been of late. The Russian admires Kurtz for his intellect and his insights into love, life, and justice. The Russian seems to admire Kurtz even for his power—and for his willingness to use it. Marlow suggests that Kurtz has gone mad.
From the steamboat, through a telescope, Marlow can observe the station in detail and is surprised to see near the station house a row of posts topped with disembodied heads of natives. Around the corner of the house, the manager appears with the pilgrims, bearing Kurtz on an improvised stretcher. The area fills with natives, apparently ready for battle. Marlow can see Kurtz shouting on the stretcher. The pilgrims carry Kurtz to the steamer and lay him in one of the cabins. A beautiful native woman walks in measured steps along the shore and stops next to the steamer. She raises her arms above her head and then walks back into the bushes. The Russian informs Marlow that Kurtz had ordered the attack on the steamer. The Russian refers to a canoe waiting for him and notes how delightful it was to hear Kurtz recite poetry. Marlow and the Russian then part ways.
After midnight, Marlow discovers that Kurtz has left his cabin on the steamer and returned to shore. Marlow goes ashore and finds a very weak Kurtz making his way back to his station—although not too weak to call to the natives. Marlow appreciates his serious situation, and when Kurtz begins in a threatening tone, Marlow interjects that his "success in Europe is assured in any case"; at this, Kurtz allows Marlow to help him back to the steamer. The next day they prepare for their departure. The natives, including the native woman, once again assemble on shore and begin to shout. Marlow, seeing the pilgrims readying their rifles, sounds the steam whistle repeatedly to scatter the crowd on shore. Only the woman remains unmoved, with outstretched arms. The pilgrims open fire. The current carries them swiftly downstream.
Kurtz's health worsens, and Marlow himself becomes increasingly ill. The steamboat having broken down and being under repair, Kurtz gives Marlow a packet of papers with a photograph. As Kurtz dies, Marlow hears him weakly whisper: “The horror! The horror!”
Marlow blows out the candle and tries to act as though nothing has happened when he joins the other pilgrims, who are eating in the mess-room with the manager. In a short while, the "manager's boy" appears and announces in a scathing tone: "Mistah Kurtz—he dead." Next day Marlow pays little attention to the pilgrims as they bury "something" in a muddy hole. Marlow falls very sick, himself near death.
Upon his return to Europe, Marlow is embittered. He distributes the bundle of papers Kurtz had entrusted to him: Marlow gives the paper entitled "Suppression of Savage Customs" (with the postscriptum torn off) to a clean-shaven man with an official manner. To another man, who claims to be Kurtz's cousin, Marlow gives family letters and memoranda of no importance. To a journalist he gives a Report for publication, if the journalist sees fit. Finally Marlow is left with some personal letters and the photograph of a girl's portrait—Kurtz's fiancée, whom Kurtz referred to as “My Intended”. When Marlow visits her, she is dressed in black and still deep in mourning, although it is more than a year since Kurtz's death. She presses Marlow for information, asking him to repeat Kurtz's final words. Uncomfortable, Marlow lies and tells her that Kurtz's final word was her name.
Reception[edit]
Furious debates resulted when Chinua Achebe accused Joseph Conrad of racism in Heart of Darkness
Main article: Themes of Heart of Darkness
Literary professor Harold Bloom writes that Heart of Darkness has been analyzed more than any other work of literature that is studied in universities and colleges, which he attributes to Conrad's "unique propensity for ambiguity".[8] However, it was not successful during Conrad's lifetime.[9] When it was published as a single volume in 1902 with two of his other novellas, "Youth" and "The End of the Tether", it received the least commentary from critics.[9] British literary critic F. R. Leavis, who considered Conrad to be part of a "great generation" of writers, referred to Heart of Darkness as a "minor work" and criticized its "adjectival insistence upon inexpressible and incomprehensible mystery".[10] Conrad himself did not consider it to be particularly notable.[9]
Heart of Darkness became popular and controversial in post-colonial reading, with interest in the novella at its height in the 1970s, partly due to accusations made by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe.[8] Achebe drew strong reactions when he criticized Heart of Darkness in his 1975 lecture An Image of Africa. He called Conrad "a bloody racist" and the novella "an offensive and totally deplorable book" that de-humanized Africans.[11] Specifically, Achebe argued that Conrad, “blinkered...with xenophobia,” incorrectly depicted Africa as the antithesis to Europe, and thus to civilization, ignoring the actual artistic accomplishments of the Fang people who inhabited the Congo River region at the time of the book’s publication. Achebe acknowledged that Heart of Darkness, as a work of fiction, had no real obligation to “please the people about whom it [was] written,” but the fact that it promoted and continues to promote a prejudiced image of Africa that “depersonalizes a portion of the human race” meant that in Achebe’s view, it should not be considered a great work of art.[12] Achebe's lecture prompted a debate in the lecture hall with initial reactions ranging from dismay and outrage to support for Achebe's view.[13][14] According to Bloom, a number of scholars were upset by the accusations and defended Conrad.[8] In 1983, English professor Cedric Watts published an essay criticizing Achebe's "cool, mocking, sarcastic, and angry" approach towards the subject. Watts also expressed indignation by what he considered to be an implication by Achebe that only black people could accurately analyze and assess the novella.[11] Rino Zhuwarara, a Zimbabwean English professor, agreed with Achebe on a broad spectrum but considered it important to be "sensitized to how peoples of other nations perceive Africa".[15] Achebe later toned down his attack on Heart of Darkness, though he continued to criticize Conrad for failing to openly condemn racism. Literary critic Gene E. Moore responded, "Achebe is apparently unaware that the words racist and racism did not exist during Conrad's lifetime."[15]
In King Leopold's Ghost (1998), Adam Hochschild argues that literary scholars have made too much of the psychological aspects of Heart of Darkness while scanting the horror of Conrad's accurate recounting of the methods and effects of colonialism in the Belgian Congo. He quotes Conrad as saying, "Heart of Darkness is experience ... pushed a little (and only very little) beyond the actual facts of the case."[16] Other critiques include Hugh Curtler's Achebe on Conrad: Racism and Greatness in Heart of Darkness (1997).[17]
Adaptations[edit]
A radio adaptation starring Orson Welles aired in the USA on November 6, 1938, as part of his Mercury Theatre on the Air program. The episode also adapted Clarence Day's Life with Father.[18]
The CBS television anthology Playhouse 90 aired a 90-minute loose adaptation in 1958. This version, written by Stewart Stern, uses the encounter between Marlow (Roddy McDowall) and Kurtz (Boris Karloff) as its final act, and adds a backstory in which Marlow had been Kurtz's adopted son. The cast includes Inga Swenson and Eartha Kitt.[19]
The most famous adaptation is Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 motion picture Apocalypse Now, which moves the story from the Congo to Vietnam and Cambodia during the Vietnam War.[20] In Apocalypse Now, Martin Sheen plays Captain Benjamin L. Willard, a US Army officer charged with "terminating" the command of Colonel Walter E. Kurtz. Marlon Brando played Kurtz, in one of his most famous roles. A production documentary of the film, titled Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, exposed some of the major difficulties which director Coppola faced in seeing the movie through to completion. The difficulties that Coppola and his crew faced often mirrored some of the themes of the book.
In 1991, Australian author and playwright Larry Buttrose wrote and staged a theatrical production of Kurtz (based on Heart of Darkness) with the Crossroads Theatre Company, Sydney.[21] The play was announced to be broadcast as a radio play to Australian radio audiences in August 2011 by the Vision Australia Radio Network,[22] and also by the RPH – Radio Print Handicapped Network across Australia.
On March 13, 1993, TNT aired a new version of the story directed by Nicolas Roeg, starring Tim Roth as Marlow and John Malkovich as Kurtz.[23]
The video game Far Cry 2, released on 21 October 2008, is a loose, modernized adaptation of Heart of Darkness. The player assumes the role of a mercenary operating in Africa whose task it is to kill an arms dealer, the elusive "Jackal". The last area of the game is called 'The Heart of Darkness'.[24][25][26]
In 2011, an operatic adaptation by composer Tarik O'Regan and librettist Tom Phillips was premiered at the Linbury Theatre of the Royal Opera House in London.[27] A suite for orchestra and narrator was subsequently extrapolated from it.[28]
The video game Spec Ops: The Line, released on 26 June 2012, is a loose, modernized adaptation of Heart of Darkness. The character John Konrad, who replaces the character Kurtz, is a reference to the author of the novella.[29]
The novel Hearts of Darkness, by Paul Lawrence, moves the events of the novel to England in 1666. Marlow's journey into the jungle is reimagined as the journey of the narrator, Harry Lytle, and his friend Davy Dowling out of London and towards Shyam, a plague-stricken town that has descended into cruelty and barbarism loosely modelled on real-life Eyam. While Marlow must return to civilisation with Kurtz, Lytle and Dowling are searching for the spy James Josselin. Like Kurtz, Josselin's reputation is immense, and the protagonists are well-acquainted with his accomplishments by the time they finally meet him.[30]
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ 100 Best, Modern Library's website. Retrieved 12 January 2010.
2.^ Jump up to: a b Bloom 2009, p. 15
3.Jump up ^ Bloom 2009, p. 16
4.Jump up ^ Hochschild, Adam: King Leopold's Ghost. New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998, pp. 98; 145,
5.Jump up ^ Ankomah, Baffour (October 1999). "The Butcher of Congo". New African.
6.Jump up ^ Frederick R. Karl & Laurence Davies 1986, p. 407
7.Jump up ^ Frederick R. Karl & Laurence Davies 1986, p. 417
8.^ Jump up to: a b c Bloom 2009, p. 17
9.^ Jump up to: a b c Moore 2004, p. 4
10.Jump up ^ Moore 2004, p. 5
11.^ Jump up to: a b Watts, Cedric (1983). "'A Bloody Racist': About Achebe's View of Conrad". The Yearbook of English Studies. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
12.Jump up ^ Achebe, Chinua (1978). "An Image of Africa". Research in African Literatures. Retrieved December 13, 2013.
13.Jump up ^ "Chinua Achebe: The Failure interview". Failure Magazine. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
14.Jump up ^ Achebe (1989), p. x.
15.^ Jump up to: a b Moore 2004, p. 6
16.Jump up ^ Hochschild 1999, p. 143
17.Jump up ^ Curtler, Hugh (March 1997). "Achebe on Conrad: Racism and Greatness in Heart of Darkness". Conradiana 29 (1): 30–40.
18.Jump up ^ The Mercury Theatre on the Air
19.Jump up ^ Cast and credits are available at "The Internet Movie Database". Retrieved 2 December 2010. A full recording of the show can be viewed onsite by members of the public upon request at The Paley Center for Media (formerly the Museum of Television & Radio) in New York City and Los Angeles.
20.Jump up ^ Scott, A. O. (2001-08-03). "Aching Heart Of Darkness". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-09-29.
21.Jump up ^ The Playwrights Database: Larry Buttrose
22.Jump up ^ Vision Australia Radio – Services – Vision Australia Website
23.Jump up ^ Tucker, Ken. "Heart of Darkness". EW.com, March 11, 1994. Accessed April 4, 2010.
24.Jump up ^ [1]
25.Jump up ^ [2]
26.Jump up ^ [3]
27.Jump up ^ Royal Opera House Page for Heart of Darkness by Tarik O'Regan and Tom Phillips
28.Jump up ^ Suite from Heart of Darkness first London performance, Cadogan Hall
29.Jump up ^ [4]
30.Jump up ^ [5]
References[edit]
Bloom, Harold, ed. (2009). Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 1438117108.
Hochschild, Adam (October 1999). "Chapter 9: Meeting Mr. Kurtz". King Leopold's Ghost. Mariner Books. pp. 140–149. ISBN 0-618-00190-5.
Karl, Frederick R.; Davies, Laurence, eds. (1986). The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad – Volume 2: 1898 – 1902. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-25748-4.
Moore, Gene M. (2004). Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness: A Casebook. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195159969.
Murfin, Ross C. (ed.) (1989). Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness. A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-00761-2.
Sherry, Norman (1980-06-30). Conrad's Western World. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-29808-3.
Further reading[edit]
Conrad, Joseph (1998). Heart of Darkness & Other Stories. Wordsworth Editions Ltd. ISBN 1-85326-240-4.
Conrad, Joseph (1990). Heart of Darkness Unabridged. Dover Publications, Inc. New York. ISBN 0-486-26464-5.
Farn, Regelind (2004, Dissertation). Colonial and Postcolonial Rewritings of "Heart of Darkness" – A Century of Dialogue with Joseph Conrad
External links[edit]
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Heart of Darkness
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness on In Our Time at the BBC. (listen now)
Heart of Darkness at Project Gutenberg
Downloadable audio book of Heart of Darkness by LoudLit.org
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Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmakers's Apocalypse
Hearts of Darkness, A Filmmaker's Apocalypse Poster.jpeg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Fax Bahr
George Hickenlooper
Eleanor Coppola
Produced by
Les Mayfield
George Zaloom
Written by
Fax Bahr
George Hickenlooper
Starring
Francis Ford Coppola
Marlon Brando
Eleanor Coppola
Sofia Coppola
Dennis Hopper
Robert Duvall
Martin Sheen
Laurence Fishburne
Harrison Ford
George Lucas
Sam Bottoms
Release dates
November 27, 1991
Running time
96 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Not to be confused with Heart of Darkness (1993), a film version of the original novel that Apocalypse Now is based on.
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse is a 1991 documentary film about the production of Apocalypse Now.
Contents [hide]
1 Synopsis
2 Awards
3 Home video release
4 Cultural references
5 References
6 External links
Synopsis[edit]
The title is derived from the source material for Apocalypse Now, the Joseph Conrad novella Heart of Darkness. Using behind-the-scenes footage, and narrated by Eleanor Coppola, it chronicles how production problems including bad weather, actors' health and other issues delayed the film, increasing costs and nearly destroying the life and career of Francis Ford Coppola. In 1990, Eleanor Coppola turned her material over to two young filmmakers, George Hickenlooper and Fax Bahr (co-creator of MADtv), who then shot new interviews with the original cast and crew and intercut them with her existing material. After a year of editing, Hickenlooper, Bahr, and Coppola debuted their film at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival[1] to universal critical acclaim.
Awards[edit]
Originally aired on television in the United States, Hearts of Darkness won several awards: The National Board of Review, USA award for "Best Documentary", 1991, an American Cinema Editors award for "Best Edited Documentary", 1992, two Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awards for "Outstanding Individual Achievement – Informational Programming – Directing" and "Outstanding Individual Achievement – Informational Programming – Picture Editing", 1992, and the International Documentary Association award, 1992.
Home video release[edit]
Hearts of Darkness was released on DVD November 20, 2007.[2] The DVD version includes a commentary track from both Eleanor and Francis Coppola (although each was recorded separately) and a bonus documentary entitled Coda, about Coppola's film Youth Without Youth.
Cultural references[edit]
A sample from the Coppola interview shown at the beginning of the film, "We were in the jungle, there were too many of us, we had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little we went insane", is featured in UNKLE's song ""UNKLE (Main Title Theme)", and also in the Cabaret Voltaire song "Project80" (as part of a larger sample from that interview).
Hearts of Dartmouth: Life of a Trailer Park Girl is a documentary about the making of the TV series Trailer Park Boys. It was directed and narrated by Annemarie Cassidy, then-wife of Trailer Park Boys director Mike Clattenburg.
An Animaniacs cartoon entitled "Hearts of Twilight" was a parody of the documentary.
The television series Community paid homage to the documentary in the season 3 episode "Documentary Filmmaking: Redux", with Abed and guest star Luis Guzmán both recognizing the homage and stating that "Hearts of Darkness is way better than Apocalypse Now."
On the DVD commentary of Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck reveal that Casey Affleck's line "I swallowed a bug" is a reference to Marlon Brando. Similarly, in the Joss Whedon film Serenity, River Tam has the same line.
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Festival de Cannes: Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-08-10.
2.Jump up ^ "Home Cinema @ The Digital Fix - Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (R1) in November". Dvdtimes.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
External links[edit]
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse at the Internet Movie Database
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Apocalypse Now Redux
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Apocalypse Now Redux
Apocalypse Now Redux.jpg
UK DVD cover
Directed by
Francis Ford Coppola
Produced by
Francis Ford Coppola
Kim Aubry (Redux only)
Written by
John Milius
Francis Ford Coppola
Michael Herr (narration)
Based on
Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad (uncredited)
Narrated by
Martin Sheen
Starring
Martin Sheen
Marlon Brando
Robert Duvall
Frederic Forrest
Albert Hall
Sam Bottoms
Laurence Fishburne
Dennis Hopper
Aurore Clément
Christian Marquand
Harrison Ford
Music by
Carmine Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Cinematography
Vittorio Storaro
Editing by
Richard Marks
Walter Murch
Gerald B. Greenberg
Lisa Fruchtman
Studio
Zoetrope Studios
Distributed by
Miramax Films
Release dates
May 11, 2001 (Cannes)
August 3, 2001 (US)
Running time
202 minutes[1]
Country
United States
Language
English
French
Vietnamese
Central Khmer
Box office
$4,626,290 (US)[2]
$7,916,979 (non US)[3]
$12,543,269 (total)
Apocalypse Now Redux is a 2001 extended version of Francis Ford Coppola's epic war film Apocalypse Now, which was originally released in 1979. Coppola, along with editor/long-time collaborator Walter Murch, added 49 minutes of scenes that had been cut out of the original film. It represents a significant re-edit of the original version.
Contents [hide]
1 Production 1.1 Music
1.2 Cinematography
2 New scenes and alterations
3 Cast
4 Release 4.1 Critical reception
4.2 Box office
5 Soundtrack
6 References
7 External links
Production[edit]
Francis Ford Coppola began production on the new cut with working-partner Kim Aubry. Coppola then tried to get Murch, who was reluctant at first. He thought it would be extremely difficult recutting a film which had taken two years to edit originally. He later changed his mind (after working on the reconstruction of Orson Welles's Touch of Evil). Coppola and Murch then examined several of the rough prints and dailies for the film. It was decided early on the editing of the film would be like editing a new film altogether. One such example was the new French Plantation sequence. The scenes were greatly edited to fit into the movie originally, only to be cut out in the end. When working again on the film, instead of using the (heavily edited) version, Murch decided to work the scene all over again, editing it as if for the first time.
Much work was needed to be done to the new scenes. Due to the off-screen noises during the shoot, most of the dialogue was impossible to hear. During post-production of the film the actors were brought back to re-record their lines (known as ADR or dubbing). This was done for the scenes that made it into the original cut, but not for the deleted scenes. For the Redux version, Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Sam Bottoms, Albert Hall, Frederic Forrest, and Aurore Clément were brought back to record ADR for the new scenes.
Music[edit]
New music was composed and recorded for the remade film. For example, it was thought no music had been composed for Willard and Roxanne's romantic interlude in the French Plantation scene. To make matters worse, composer Carmine Coppola had died in 1991. However, the old recording and musical scores were checked and a track titled "Love Theme" was found. During scoring, Francis Coppola had told his father (Carmine) to write a theme for the scene before it was ultimately deleted. For the remake, the track was recorded by a group of synthesists.[citation needed]
Cinematography[edit]
Vittorio Storaro also returned from Italy to head the development of a new color balance of the film and new scenes. When Redux was being released, Storaro learned that a Technicolor dye-transfer process was being brought back. The dye-transfer is a three-strip process that makes the color highly saturated and has consistent black tone. Storaro wished to use this on Redux, but in order to do it, he needed to cut the original negative of Apocalypse Now, leaving Apocalypse Now Redux the only version available. Storaro decided to do it, when convinced by Coppola that this version would be the one that would be remembered.
New scenes and alterations[edit]
The film contains several newly added sequences and alterations to the original film:
In the original film, the PBR Street Gang crew members relax and play around, listening to The Rolling Stones's "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" while Willard first looks at the dossier. The scene plays right before the crew members meet Kilgore. In the Redux version, the scene is moved to later in the film, and Willard is shown reading the dossier without the surrounding activity and music.
In the original version, Willard first meets Kilgore when asking a fellow officer who simply replies, "He's over there, you can't miss him". In the Redux, the officer now says "There's the Colonel coming down". We later learn that Kilgore is arriving (via helicopter) to the scene. When he arrives, he tells an officer riding with him, "Lieutenant, bomb back that tree line 'bout a hundred yards, give me some room to breathe". He later asks another for his "Death Cards" (which he uses in the original version).
During the raid, Kilgore looks over some of the wounded and dead. He then walks away, simply replying "Damn".
After Kilgore has ordered an air strike, a Vietnamese mother, with her wounded child in hand, runs to Kilgore. Kilgore immediately takes the child and tells his men to rush the child to a hospital (mother as well) on his chopper.
After the helicopter carrying the wounded child leaves, Kilgore hands Lance a new pair of shorts to go surfing in (Note: Throughout the original cut, Lance is wearing them, but it is never explained how he got them).
After giving the famous "Napalm" speech, Kilgore soon learns that the napalm has changed the wind current, ruining the perfect waves. Willard immediately uses this as an excuse to leave. Before he and Lance run back to the boat, Willard steals Kilgore's surf board.
Before Willard and Chef go to search for mangoes, there's a scene where the crew is lying around in a river. Chef asks Chief if he can go get some mangoes and Willard goes with him. The Redux version contains a new scene before this, in which it is clear that the crew are hiding from Kilgore, who is trying to get back his surf board. A helicopter soon flies by, carrying a recording by Kilgore, asking Lance for the board back. Chief then changes the subject by asking how far they are going up the river. Willard says it's classified. Chief later asks Willard if he likes it like that, "hot and hairy" (to which Willard replies: "Fuck. You don't get a chance to know what the fuck you are in some factory in Ohio"). Chef later asks Chief if he can get some mangoes.
The day after the Playboy Playmates' USO show, we see the crewmembers talking about it. Chef is obsessed he was able to meet "Miss December". Clean then reminds Chef not to go crazy over his Playboy magazines, and proceeds to tell the story of an Army Sergeant who was so obsessed with his Playboys, he killed an ARVN Lieutenant who ruined his foldouts.
The "Satisfaction" scene comes immediately after the above scene. In the following scene, Willard reads a letter by Kurtz, criticizing the incompetent young soldiers sent to Vietnam, blaming them for their losing.
At one point during their travels, the crew stop at a destroyed Medevac. The area is completely wrecked, with no real commanding officer (much like the Do Lung Bridge sequence). Willard tries to find someone in charge, but later learns that the Playboy bunnies' helicopter has landed there. Willard is called over by the Bunnies' manager, who negotiates two barrels of fuel for 2 hours with the bunnies (along with the rest of the crew). Chef spends his time with his idol, Miss December (now Miss May), in the Playboy helicopter, and Lance spends his time with the Playmate of the Year in a Medevac tent. During their escapades, a large cooler is upended, revealing the corpse of a soldier who had died at the Medevac camp. Lance is so deeply engrossed in their encounter that he barely notices the dead man a few feet away. During these scenes, Clean constantly interrupts, trying to get his turn.
After the above scene, Chef learns that Clean is still a virgin. Chef makes fun of him for it, only to be stopped by Chief. The exchange is only partially heard in the original cut.
In the Do Lung Bridge sequence, after being asked where he's going, Willard now mentions wanting to get some fuel for the ship. In the original, it is only said when Willard returns to the PBR vessel.
The longest addition to the film is a sequence that takes place after Clean's death. The crew find themselves in a French rubber plantation near the Cambodian border. Willard tells the head of the plantation (Christian Marquand) that they lost one of their men. He tells Willard that they will bury him (to pay respects to the fallen of their allies). What later follows is a solemn funeral for Clean. Following the recital of a poem by one of the French children (played by Roman Coppola and watched by older brother Gian-Carlo), the crew then has dinner with the new arrivals. Willard, sitting with the family, asks when they are going back to France. The family soon get into a long argument over the First Indochina War and the Vietnam War. There is a dispute over "traitors at home" (e.g., the famous Henri Martin Affair) and most of the family leaves in anger. After they all leave, one, Roxanne (the only one not in the conversation, played by Aurore Clément), apologizes for her family's behavior. She and Willard talk, smoke opium, and she later explains the conflicts her deceased husband had faced with himself during the Indochina War. After she undresses and approaches Willard, she tells him, "There are two of you, can't you see? One that kills, and one that loves." We later see the crew back on the river continuing the mission.
After Chef's death, Willard is kept in a metal shipping container known as a "CONEX". Kurtz later sits outside the doors and reads Willard several Time Magazine articles detailing America's success in the war.
Cast[edit]
This list only includes the cast members not present in the film's original cut.Christian Marquand as Hubert de Marais
Aurore Clément as Roxanne Sarrault
Roman Coppola as Francis de Marais
Gian-Carlo Coppola as Gilles de Marais
Michel Pitton as Philippe de Marais
Franck Villard as Gaston de Marais
David Olivier as Christian de Marais
Chrystel Le Pelletier as Claudine
Robert Julian as The Tutor
Yvon Le Saux as Sgt. Le Fevre
Henri Sadardiel as French soldier #1
Gilbert Renkens as French soldier #2
Pierre Segui (uncredited) as French soldier #3
Release[edit]
Apocalypse Now Redux originally premiered at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival in May.[4] The screening marked the anniversary of the famous Apocalypse Now screening as a work in progress, where it ended up winning the Palme d'Or. Coppola went to the festival, also with Murch, Storaro, production designer Dean Tavoularis, producer Kim Aubry and actors Sam Bottoms and Aurore Clément.
Critical reception[edit]
When it was released, the response from the critics was largely positive, holding a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes; the consensus states "The additional footage slows down the movie somewhat (some say the new cut is inferior to the original), but Apocalypse Now Redux is still a great piece of cinema."[5] Some critics thought highly of the additions, such as A. O. Scott of The New York Times, who wrote that it "grows richer and stranger with each viewing, and the restoration of scenes left in the cutting room two decades ago has only added to its sublimity."[6]
Some critics, however, thought the new scenes slowed the pacing, were too lengthy (notably the French plantation sequence), and added nothing overall to the film's impact. Owen Gleiberman wrote "Apocalypse Now Redux is the meandering, indulgent art project that [Francis Ford Coppola] was still enough of a craftsman, in 1979, to avoid."[citation needed] Despite this, other critics still gave it high ratings. Roger Ebert wrote: "Longer or shorter, redux or not, Apocalypse Now is one of the central events of my life as a filmgoer."[citation needed]
Box office[edit]
The film was given a limited release in the US on August 3, 2001, and was also released theatrically around the world in some 30 countries, generating a worldwide total of $12,543,269 ($4,626,290 in the US[2] plus $7,916,979 outside the US[3]) in box office revenue.
Soundtrack[edit]
Apocalypse Now
Soundtrack album by Carmine Coppola and Francis Ford Coppola
A soundtrack was released on July 31, 2001 by Nonesuch. The soundtrack contains most of the original tracks (remastered), as well as some for the new scenes ("Clean's Funeral", "Love Theme"). The score was composed by Carmine and Francis Ford Coppola (with some tracks co-composed by Mickey Hart and Richard Hansen). The first track is an abridged version of The Doors's 11 minute long, epic "The End".
1."The End" – The Doors
2."The Delta" – Carmine Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola
3."Dossier" – Carmine Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola
4."Orange Light" – Carmine Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola
5."Ride of the Valkyries" – Richard Wagner
6."Suzie Q" (Dale Hawkins) – Flash Cadillac
7."Nung River" – Carmine Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola, Mickey Hart
8."Do Lung" – Carmine Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola, Richard Hansen
9."Clean's Death" – Carmine Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola, Mickey Hart
10."Clean's Funeral" – Carmine Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola
11."Love Theme" – Carmine Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola
12."Chief's Death" – Carmine Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola
13."Voyage" – Carmine Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola
14."Chef's Head" – Carmine Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola
15."Kurtz' Chorale" – Carmine Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola
16."Finale" – Carmine Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola
17."The Horror... The Horror" – Finale quote of Marlon Brando's character
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Apocalypse Now Redux (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 2001-08-03. Retrieved 2012-03-29.
2.^ Jump up to: a b "Apocalypse Now Redux Domestic Gross". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2009-07-20.
3.^ Jump up to: a b Box Office Mojo: Apocalypse Now Redux, foreign total Retrieved 2012-11-06
4.Jump up ^ "Festival de Cannes: Apocalypse Now Redux". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-10-24.
5.Jump up ^ Apocalypse Now Redux at Rotten Tomatoes
6.Jump up ^ Scott, A. O. (2001-08-03). "Aching Heart of Darkness". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-07-20.
External links[edit]
Apocalypse Now Redux at the Internet Movie Database
Apocalypse Now Redux at allmovie
Apocalypse Now Redux at Box Office Mojo
Apocalypse Now Redux at Rotten Tomatoes
Apocalypse Now Redux at Metacritic
Making Apocalypse Now Redux – An extensive look at the making of the new cut.
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Hook (film)
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Hook
Hook poster transparent.png
Theatrical release poster by Drew Struzan
Directed by
Steven Spielberg
Produced by
Frank Marshall
Kathleen Kennedy
Gerald R. Molen
Screenplay by
James V. Hart
Malia Scotch Marmo
Story by
James V. Hart
Nick Castle
Based on
Characters created
by J. M. Barrie
Starring
Dustin Hoffman
Robin Williams
Julia Roberts
Bob Hoskins
Maggie Smith
Charlie Korsmo
Music by
John Williams
Cinematography
Dean Cundey
Editing by
Michael Kahn
Studio
Amblin Entertainment
Distributed by
TriStar Pictures
Release dates
December 11, 1991
Running time
144 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$70 million[1]
Box office
$300,854,823
Hook is a 1991 American fantasy adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by James V. Hart and Malia Scotch Marmo. It stars Robin Williams as Peter Pan/Peter Banning, Dustin Hoffman as the titular character of Captain Hook, Julia Roberts as Tinker Bell, Bob Hoskins as Smee, Maggie Smith as Granny Wendy, Caroline Goodall as Moira Banning, and Charlie Korsmo as Jack Banning. The film acts as a sequel to J. M. Barrie's 1911 novel Peter and Wendy, focusing on a grown-up Peter Pan who has forgotten his childhood. Now known as Peter Banning he is a successful corporate lawyer with a wife and two children. Hook kidnaps his children, and Peter must return to Neverland and reclaim his youthful spirit in order to challenge his old enemy.
Spielberg began developing the film in the early 1980s with Walt Disney Productions and Paramount Pictures, which would have followed the storyline seen in the 1924 silent film and 1953 animated film. Peter Pan entered pre-production in 1985, but Spielberg abandoned the project. James V. Hart developed the script with director Nick Castle and TriStar Pictures before Spielberg decided to direct in 1989. Hook was shot entirely on sound stages at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California. Although it received mostly negative reviews by critics, it became a box office success and it was nominated for multiple categories at the 64th Academy Awards. It also spawned merchandise, including video games, action figures and comic book adaptations.
Contents [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Themes
5 Soundtrack 5.1 Expanded Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
6 Reception
7 Video games
8 References
9 Further reading
10 External links
Plot[edit]
Peter Banning (Robin Williams) is a successful corporate lawyer whose relationship with his family—especially his two young children Jack (Charlie Korsmo) and Maggie (Amber Scott)—is strained by continuous absences and broken promises. His wife Moira (Caroline Goodall) struggles to keep them together and grows frustrated with Peter for his callous behavior. The family flies to London to visit Moira's grandmother, Wendy Darling (Maggie Smith), who helped Peter find a family when he was a young orphan.
Upon arrival, they meet an old man who has "lost his marbles", Tootles (Arthur Malet), Wendy's first orphan. Peter, Moira, and Wendy attend a ceremony for the expansion of Wendy's orphanage. While they are out, his children are kidnapped, with a dagger bearing a note signed by "Captain Hook" flung into their bedroom door. Wendy tells Peter that he is in fact Peter Pan and that his old enemy has returned and taken his children for revenge, but he fails to remember anything. Tinker Bell (Julia Roberts) appears before Peter that night, knocks him unconscious and flies him to a pirate port in Neverland. There he awakens in disbelief, and is discovered by Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman) and his second in command, Smee (Bob Hoskins), who threaten the children unless he accepts Hook's challenge to a duel. Tinker Bell intervenes and is granted three days in which to prepare him for it.
The Lost Boys, now led by Peter's successor, Rufio (Dante Basco), at first dismiss him as an old man who has no hope of regaining his former glory, but he begins to learn the magic of Neverland. Meanwhile, Hook tries to turn Peter's own children against him in the hopes they will stay in Neverland permanently. Maggie immediately mistrusts Hook and he realizes that she still believes in Peter in spite of his broken promises and continues to hold her hostage. However, Hook uses Jack's frustration over his father's continuous broken promises to steal his affection, and gains his trust during a baseball game he organizes for Jack with the other pirates. Peter is heartbroken when he sees Hook treating Jack like a son, and becomes determined to win his family back. The pirates, however, do trigger a moment of doubt in Jack due to their unfamiliarity of baseball, mistakingly cheer by shouting "Run home, Jack" (when they intended to shout for a home run), causing Jack to remember his sister yelling "run home, Jack!" Back home, Peter recalls his own childhood leading up to his friendship with Wendy; how he often visited her and took trips to Neverland until one day Wendy says she can no longer go to Neverland due to her responsibilities of running a family; Peter is disappointed, but sees Wendy's granddaughter and eventually marries her. Finally Peter realizes what his happy thought is: becoming a father.
Peter regains the leadership of the Lost Boys and they challenge Hook and his pirates in an all-out battle. When he learns that Hook has turned Jack against him, Peter must win back his son's trust in him. He rescues Maggie from the other pirates and promises that he'll be more attentive as a father. Meanwhile, Hook and Rufio valiantly fight in a sword fight and Hook stabs Rufio, killing him. Before dying, Rufio tells Peter he wishes that he had a father like him in his life. Watching Rufio die breaks Jack's heart and seeing how much Peter cared for the Lost Boy allows him to regain his trust in his father. Peter and Hook engage in a climactic sword fight. Hook is killed when the crocodile, now a massive clock tower, falls on him. Peter is now set to return to London with Jack and Maggie, but first designates the largest member of the Lost Boys, Thud Butt (Raushan Hammond), as leader of the Lost Boys in his absence. Peter also tells all the Lost Boys to take care of everybody smaller than him, and promises them all he will never forget them again.
Returning home, Peter finally realizes the love he has for his family and the importance of having a youthful heart. Tootles, a former Lost Boy, is dismayed at missing the adventure, but discovers pixie dust in his bag of lost marbles and uses it to go flying around London and back to Neverland. Wendy remarks to Peter that his adventures are now over, but Peter says to live would be an awfully great adventure.
Cast[edit]
See also: Characters of Peter Pan
Robin Williams as Peter Banning/Peter Pan: A successful corporate lawyer who must reclaim his youthful spirit as Peter Pan in order to challenge Hook and reclaim his children. Ryan Francis as young Peter Pan in flashbacks, and Max Hoffman as infant Peter.
Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook: A villainous pirate who has had a long rivalry with Peter Pan. After escaping from his death, Hook seeks revenge against Peter by kidnapping his two children. He does not harm the children, instead using indoctrination to make the children prefer him to their parents.
Julia Roberts as Tinker Bell: A fairy who helps Peter regain memory of his childhood and "happy thoughts". Lisa Wilhoit as the young Tinker Bell.
Bob Hoskins as Smee: Hook's henchman who devises the plan to persuade Peter's children to "love" Hook. Hoskins also plays a rubbish sweeper in Kensington Gardens whose resemblance to Smee is noticed by Peter in the film's final scenes.
Maggie Smith as Wendy Darling: A former neighbor of J. M. Barrie, who was credited as the author of Peter Pan. After Wendy's adventures with Peter Pan, she becomes well known for helping orphans. Gwyneth Paltrow appears as young Wendy Darling in flashbacks.
Charlie Korsmo as Jack Banning: Peter and Moira's preteen son who begins to rebel against his neglectful father and looks towards Hook as a father figure. Witnessing Hook's defeat of Rufio turns Jack against him when he realizes how much Peter cares for the Lost Boys.
Amber Scott as Maggie Banning: Peter and Moira's sweet and imaginative daughter, who is enamoured with the stories of Peter Pan. She mistrusts Hook and still retains faith in her father despite his broken promises.
Caroline Goodall as Moira Banning: Wendy's granddaughter, Peter's loving wife, mother to Jack and Maggie.
Dante Basco as Rufio: Leader of the Lost Boys since Peter's departure from Neverland. He initially refuses to believe Peter Banning is his old friend, Peter Pan, but later accepts him as his leader and goes as far as to admit that he loved Peter like a father. He later dies fighting Hook.
Arthur Malet as Tootles: A senile old man living with Wendy. A former Lost Boy, Tootles is also Wendy's "first orphan".
Jeff Kroeger, Jasen Fisher and James Madio portray Lost Boys. Kelly Rowan makes a cameo appearance as Peter Pan's mother and pop star Phil Collins appears briefly as an English police inspector. More cameos include singers David Crosby and Jimmy Buffett as members of Hook's pirate crew, Nick Tate as a pirate who fights Peter Pan while taking away Maggie, and Glenn Close similarly appears as a male pirate who is punished by Hook. Filmmaker George Lucas and actress Carrie Fisher appear as the couple accidentally sprinkled with fairy dust as Tinker Bell brings Peter to Neverland.
Production[edit]
J. M. Barrie considered writing a story in which Peter Pan grew up; his 1920 notes for the latest stage revival of Peter Pan included possible titles for another play: The Man Who Couldn't Grow Up or The Old Age of Peter Pan.[2] The genesis of Hook started when director Steven Spielberg's mother often read him Peter and Wendy as a bedtime story. Spielberg explained in 1985, "When I was eleven years old I actually directed the story during a school production. I have always felt like Peter Pan. I still feel like Peter Pan. It has been very hard for me to grow up, I'm a victim of the Peter Pan syndrome."[3]
In the early 1980s, with Walt Disney Pictures, Spielberg began to develop the film which would have closely followed the storyline of the 1924 silent film and 1953 animated film.[4] He also considered directing Peter Pan as a musical with Michael Jackson in the lead.[5] Jackson expressed interest in the part, but was not interested in Spielberg's vision of an adult Peter Pan who had forgotten about his past.[6] The project was taken to Paramount Pictures, where James V. Hart wrote the first script with Dustin Hoffman already cast as Captain Hook.[5] Peter Pan entered pre-production in 1985 for filming to begin at sound stages in England. Elliot Scott had been hired as production designer.[4] With the birth of his first son, Max, in 1985, Spielberg decided to drop out. "I decided not to make Peter Pan when I had my first child," Spielberg commented. "I didn't want to go to London and have seven kids on wires in front of blue screens. I wanted to be home as a dad."[5] Around this time, Spielberg considered directing Big, which carried similar motifs and themes with Peter Pan.[5] In 1987, Spielberg "permanently abandoned" Peter Pan, feeling he expressed his childhood and adult themes in Empire of the Sun.[7]
Meanwhile, Paramount and Hart moved forward on production with Nick Castle as director. Hart began to work on a new storyline when his son, Jake, showed his family a drawing. "We asked Jake what it was and he said it was a crocodile eating Captain Hook, but that the crocodile really didn't eat him, he got away," Hart reflected. "As it happens, I had been trying to crack Peter Pan for years, but I didn't just want to do a remake. So I went, 'Wow. Hook is not dead. The crocodile is. We've all been fooled'. In 1986 our family was having dinner and Jake said, 'Daddy, did Peter Pan ever grow up?' My immediate response was, 'No, of course not'. And Jake said, 'But what if he did?' I realized that Peter did grow up, just like all of us baby boomers who are now in our forties. I patterned him after several of my friends on Wall Street, where the pirates wear three-piece suits and ride in limos."[8]
By 1989, Ian Rathbone changed the title of Peter Pan to Hook, and took it from Paramount to TriStar Pictures, headed by Mike Medavoy, who was Spielberg's first talent agent. Robin Williams signed on, but Williams and Hoffman had creative differences with Castle. Medavoy saw Hook as a vehicle for Spielberg and Castle was dismissed, but paid a $500,000 settlement.[8] Spielberg briefly worked together with Hart to rewrite the script[4] before hiring Malia Scotch Marmo to rewrite Captain Hook's dialog and Carrie Fisher for Tinker Bell's dialog. The Writers Guild of America gave Hart and Marmo screenplay credit, while Hart and Castle were credited with story. Fisher went uncredited. Filming began on February 19, 1991, occupying nine sound stages at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California.[1] Stage 30 housed the Neverland Lost Boys playground, while Stage 10 supplied Captain Hook's ship cabin. Hidden hydraulics were installed to rock the setpiece to simulate a swaying ship, but the filmmakers found the movement distracted the dialogue, so the idea was dropped.[9]
Stage 27 housed the full-sized pirate ship Jolly Roger and the surrounding Pirate Wharf.[9] Industrial Light & Magic provided the visual effects sequences, this would also prove the introduction of Tony Swatton's career as he would be asked to make weaponry for the film. Hook was financed by Amblin Entertainment and TriStar Pictures, with TriStar distributing the film. Impressed with his work on Cats, Spielberg brought John Napier as a "visual consultant". The original production budget was set at $48 million, but ended up between $60–80 million.[1][10] This was also largely contributed by the shooting schedule, which ran 40 days over its original 76 day schedule. Spielberg explained, "It was all my fault. I began to work at a slower pace than I usually do."[10] He also found it difficult to work with Julia Roberts, who was suffering from a mental disorder after her breakup with Dylan McDermott.[4]
Themes[edit]
Spielberg found close personal connection to the film. The troubled relationship between Peter and his son echoed Spielberg's relationship with his father. Previous films of Spielberg that explored a diminishing father-son relationship included E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Peter Banning's "quest for success" paralleled Spielberg starting out as a film director and transforming into a Hollywood business magnate. This led to Spielberg's divorce from Amy Irving, which would possibly lead to Banning's relationship with his family.[11] "I think a lot of people today are losing their imagination because they are work-driven. They are so self-involved with work and success and arriving at the next plateau that children and family almost become incidental. I have even experienced it myself when I have been on a very tough shoot and I've not seen my kids except on weekends. They ask for my time and I can't give it to them because I'm working."[4] Similar to Peter Banning at the beginning of Hook, Spielberg also has a fear of flying. He feels that Peter Pan's "enduring quality" in the storyline is simply to fly. "Anytime anything flies, whether it's Superman, Batman, or E.T., it's got to be a tip of the hat to Peter Pan," Spielberg reflected. "Peter Pan was the first time I saw anybody fly. Before I saw Superman, before I saw Batman, and of course before I saw any superheroes, my first memory of anybody flying is in Peter Pan."[4]
Soundtrack[edit]
Hook: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
The file above is proposed for deletion. See files for deletion to help reach a consensus on what to do.
Film score by John Williams
Released
November 26, 1991 (original)
March 27, 2012 (reissue)[12]
Length
75:18 (original)
140:34 (reissue)
Label
Epic Records (original)
La-La Land Records (reissue)
John Williams chronology
Home Alone Hook JFK
The film score was composed by John Williams. Williams was bought in at an early stage when Spielberg was considering making the film as a musical. Accordingly, Williams wrote around eight songs for the project at this stage. The idea was later abandoned. Most of Williams's song ideas were incorporated into the instrumental score, though two songs survive as songs in the finished film -- "We Don't Wanna Grow Up" and "When You're Alone", both with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse.
The original 1991 issue was released by Epic Records. In 2012, a limited edition of the soundtrack, called Hook: Expanded Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, was released by La-La Land Records and Sony Music. It contains almost the complete score with alternates and unused material. It also contains liner notes that explain the film's production and score recording.
Hook: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack[13]
No.
Title
Length
1. "Prologue" 1:30
2. "We Don't Wanna Grow Up" 1:50
3. "Banning Back Home" 2:22
4. "Granny Wendy" 2:57
5. "Hook-Napped" 3:56
6. "The Arrival of Tink and the Flight to Neverland" 5:55
7. "Presenting the Hook" 2:58
8. "From Mermaids to Lost Boys" 4:24
9. "The Lost Boy Chase" 3:31
10. "Smee's Plan" 1:44
11. "The Banquet" 3:07
12. "The Never-Feast" 4:39
13. "Remembering Childhood" 11:02
14. "You are the Pan" 3:59
15. "When You're Alone" 3:13
16. "The Ultimate War" 7:53
17. "Farewell Neverland" 10:16
Total length:
75:18
Commercial songs from film, but not on soundtrack"Pick'em Up" – Music by John Williams and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse
"Take Me Out to the Ball Game" – Written by Jack Norworth & Albert Von Tilzer
Expanded Original Motion Picture Soundtrack[edit]
Disc one
No.
Title
Length
1. "Prologue" 1:30
2. "We Don't Wanna Grow Up" 1:50
3. "Banning Back Home" 2:22
4. "Granny Wendy" 2:57
5. "The Bedroom" 1:07
6. "The Nursery" 1:38
7. "The Watch" 0:56
8. "Hook-Napped" 3:56
9. "A Portrait of Wendy" 1:06
10. "The Arrival of Tink/The Flight to Neverland" 6:03
11. "Presenting the Hook" 3:01
12. "Pirates" 2:41
13. "Hook Challenges Peter" 7:50
14. "From Mermaids to Lost Boys" 5:13
15. "The Lost Boy Chase" 3:32
16. "Smee's Plan" 3:25
17. "Pan is Challenged" 1:20
18. "Hook's Lesson" 3:08
19. "The Banquet" 3:10
20. "The Never-Feast" 4:41
21. "Hook's Madness" 4:00
22. "Follow That Shadow" 2:38
Total length:
68:18
Disc two
No.
Title
Length
1. "Remembering Childhood" 11:04
2. "You Are the Pan" 4:03
3. "When You're Alone" 3:16
4. "Tink Grows Up" 2:20
5. "The Ultimate War: To War" 9:45
6. "The Ultimate War: The Death of Rufio" 2:36
7. "The Ultimate War: Sword Fight" 5:32
8. "Farewell Neverland" 11:15
9. "End Credits" 6:08
10. "Prologue" (alternate) 1:35
11. "Banning Back Home" (film version) 3:14
12. "Presenting the Hook" (film version – extended) 5:09
13. "Hook's Blues" 2:17
14. "Wendy Tells Peter the Truth" (partly unused) 2:24
15. "Exit Music" (unused) 1:42
Total length:
72:16
Reception[edit]
Spielberg, Williams and Hoffman did not take salaries for the film. Their deal called for the trio to split 40% of TriStar Pictures' gross revenues. They were to receive $20 million from the first $50 million in gross theatrical film rentals, with TriStar keeping the next $70 million in rentals before the three resumed receiving their percentage.[1] Hook was released in North America on December 11, 1991, earning $13.52 million in its opening weekend. The film went on to gross $119.65 million in North America and $181.2 million in foreign countries, accumulating a worldwide total of $300.85 million.[14] It is the fifth highest-grossing "pirate-themed" film, behind all four films in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series.[15] In North America totals, Hook was the sixth highest-grossing film in 1991,[16] and fourth highest-grossing worldwide.[17] While Hook ended up making a profit of $50 million for the studio, it was still declared a financial disappointment.[18]
Film critics gave Hook generally mixed to negative reviews. As of May 2013, review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 31% of critics have given the film a positive review, based on 39 reviews, certifying it "Rotten", with an average rating of 4.4/10.[19] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that the "failure in Hook was its inability to re-imagine the material, to find something new, fresh or urgent to do with the Peter Pan myth. Lacking that, Spielberg should simply have remade the original story, straight, for the '90s generation."[20] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine felt Hook would "only appeal to the baby boomer generation" and highly criticized the sword-fighting choreography.[21] Vincent Canby of The New York Times felt the story structure was not well balanced, feeling Spielberg depended too much on art direction.[22] Hal Hinson of The Washington Post was one of few who gave the film a positive review. Hinson elaborated on crucial themes of children, adulthood and loss of innocence. However, he observed that Spielberg "was stuck too much in a theme park world".[23]
Hook was nominated for five categories at the 64th Academy Awards. This included Best Production Design (Norman Garwood, Garrett Lewis) (lost to Bugsy), Best Costume Design (lost to Bugsy), Best Visual Effects (lost to Terminator 2: Judgment Day), Best Makeup (lost to Terminator 2: Judgment Day) and Best Original Song ("When You're Alone", lost to Beauty and the Beast).[24] Hook lost the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film to Aladdin, in which Robin Williams co-starred,[25] while cinematographer Dean Cundey was nominated for his work by the American Society of Cinematographers.[26] Dustin Hoffman was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (lost to Robin Williams for The Fisher King).[27] John Williams was given a Grammy Award nomination for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media;[28] Julia Roberts received a Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Supporting Actress (lost to Sean Young as the dead twin in A Kiss Before Dying).[29]
In a 2011 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Spielberg talked about what he thought worked and what didn't work: "There are parts of Hook I love. I'm really proud of my work right up through Peter being hauled off in the parachute out the window, heading for Neverland. I'm a little less proud of the Neverland sequences, because I'm uncomfortable with that highly stylized world that today, of course, I would probably have done with live-action character work inside a completely digital set. But we didn't have the technology to do it then, and my imagination only went as far as building physical sets and trying to paint trees blue and red."[30] Spielberg gave a more blunt assessment in a 2013 radio show appearance: "I wanna see Hook again because I so don't like that movie, and I'm hoping someday I'll see it again and perhaps like some of it."[31]
Video games[edit]
One of the side-scrolling stages.
Several video games based on the film and bearing the same name were released between 1991 and 1993. An Arcade beat 'em up produced by Japanese company Irem was released in 1992, that allowed for single player and co-operative gameplay between four players. The player(s) can select to play as Peter Pan or one of four Lost Boys. A side-scrolling home console game was also released in 1992 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Sega CD, Sega Genesis and the handheld Sega Game Gear. The game was originally developed by Ukiyotei for the SNES before being ported by Core Design (Sega CD and Sega Genesis) and Spidersoft (Game Gear). All versions were published by Sony Imagesoft. The Sega CD version received a European release in 1993. The adult Peter Banning is the only playable character. The game received generally positive reviews.[citation needed]
Another side-scrolling platformer was released in 1992 for the NES and Nintendo Game Boy. The game was developed by Ocean Software and published by Sony Imagesoft. Ocean Software also developed and published a separate point and click adventure game in 1991 for the Commodore 64 and Amiga followed by Atari ST and PC versions in 1992. The game's main objective was to escape the Pirate City, reach the Lost Boys' hideout and try to become Peter Pan in order to fight once more with Captain Hook.
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b c d Joseph McBride (1997). Steven Spielberg: A Biography. New York City: Faber and Faber. p. 411. ISBN 0-571-19177-0.
2.Jump up ^ Andrew Birkin (2003). J.M. Barrie and the Lost Boys. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09822-8.
3.Jump up ^ McBride, p.42—43
4.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Ana Maria Bahiana (March 1992). "Hook", Cinema Papers, pp. 67—69.
5.^ Jump up to: a b c d McBride, p. 409.
6.Jump up ^ http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2011/12/04/michael_jackson_was_steven_spielbergs_
7.Jump up ^ Myra Forsberg (1988-01-10). "Spielberg at 40: The Man and the Child". The New York Times.
8.^ Jump up to: a b McBride, p. 410.
9.^ Jump up to: a b DVD production notes
10.^ Jump up to: a b McBride, p. 412.
11.Jump up ^ McBride, p. 413.
12.Jump up ^ "HOOK 2CD Set Includes ‘Over 65 minutes of Music Previously Unreleased’". JWFan. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
13.Jump up ^ "Hook - John Williams". AllMusic. Retrieved August 26, 2010.
14.Jump up ^ "Hook". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
15.Jump up ^ "Pirate Movies". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2011-06-03.
16.Jump up ^ "1991 Domestic Totals". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
17.Jump up ^ "1991 Worldwide Grosses". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
18.Jump up ^ Dretzka, Gary. "Medavoy's Method." Chicago Tribune (December 8, 1996).
19.Jump up ^ "Hook". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 2011-07-12.
20.Jump up ^ "Hook". Roger Ebert.com. 1991-12-11. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
21.Jump up ^ Peter Travers (1991-12-11). "Hook". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
22.Jump up ^ Vincent Canby (1991-12-11). "Hook". The New York Times.
23.Jump up ^ Hal Hinson (1991-12-11). "Hook". The Washington Post.
24.Jump up ^ "Hook". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2008-09-20.
25.Jump up ^ "Past Saturn Awards". Saturn Awards.com. Retrieved 2008-09-20.
26.Jump up ^ "7th Annual Awards". American Society of Cinematographers. Archived from the original on November 9, 2006. Retrieved 2008-09-20.
27.Jump up ^ "49th Golden Globe Awards". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2008-09-20.
28.Jump up ^ "Grammy Awards of 1991". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2008-09-20.
29.Jump up ^ "Twelfth Annual RAZZIE Awards". Golden Raspberry Award. Retrieved 2008-10-15.
30.Jump up ^ Breznican, Anthony (December 02, 2011), "Steven Spielberg: The EW Interview", Entertainment Weekly.
31.Jump up ^ "Steven Spielberg interviewed by Kermode and Mayo". 26 January 2013..
Further reading[edit]
Terry Brooks (17 December 1991). Hook (Hardcover). novelization of the film. Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-449-90707-4.
Charles L.P. Silet (2002). The Films of Steven Spielberg. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-4182-7.
External links[edit]
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Hook
Portal icon Children's literature portal
Hook at the Internet Movie Database
Hook at allmovie
Hook at Rotten Tomatoes
Hook at Box Office Mojo
Sony Imagesoft's Hook at MobyGames
Ocean's Hook at MobyGames
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The Good Dinosaur
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
The Good Dinosaur
The Good Dinosaur.JPG
Official film logo
Directed by
Bob Peterson
Produced by
Denise Ream[1]
Story by
Enrico Casarosa
Bob Peterson
Starring
Lucas Neff
John Lithgow
Frances McDormand
Neil Patrick Harris
Judy Greer
Bill Hader
Music by
Thomas Newman[2]
Studio
Walt Disney Pictures
Pixar Animation Studios
Distributed by
Walt Disney Studios
Motion Pictures
Release dates
November 25, 2015
Country
United States
Language
English
The Good Dinosaur is an upcoming American 3D computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is currently scheduled to be released on November 25, 2015.[3] It is the studio's sixteenth feature film. Bob Peterson, who came up with the idea for the story, directed The Good Dinosaur until August 2013, when he was removed from the film.[1]
Contents [hide]
1 Plot
2 Voice cast
3 Production
4 Release
5 References
6 External links
Plot[edit]
The official synopsis reads: "The Good Dinosaur asks the generations-old question: What if the cataclysmic asteroid that forever changed life on Earth actually missed the planet completely and giant dinosaurs never became extinct? The film is a humorous and exciting original story about Arlo, a lively 70-foot-tall teenage Apatosaurus with a big heart. After a traumatic event rattles Arlo's tranquil community, he sets out on a quest to restore peace, gaining an unlikely companion along the way - a young human boy named Spot."[4]
Voice cast[edit]
Lucas Neff as Arlo, the youngest of the Apatosaurus family[5][6]
John Lithgow as Poppa, father of the Apatosaurus family[5]
Frances McDormand as Momma, mother of the Apatosaurus family[5]
Neil Patrick Harris as Cliff, middle-sibling of the Apatosaurus family[5]
Judy Greer as Ivy, middle-sibling of the Apatosaurus family[5]
Bill Hader as Forrest, older brother of the Apatosaurus family[5]
Production[edit]
When a promotional video for Up called Up: B-roll 1 was released in 2009, many fans noticed four stand-out images in the background of sculptor Greg Dykstra's office. The top image is a clay sculpture of a sauropod dinosaur with a person standing next to it. Below it are two more images of clay sculptures of a boy. The fourth image, not clearly visible, is a drawing of the same or another Sauropod. As Up was released in May of that year, development could have started as early as 2009.[7] The film's first release date of November 27, 2013 was first announced in June 2011.[8] Not long after, the plot, director & co-director, producer, and other small details were announced at the D23 Expo on August 20, 2011.[9] Bob Peterson and John Walker humorously titled the film The Untitled Pixar Movie About Dinosaurs and even created a logo for the mock title.[9] On April 24, 2012, Pixar announced that it would be titled The Good Dinosaur.[10]
John Lasseter gave details about the film's plot: "They are kind of cartoony but they are dinosaurs; they are not walking around with clothes on or anything like that, they still are kind of dinosaurs. We focused on mostly the plant-eaters, not the carnivores… Their society becomes more of an agrarian society, meaning farmers. They become farmers. It’s a very funny story about a certain way of life that a young dinosaur has trouble fitting into and he ends up going on this quest. He kind of messes up and he has to put everything right by going on this quest and on that quest he meets this character that is an outcast from his society too and so the two of them form this bond and it becomes this unique kind of story…"[11] The filmmakers want to explore what dinosaurs represent today, and how they are represented in stereotypes. Bob Peterson said: "It's time to do a movie where you get to know the dinosaur, what it's really like to be a dinosaur and to be with a dinosaur."[12] Peterson said the inspiration for the movie came from a childhood visit to the World's Fair where he was impressed by some dinosaur animatronics.[12] The film's title might suggest that dinosaurs are evil. However, Peter Sohn warned: "The title is deceptively simple. It has more meaning than it seems."[12]
On December 22, 2011, Disney shared upcoming release dates for its films. A film titled Frozen rested on the date of November 27, 2013, which led many to believe that The Untitled Pixar Movie About Dinosaurs, originally scheduled for release on that date, now had the title of Frozen. However, Peter Sciretta of /Film confirmed with Disney that Frozen was not a Pixar film. Further, Bleeding Cool received tips that Frozen is actually an adaptation of the long-dormant Snow Queen animated film with Walt Disney Animation Studios.[13] Later, Pixar announced that The Good Dinosaur would be released on May 30, 2014.[10] On March 12, 2013, Thomas Newman revealed that he is composing the musical score for The Good Dinosaur.[2] On August 9, 2013, at the D23 Expo it was announced that Lucas Neff, John Lithgow, Frances McDormand, Neil Patrick Harris, Judy Greer, and Bill Hader had joined the cast of the film.[5]
By summer 2013, the director and producer had been removed from the film due to the story problems.[1] Peterson, who couldn't crack the film's third act,[14] was notably absent at D23 Expo, where Sohn and producer Denise Ream presented footage from the film.[15][16] Ed Catmull, Pixar's president, explained the departure: "All directors get really deep in their film. Sometimes you just need a different perspective to get the idea out. Sometimes directors ... are so deeply embedded in their ideas it actually takes someone else to finish it up."[1] Peterson moved on to another project he is developing at Pixar, while Ream replaced Walker, who left to work on Tomorrowland. John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Mark Andrews, and Sohn stepped in temporarily to work on various sections of the film.[1] In September 2013, The Good Dinosaur had been pushed back from May 30, 2014 to November 25, 2015 (the scheduled release date for Finding Dory) in order to "give the film some more time."[3] In November 2013, due to the delay, Pixar laid off 67 employees of its 1,200-person workforce,[14] following the closure of Pixar Canada a month before, when about 80 employees had been laid off, officially to refocus Pixar's efforts at its main headquarters.[17]
Release[edit]
The Good Dinosaur will be theatrically released on November 25, 2015.[3] Before the rescheduling from 2014 to 2015, a Pixar short animated film, Party Central, was set to accompany the film, but it will now be shown in front of Muppets Most Wanted.[18]
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Keegan, Rebecca (August 30, 2013). "Pixar Animation yanks director Bob Peterson off 'The Good Dinosaur'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
2.^ Jump up to: a b Barcomb, James (March 14, 2013). "Film composer Thomas Newman discusses "The Art of Film Scoring"". The Dolphin. Retrieved March 16, 2013.
3.^ Jump up to: a b c Keegan, Rebecca (18 September 2013). "'The Good Dinosaur' moved to 2015, leaving Pixar with no 2014 film". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
4.Jump up ^ "D23 Expo: New Art From the Upcoming Disney, Pixar and Disneytoon Movies". ComingSoon.net. August 9, 2013. Retrieved August 15, 2013.
5.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Beard, Lanford. "Pixar preview: Casts announced for 'The Good Dinosaur,' 'Inside Out'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2013-08-09.
6.Jump up ^ Billington, Alex (August 9, 2013). "D23 Reveals First Look at Pixar's 'The Good Dinosaur' + Voice Cast". First Showing. Retrieved August 10, 20131.
7.Jump up ^ Bastoli, Mike (August 27, 2009). "Art hints at Pixar dinosaur film (UPDATE)". Big Screen Animation. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
8.Jump up ^ Bastoli, Mike (June 20, 2011). "Untitled Pixar feature coming Nov. 27, 2013". Big Screen Animation. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
9.^ Jump up to: a b Rizvi, Samad (August 21, 2011). "D23 2011: A Few More Details On Pixar’s Dinosaur Movie". Pixar Times. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
10.^ Jump up to: a b Rizvi, Samad (April 24, 2012). "CinemaCon 2012: Pixar’s Dinosaur Film Gets A Title, New Lee Unkrich Project Announced". Pixar Times. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
11.Jump up ^ Connelly, Brendon (June 5, 2012). "John Lasseter Explains Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur And Pete Docter’s Inside-The-Mind Movie". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
12.^ Jump up to: a b c Keegan, Rebecca (May 31, 2012). "Pixar's 'The Good Dinosaur' will warm up a prehistoric reputation". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
13.Jump up ^ Rizvi, Samad (December 23, 2011). "Pixar Dinosaur Film Bumped Off Nov 2013 Release Date". Pixar Times. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
14.^ Jump up to: a b Kilday, Gregg (December 4, 2013). "Pixar vs. Disney Animation: John Lasseter's Tricky Tug-of-War". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
15.Jump up ^ Fischer, Russ (August 26, 2013). "Rumor: ‘The Good Dinosaur’ Director Bob Peterson Is Off the Film". SlashFilm. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
16.Jump up ^ Taylor, Drew (August 26, 2013). "Pixar Filmmaker Bob Peterson Reportedly Off 'The Good Dinosaur,' Studio Seeking Replacement". The Playlist. Retrieved August 26, 2013.
17.Jump up ^ Miller, Daniel (November 22, 2013). "Pixar undergoes layoffs due to 'The Good Dinosaur' delay". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
18.Jump up ^ Fischer, Russ (August 9, 2013). "‘Monsters University’ Short Film ‘Party Central’ Revealed". /Film. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
External links[edit]
The Good Dinosaur at the Internet Movie Database
The Good Dinosaur at the Big Cartoon DataBase
The Good Dinosaur at Rotten Tomatoes
The Good Dinosaur at Metacritic
The Good Dinosaur at Box Office Mojo
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Finding Dory
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Finding Dory
Finding Dory.svg
Official film logo
Directed by
Andrew Stanton
Produced by
Lindsey Collins
Written by
Victoria Strouse
Starring
Ellen DeGeneres
Albert Brooks
Diane Keaton
Eugene Levy
Ty Burrell
Willem Dafoe
Studio
Walt Disney Pictures
Pixar Animation Studios
Distributed by
Walt Disney Studios
Motion Pictures
Release dates
June 17, 2016
Country
United States
Language
English
Finding Dory is an upcoming 2016 computer-animated film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and the sequel to the 2003 Pixar film Finding Nemo. Andrew Stanton, who directed the original film, will return as director.[1][2] The film is scheduled to be released on June 17, 2016.[3] It has also been confirmed that characters from the first film will appear in the sequel, including Dory, Nemo, Marlin and the "Tank Gang."[4]
Contents [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Release
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
Plot[edit]
Finding Dory will be focused on the amnesiac character Dory, and will explore the idea of her being reunited with her family.[4] The setting is one year after Finding Nemo and will be set off the coast of California.[5][6]
Cast[edit]
Ellen DeGeneres as Dory, a Pacific regal blue tang[7]
Albert Brooks as Marlin, a clownfish, Nemo's father[7]
Diane Keaton as Jenny, Dory’s mother[7]
Eugene Levy as Charlie, Dory’s father[7]
Ty Burrell as Bailey, a beluga whale[7]
Willem Dafoe as Gill, a moorish idol who was one of Nemo's tank inhabitants in the first film[8]
Vicki Lewis as Deb (and her sister,"Flo", Deb's reflection), a four-striped damselfish who was one of Nemo's tank inhabitants in the first film[9][10]
Kaitlin Olson as Dory's adopted sister, a killer whale[11][12]
It was also announced that Nemo and the rest of the "Tank Gang" would return, as well as many other original characters from Nemo, in addition to several new ones that have yet to be announced.[13] It is unknown if Jacques will reappear for the sequel because his voice actor, Joe Ranft, died in a car accident in 2005 during production of Cars. It is also unknown if Nemo's voice actor Alexander Gould will be voicing the character as his voice has deepened since the release of the first film.[14][15]
Production[edit]
In 2005, after disagreements between Disney's Michael Eisner and Pixar's Steve Jobs over the distribution of Pixar's films, Disney announced that they would be creating a new animation studio, Circle 7 Animation, to make sequels to the seven Disney-owned Pixar films (which consisted of the films released between 1995 and 2006).[16] The studio had put Toy Story 3 and Monsters, Inc. 2 into development, and had also hired screenwriter Laurie Craig to write a draft for Finding Nemo 2.[17] Circle 7 was subsequently shut down after Robert Iger replaced Eisner as CEO of Disney and arranged the acquisition of Pixar.
In July 2012, it was reported that Andrew Stanton was developing a sequel to Finding Nemo,[18] with Victoria Strouse writing the script and a schedule to be released in 2016.[19] However, the same day the news of a potential sequel broke, director Andrew Stanton posted a message on his personal Twitter calling into question the accuracy of these reports. The message said, "Didn't you all learn from Chicken Little? Everyone calm down. Don't believe everything you read. Nothing to see here now. #skyisnotfalling"[20] According to the report by The Hollywood Reporter published in August 2012, Ellen DeGeneres was in negotiations to reprise her role of Dory.[21] In September 2012, it was confirmed by Stanton saying: "What was immediately on the list was writing a second Carter movie. When that went away, everything slid up. I know I'll be accused by more sarcastic people that it's a reaction to Carter not doing well, but only in its timing, but not in its conceit."[22] In February 2013, it was confirmed by the press that Albert Brooks would reprise the role of Marlin in the sequel.[23]
In April 2013, Disney announced the sequel, Finding Dory, for November 25, 2015, confirming that Ellen DeGeneres and Albert Brooks would be reprising their roles as Dory and Marlin, respectively.[24] Following a long campaign for a sequel on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, DeGeneres stated:
"I have waited for this day for a long, long, long, long, long, long time. I'm not mad it took this long. I know the people at Pixar were busy creating Toy Story 16. But the time they took was worth it. The script is fantastic. And it has everything I loved about the first one: It's got a lot of heart, it's really funny, and the best part is—it's got a lot more Dory."[24]
In a Los Angeles Times interview, Stanton talked about the sequel's origin: "There was polite inquiry from Disney (about a Finding Nemo sequel). I was always 'No sequels, no sequels.' But I had to get on board from a VP standpoint. (Sequels) are part of the necessity of our staying afloat, but we don't want to have to go there for those reasons. We want to go there creatively, so we said (to Disney), 'Can you give us the timeline about when we release them? Because we'd like to release something we actually want to make, and we might not come up with it the year you want it.'"[25]
The film's ending was revised after Pixar executives viewed Blackfish, a documentary film, which focuses on dangers of keeping orca whales in captivity. Initially, some of the characters would end in a SeaWorld-like marine park, but the revision gave them an option to leave.[26][27] On September 18, 2013, it was announced that the film would be pushed back to a June 17, 2016 release. Pixar's The Good Dinosaur was moved to the November 25, 2015 slot in order to allow more time for production of the film.[28]
Release[edit]
Finding Dory is scheduled to be released on June 17, 2016.[1][2]
See also[edit]
Video-x-generic.svgFilm portal
Animation disc.svgAnimation portal
Magic Kingdom castle.jpgDisney portal
Flag of the United States.svgUnited States portal
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b Kit, Borys (7 July 2012). "Andrew Stanton to Direct Pixar's 'Finding Nemo' Sequel". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
2.^ Jump up to: a b Farley, Christopher John (2 April 2013). "Ellen DeGeneres to Star in ‘Nemo’ Sequel ‘Finding Dory’". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
3.Jump up ^ Keegan, Rebecca (18 September 2013). "'The Good Dinosaur' moved to 2015, leaving Pixar with no 2014 film". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
4.^ Jump up to: a b Risley, Matt (2 April 2013). "Pixar confirm Finding Nemo sequel". Total Film. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
5.Jump up ^ Zeitchik, Steven (2 April 2013). "Ellen DeGeneres' 'Nemo' sequel, 'Finding Dory,' set for 2015". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
6.Jump up ^ Lussier, Germain. "‘Finding Nemo’ Sequel Officially Called ‘Finding Dory,’ Releases November 25, 2015". /Film. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
7.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Schillaci, Sophie (August 9, 2013). "D23: Disney Sets Voice Casts for 'Finding Dory,' 'Inside Out' and 'Good Dinosaur'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
8.Jump up ^ "Willem Dafoe confirms he’s back for Finding Dory". Total Film. Retrieved October 7, 2013.
9.Jump up ^ Schaefer, Sandy (September 2013). "Willem Dafoe Back for ‘Finding Dory’; Says the Film Will Be Better Than ‘Finding Nemo’". Screen Rant. Retrieved January 26, 2014.
10.Jump up ^ "Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy confirmed for Finding Dory". The Straits Times Communities. August 13, 2013. Retrieved January 26, 2014.
11.Jump up ^ Made Man (November 25, 2013). "It's Always Sunny in Kaitlin Olson's World". YouTube. Event occurs at 17:05. Retrieved November 25, 2013.
12.Jump up ^ Topel, Fred (September 3, 2013). "Exclusive Interview: Kaitlin Olson On It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia". Fan. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
13.Jump up ^ Doty, Meriah. "Move Over, Nemo: Disney Announces Ellen-Powered ‘Finding Dory’ Sequel". Movie Talk on Yahoo! Movies. Yahoo! Inc. Retrieved April 27, 2013.
14.Jump up ^ "Finding Nemo star loses his character's voice". BBC - News. BBC. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
15.Jump up ^ Wyatt, Daisy. "'Finding Nemo' sequel 'Finding Dory' to star Ellen DeGeneres for 2015 release". The Independent. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
16.Jump up ^ Hill, Jim (August 7, 2005). "The Skinny on Circle Seven". Retrieved March 27, 2012.
17.Jump up ^ Armstrong, Josh (March 5, 2012). "Bob Hilgenberg and Rob Muir on the Rise and Fall of Disney’s Circle 7 Animation". Retrieved March 27, 2012.
18.Jump up ^ "‘John Carter’ Helmer Andrew Stanton Dives Back Into Animation With ‘Finding Nemo’ Sequel". Deadline.com. Retrieved July 18, 2012.
19.Jump up ^ Kit, Borys (July 17, 2012). "Andrew Stanton to Direct Pixar's 'Finding Nemo' Sequel". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 17, 2012.
20.Jump up ^ Stanton, Andrew. "@andrewstanton". Twitter. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
21.Jump up ^ Rose, Lacey (August 21, 2012). "Ellen DeGeneres in Talks to Return for 'Finding Nemo' Sequel (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
22.Jump up ^ Keegan, Rebecca (September 8, 2012). "Director Andrew Stanton looks back on 'John Carter's' rocky path". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 8, 2012.
23.Jump up ^ Fleming Jr., Mike (February 12, 2013). "Albert Brooks Hooks Deal To Reprise In ‘Finding Nemo 2′". Deadline.com. Retrieved February 12, 2013.
24.^ Jump up to: a b Zakarin, Jordan (April 2, 2013). "Pixar's 'Finding Nemo' Sequel Titled 'Finding Dory,' Set for 2015". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 12, 2014.
25.Jump up ^ Keegan, Rebecca (July 5, 2013). "With 'Despicable Me 2' and more, movies revisit the sequel debate". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
26.Jump up ^ Kaufman, Amy (9 August 2013). "'Blackfish' gives Pixar second thoughts on 'Finding Dory' plot". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
27.Jump up ^ Barnes, Brooks (9 August 2013). "‘Finding Nemo’ Sequel Is Altered in Response to Orcas Documentary". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
28.Jump up ^ "Pixar Skips 2014 as ‘The Good Dinosaur’ Shifts to 2015 and ‘Finding Dory’ to 2016 | /Film". Slashfilm.com. 2013-09-18. Retrieved 2013-10-24.
External links[edit]
Finding Dory at the Internet Movie Database
Finding Dory at the Big Cartoon DataBase
[show]
Finding Dory
Categories: Upcoming films
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Blackfish (film)
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Blackfish
Black-and-white picture of an orca (killer whale) with the title Blackfish and credits underneath
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Gabriela Cowperthwaite
Produced by
Manuel V. Oteyza
Gabriela Cowperthwaite
Written by
Gabriela Cowperthwaite
Eli Despres
Tim Zimmermann
Music by
Jeff Beal
Cinematography
Jonathan Ingalls
Christopher Towey
Editing by
Eli Despres
Studio
CNN Films
Manny O. Productions
Distributed by
Magnolia Pictures
Release dates
19 January 2013 (Sundance)
19 July 2013 (United States)
Running time
83 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Box office
$2,073,582[1]
Blackfish is a 2013 documentary film directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite. The film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2013, and was picked up by Magnolia Pictures and CNN Films for wider release.[2]
Blackfish focuses on Tilikum, an orca held by SeaWorld, and the dangers of keeping the species in captivity.[3]
Contents [hide]
1 Synopsis
2 Development
3 Reception
4 Impact
5 Home media
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Synopsis[edit]
The documentary focuses on the captivity of Tilikum, a killer whale involved in the deaths of three individuals, and the consequences of keeping killer whales in captivity. The coverage of Tilikum includes his capture in 1983 off the coast of Iceland, purported harassment by fellow captive whales at Sealand of the Pacific, incidents that Cowperthwaite argues contributed to the whale's aggression and includes testimonial from Lori Marino, Director of Science with Nonhuman Rights Project. Cowperthwaite also focuses on SeaWorld's claims that lifespans of whales in captivity are comparable to those in the wild,[4] typically 30 years for males and 50 years for females,[5] a claim the film argues is false.[3]
Development[edit]
Cowperthwaite began work on the film after the death of Tilikum's trainer Dawn Brancheau and in response to the claim that the whale had targeted the trainer because she had worn her hair in a ponytail.[6] Cowperthwaite argued that this claim had been conjecture and that "there had to be more to this story".[6]
Reception[edit]
The review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes said 98% of 94 critics gave the film a positive review.[7] The Deseret News called it "a gripping example of documentary filmmaking at its finest".[8] At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 83 based on 33 reviews.[9]
After the film's release, former SeaWorld trainer Bridgette Pirtle said that the final film was "a complete ‘180’ from what was originally presented to me."[10] Mark Simmons, one of Tilikum's first trainers, believed few of his interview comments were used "[b]ecause the things I said flew in the face of the movie’s clear agenda. What I contributed did not support Gabriela or Tim Zimmerman’s intent with the film.”[11]
SeaWorld Entertainment refused to take part in the production of Blackfish, and later claimed the film was inaccurate,[12] saying in a statement:
Blackfish ... is inaccurate and misleading and, regrettably, exploits a tragedy .... [T]he film paints a distorted picture that withholds ...key facts about SeaWorld—among them...that SeaWorld rescues, rehabilitates and returns to the wild hundreds of wild animals every year, and that SeaWorld commits millions of dollars annually to conservation and scientific research.[13]
SeaWorld responded further with an open letter rebutting the claims.[4] The Oceanic Preservation Society and The Orca Project, a non-profit focusing on orca in captivity, responded with open letters criticizing SeaWorld's claims.[14][15] Marine researcher Debbie Giles also offered rebuttals to SeaWorld, finding its assertions inaccurate.[16]
In January 2014, the family of the late trainer Dawn Brancheau said that neither they nor the foundation named after her were affiliated with the film, and that they did not believe it accurately reflected Brancheau or her experiences.[17]
Impact[edit]
The ending to the upcoming animated film Finding Dory was revised after Pixar's John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton saw the film and spoke with director Gabriela Cowperthwaite. The depiction of a marine park in the film was altered.[18]
Reaction to the documentary prompted the bands and singers Heart, Barenaked Ladies, Willie Nelson, Martina McBride, .38 Special, Cheap Trick, REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, The Beach Boys, Trace Adkins, Trisha Yearwood, and Joan Jett to cancel their concerts at SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa in 2013 and 2014.[19][20][21][22]
Home media[edit]
Blackfish was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on August 26, 2013 in the UK (Region 2, PAL).[citation needed] Its US release was on November 12, 2013.[citation needed]
The documentary was broadcast on CNN on October 24, 2013.[18] After the broadcast, CNN aired an Anderson Cooper special with Jack Hanna, Gabriela Cowperthwaite, Naomi Rose and Jack Hurley. This was followed by a special edition of Crossfire with Blackfish associate producer Tim Zimmerman debating Grey Stafford, a conservationist, zoologist, and member of the International Marine Animal Trainers Association.
The documentary aired on BBC Four in the UK on November 21, 2013 as part of the Storyville documentary series.[23]
See also[edit]
Killer whale attacks on humans
Non-human animal personhood
Nonhuman Rights Project
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Blackfish (2013)". Box Office Mojo. October 24, 2013. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
2.Jump up ^ Kaufman, Amy (February 1, 2013). "‘Blackfish’ has SeaWorld in hot water". Jacksonville Daily News. Retrieved February 13, 2013.
3.^ Jump up to: a b "'Blackfish' has SeaWorld in hot water". Los Angeles Times. January 25, 2013. Retrieved February 13, 2013.
4.^ Jump up to: a b "SeaWorld: The Truth Is in Our Parks and People. An Open Letter from SeaWorld’s Animal Advocates". SeaWorld. Retrieved December 26, 2013.
5.Jump up ^ "Killer Whale (Orcinus orca)". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Protected Fisheries. Retrieved December 26, 2013.
6.^ Jump up to: a b Kohn, Eric (26 January 2013). "Sundance Interview: 'Blackfish' Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite Discusses Suffering Orcas, Trainer Death, and Why SeaWorld Hasn't Seen the Movie". IndieWire. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
7.Jump up ^ "Blackfish". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
8.Jump up ^ Peterson, Jeff (January 24, 2013). "Sundance review: 'Blackfish' is an alarming film". Deseret News. Retrieved February 13, 2013.
9.Jump up ^ Blackfish at Metacritic
10.Jump up ^ Davis, Eric (January 9, 2014). "Blackfish Exposed by Former SeaWorld Trainer". MiceChat.com. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
11.Jump up ^ Davis, Eric (January 13, 2014). "More Blackfish Backlash – Tilikum’s Trainer Dives In". MiceChat.com. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
12.Jump up ^ Pat Saperstein (July 18, 2013). "SeaWorld: Killer Whale Doc ‘Blackfish’ Is ‘Inaccurate’". Variety. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
13.Jump up ^ "SeaWorld responds to questions about captive orcas, 'Blackfish' film". CNN. October 21, 2013. Retrieved October 23, 2013.
14.Jump up ^ "Marine Mammal Captivity: The Truth Is in the Facts An Open Letter from the Informed American Public". Oceanic Preservation Society. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
15.Jump up ^ tCostanzo, Amy. "An Open Letter BACK to SeaWorld". The Orca Project. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
16.Jump up ^ "SeaWorld Is So Pissed Over the Blackfish Documentary". Gawker.com. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
17.Jump up ^ Garcia, Jason (January 21, 2014). "Family of Dawn Brancheau chastises 'Blackfish'". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved 23 January 2014.
18.^ Jump up to: a b Kaufman, Amy (August 9, 2013). "'Blackfish' gives Pixar second thoughts on 'Finding Dory' plot". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
19.Jump up ^ Ahmed, Saeed. "Heart cancels SeaWorld show amid 'Blackfish' controversy". Retrieved 27 December 2013.
20.Jump up ^ Duke, Alan. "Martina McBride, 38 Special, cancel SeaWorld gig over 'Blackfish' backlash". CNN. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
21.Jump up ^ "Beach Boys, Benatar Cancel at Busch Gardens". The New York Times. Associated Press. January 16, 2014. Retrieved 2014-01-20.
22.Jump up ^ Gibson, Megan (December 11, 2013). "The Documentary Blackfish Is Still Creating Waves at SeaWorld". Time.
23.Jump up ^ "Storyville: Blackfish - The Whale That Killed". BBC. November 21, 2013. Retrieved November 22, 2013. "The story of a killer whale who has taken the lives of several people while in captivity"
External links[edit]
Blackfish – official site
Blackfish at the Internet Movie Database
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e
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Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare (2012) ·
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Categories: 2013 films
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