On this IMDbrief, we break down the worst gifts ever given in our favorite holiday movies. For some great gift ideas, check out IMDb's Holiday Gift Guide, curated with the entertainment lover in mind!
A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.
Director:
Stanley Kubrick
Stars:
Matthew Modine,
R. Lee Ermey,
Vincent D'Onofrio
After a space merchant vessel perceives an unknown transmission as a distress call, its landing on the source moon finds one of the crew attacked by a mysterious lifeform, and they soon realize that its life cycle has merely begun.
After discovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, mankind sets off on a quest to find its origins with help from intelligent supercomputer H.A.L. 9000.
Director:
Stanley Kubrick
Stars:
Keir Dullea,
Gary Lockwood,
William Sylvester
A Phoenix secretary embezzles forty thousand dollars from her employer's client, goes on the run, and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.
A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.
Director:
Stanley Kubrick
Stars:
Jack Nicholson,
Shelley Duvall,
Danny Lloyd
In 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before Adolf Hitler's Nazis can obtain its awesome powers.
A mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action by attempting to liberate a presidential campaign worker and an underage prostitute.
Director:
Martin Scorsese
Stars:
Robert De Niro,
Jodie Foster,
Cybill Shepherd
It is the height of the war in Vietnam, and U.S. Army Captain Willard is sent by Colonel Lucas and a General to carry out a mission that, officially, 'does not exist - nor will it ever exist'. The mission: To seek out a mysterious Green Beret Colonel, Walter Kurtz, whose army has crossed the border into Cambodia and is conducting hit-and-run missions against the Viet Cong and NVA. The army believes Kurtz has gone completely insane and Willard's job is to eliminate him. Willard, sent up the Nung River on a U.S. Navy patrol boat, discovers that his target is one of the most decorated officers in the U.S. Army. His crew meets up with surfer-type Lt-Colonel Kilgore, head of a U.S Army helicopter cavalry group which eliminates a Viet Cong outpost to provide an entry point into the Nung River. After some hair-raising encounters, in which some of his crew are killed, Willard, Lance and Chef reach Colonel Kurtz's outpost, beyond the Do Lung Bridge. Now, after becoming prisoners of Kurtz, will...Written by
Derek O'Cain
When the photographer (Dennis Hopper) is babbling about the religious fervor of Kurtz, he babbles out portions of the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling. See more »
Goofs
In the opening montage two different ceiling fans are seen. One is light colored with a louvered housing on the motor. The other is black with no visible motor housing, and is spinning counterclockwise. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Willard:
Saigon... shit; I'm still only in Saigon... Every time I think I'm gonna wake up back in the jungle.
Willard:
When I was home after my first tour, it was worse.
[grabs at flying insect]
Willard:
I'd wake up and there'd be nothing. I hardly said a word to my wife, until I said "yes" to a divorce. When I was here, I wanted to be there; when I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the jungle. I'm here a week now... waiting for a mission... getting softer. Every minute I stay in this room...
See more »
Crazy Credits
There are four different treatments of the end credits, all four are available in different VHS, laserdisc, DVD and TV prints of the film...... When the film premiered in a limited 70mm format, it had no beginning or end credits, nothing but a one-line Omni Zoetrope copyright notice at the end. Programs were passed out to theater goers in lieu of any credits. When the film went into its wide release its format was 35mm. This version included end credits rolling over surrealistic explosions and burning jungle, showing the Kurtz compound being destroyed. When Coppola heard that people were assuming that the explosions during the end credits of the 35mm version meant that an air strike had been called in on the Kurtz compound (which is not what he wanted audiences to think) he quickly re-edited the 35mm version to have the end credits rolling over a simple black background and a slightly altered musical score. The "Redux" version also has the end credits over a black background but in different screen fonts and including additional "Redux" inserted cast members. See more »
Alternate Versions
A 289min long workprint version exists. It has never been officially released but circulates as a video bootleg. The bootleg contains the following extra material not included in either the original theatrical release or the "redux" version.
A longer opening montage, the entire 10 minute song "The End" by The Doors is heard.It intercuts longer helicopters/jungle images with Willard in the hotel room in a drunken rage, as well as a scene where he is with a prostitute. There are various shots outside depicting the streets of Saigon.
When the two soldiers pick up Willard in the hotel room there is a brief conversation while they help him shower and shave. They notify him that his wait for his new mission is now over.
The scene where Willard is given his assignment is longer and contains much more dialogue. The general informs Willard that the mission is purely voluntary and he can decline it. The general also offers Willard a promotion to major upon completion of the mission. For some reason Colonel Kurtz is referred to in this scene as "Colonel Leevy". There are some external shots of the military base.
A brief scene where Willard is introduced to the crew of the Navy P.B.R.
Carmine Coppola's score is not present in this version. Many more songs by The Doors are played throughout the film instead.
None of the narration or dossier voiceovers are in this version.
There is no audio dubbing in this version. All the audio is from the sound recorded during the actual filming. Much of Robert Duvall's dialogue is unitelligable due to the sound of the helicopters in his scenes.
A much longer first cavalry "Ride of Valkyrie" attack scene (30+ mins)showing much unused footage and alternate takes.
A much longer playboy bunnies performance.
Various extended scenes on the boat, and alternate takes and shots.
A scene where a miniature toy boat passes the Navy PBR. Lance tries to grab it out of the water. The Chief yells at him to leave it alone claiming it's a booby trap. To prove it the Chief fires some shots at it to which it explodes.
When the P.B.R. reaches Do-lung bridge, the soldier that greets them gives a more detailed explanation of the chaos around the bridge.
When Lance is reading his letters on the boat, he suddenly stops to machine gun a water buffalo on the shore. The Chief yells at him to stop.
The sequence where Clean is killed is omitted.
A slightly longer French plantation sequence. After the French woman strips she crawls into the bed with Willard and they begin kissing.
The sequence where the Chief is killed is omitted.
More dialogue between Willard and the photojournalist when they first reach the Kurtz compound. The Journalist reveals that it was HE who was able to get the montangnards to break off their attack on the boat in the previous scene. Willard repeatedly asks the Journalists name but he refuses to answer.
The character of Colby, (the soldier who was sent before Willard to kill Kurtz, played by Scott Glenn) has a much more substantial role in this version. As Willard inspects the compound, Colby tells Willard that the night before, NVA soldiers had attacked (which explains all the bodies laying about the compound). Willard then enters Kurtz's house, much to the dismay of the journalist. Willard sees Kurtz empty bed and his medals, also his journal with the inscription "Drop the bomb, exterminate them all" (many of these scenes were in the final version but re-inserted in different places).
The scene where Willard talks to Chef about the air strike on the boat is omitted.
In this version. The first time Kurtz appears is the scene where a mud caked Willard is tied up (seated) to a pole in the rain. Kurtz appears with camouflage face paint, Willard asks...."Why he is being mistreated?" and tries to bluff his way past Kurtz by telling him that he had just completed a secret mission in Cambodia, and only stopped for supplies. Kurtz says nothing to him, but plants Chef's head in his lap. (Only a portion of this scene was in the original version).
The scene where Willard meets Kurtz in his bed chamber contains more dialogue....as Kurtz makes it clear that he knows why Willard is there.
A scene where Kurtz talks to Willard in the bamboo cage while two children sit on top of the cage and dangle insects in Willard's face. He tells him that Willard is "like his colleagues in Washington, master liars who want to win the war but don't want to appear as immoral or unethical".
A lengthy scene where the montangnards in a ritualistic display pick up the bamboo cage (with Willard inside) and poke him with sticks (Lance and Colby participate in this). The natives dance around the bamboo cage, chanting and singing while a squealing pig is tied up and killed.
A 10 minute version of the scene where Kurtz reads the poem "The Hollow Men", intercutting between his reading and the journalist talking with Willard.
A scene where the journalist meets Willard to tell him that he thinks Kurtz is about to kill him because he took his picture again. During which Colby comes behind the journalist and shoots him three times, killing him. Willard throws a knife at Colby's stomach to which he falls, but before he dies he asks Willard to talk to his family for him and asks him to kill Kurtz.
Kurtz speech about the horror and the children vaccination are omitted.
During the assassination scene at the end, before Willard enters Kurtz' home, one of the guards confronts him. Willard picks up a spear to defend himself as the guard picks up a child to shield himself. Willard runs the spear right through the child and into the guard. The final scene with Willard and the montangnards after Kurtz assasination are omitted.
Edit:
With a lot of work I did set up an extra page for the final cut in July.
Took me an entire day, because of tedious rules.
It was meant to separate the different version in their ratings.
But I M D B decided without even having the courtesy to notify me to simply re-merge my page into this one - and therewith wasted all my efforts.
I also did put a lot of work here into correcting false Trivia etc...
But instead of any apprecciation, I get censored by I.M.D.B often
also without notification or explanation why,
so I now feel that we reviewers are treated as "useful !d!ots", doing all the work, whilst some algorithm simply throws out anything without regard of wasting people's life-time.
Now it is the end of August and I think I had it with this site and won't pour any of my heart-blood into it anymore.
- -
Here is my original review for the Final Cut version:
Looking at the reviews for the original version I noticed that many 1 star reviews did not dislike the original movie, but the Redux version.
Unfortunately they therewith dragged down the original movie's ratings which gives a distorted impression.
So in order to give everyone of you the opportunity to rate and review the original and the final version separately I did create this page.
And now I explain to you why I give this movie the top rating:
To me the reason why this movie is a classic is that it draws one into a total different world, by first engaging our emotional involvement, until the viewer comes out somewhere different and somehow changed.
The way it does that, is to straight away throw us into the total senselessness of a life, which was conditioned to find its purpose in fulfilling missions
only to then having none.
This is the conflict between fulfilling what is in your heart and machine-like "performing ones duty",
and what I like about it, is that Coppola did not merely talk the talk, but really walk the walk himself:
He did pour all his heart blood into it - from financial risk, via encountering tremendous adversities, up to a huge production time he likely never did anticipate before:
Just read the Trivia of Apocalypse Now (1979), it reads like a drama in itself!
This shines through and gives this movie an authentic flair.
A mainstream movie would display initial difficulties, but only to move onto a new found reason to live for (either driven by one's career or romantic love); and then end happily with the revival of purpose and excitement.
But for Apocalypse Now the deconstruction of the ego is just a starting point into an apocalypse of a false identity which mistakes the self with role one plays in society.
It does that by hurling us from one absurdity into the next;
and the reason why art is in this case is better than a documentary, is because it does it without any judgment, but by chasing us frantically through bubbles within the chain of command where ethical rules don't apply:
a void of power, abused by the uncontrolled madness of immaturity
the world of war.
As often is the case in art, it is unclear whether the creators were fully aware of the implications of their work; but whether intended or not,
the psychological effect of this movie is to hype up the viewers' tension and adrenalin; only to have their invested willpower shattered repeatedly by nonsensical decisions with tragic consequences.
That's why even after 40 years, this movie does still hold a great value,
because it is a reflection of the stupidity of societies's values to simply function,
instead of finding ones own true personality within.
Such a movie could be made in the rebellious anti-war 70s, but in this decade of oblivious consumerism and vanity would hardly have been financed or noticed
(not even to mention todays many butthurt viewers, whenever their politics is criticised or the political correctness of the hour is not catered for).
The part, however, which mesmerises me most is the conclusion drawn by one character to step out of this rat-race-madness in order to build a quite literal own realm with all the fascination and charisma gained, as soon as one doesn't allow to be squashed into the box of nonsensical norms anymore.
So in a way you get multiple movies here in one:
A phoenix-like revival,
one about the irrationality and atrocities of war,
one about the cultural clash between the occupying and occupied forces
(the french discussions alone could serve as a short-movie),
and a journey into the mystical world of an irrepressible free spirit.
I left the cinema and felt like coming home from a long journey.
And as for this specific version:
Even though I am not best qualified to judge in comparison, because I only can remember parts of the original and have not seen the Redux version,
my feeling is that this is an excellent compromise between bringing us all important scenes, which were cut out in the first one,
whilst not to try the viewers patience too hard with an overlong version.
Regardless of my subjective opinion, one thing is certain:
Due to the most modern restoration to highest possible standards,
the sound and picture quality of this version are objectively the best of all versions and fully live up to 2019-sounds and 2020-visions.
35 of 44 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
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Edit: With a lot of work I did set up an extra page for the final cut in July. Took me an entire day, because of tedious rules. It was meant to separate the different version in their ratings. But I M D B decided without even having the courtesy to notify me to simply re-merge my page into this one - and therewith wasted all my efforts.
I also did put a lot of work here into correcting false Trivia etc... But instead of any apprecciation, I get censored by I.M.D.B often
- also without notification or explanation why,
so I now feel that we reviewers are treated as "useful !d!ots", doing all the work, whilst some algorithm simply throws out anything without regard of wasting people's life-time.Now it is the end of August and I think I had it with this site and won't pour any of my heart-blood into it anymore.
Here is my original review for the Final Cut version:
Looking at the reviews for the original version I noticed that many 1 star reviews did not dislike the original movie, but the Redux version. Unfortunately they therewith dragged down the original movie's ratings which gives a distorted impression. So in order to give everyone of you the opportunity to rate and review the original and the final version separately I did create this page.
And now I explain to you why I give this movie the top rating:
To me the reason why this movie is a classic is that it draws one into a total different world, by first engaging our emotional involvement, until the viewer comes out somewhere different and somehow changed.
The way it does that, is to straight away throw us into the total senselessness of a life, which was conditioned to find its purpose in fulfilling missions
- only to then having none.
This is the conflict between fulfilling what is in your heart and machine-like "performing ones duty", and what I like about it, is that Coppola did not merely talk the talk, but really walk the walk himself:He did pour all his heart blood into it - from financial risk, via encountering tremendous adversities, up to a huge production time he likely never did anticipate before: Just read the Trivia of Apocalypse Now (1979), it reads like a drama in itself! This shines through and gives this movie an authentic flair.
A mainstream movie would display initial difficulties, but only to move onto a new found reason to live for (either driven by one's career or romantic love); and then end happily with the revival of purpose and excitement. But for Apocalypse Now the deconstruction of the ego is just a starting point into an apocalypse of a false identity which mistakes the self with role one plays in society.
It does that by hurling us from one absurdity into the next; and the reason why art is in this case is better than a documentary, is because it does it without any judgment, but by chasing us frantically through bubbles within the chain of command where ethical rules don't apply:
As often is the case in art, it is unclear whether the creators were fully aware of the implications of their work; but whether intended or not, the psychological effect of this movie is to hype up the viewers' tension and adrenalin; only to have their invested willpower shattered repeatedly by nonsensical decisions with tragic consequences.
That's why even after 40 years, this movie does still hold a great value, because it is a reflection of the stupidity of societies's values to simply function, instead of finding ones own true personality within. Such a movie could be made in the rebellious anti-war 70s, but in this decade of oblivious consumerism and vanity would hardly have been financed or noticed (not even to mention todays many butthurt viewers, whenever their politics is criticised or the political correctness of the hour is not catered for).
The part, however, which mesmerises me most is the conclusion drawn by one character to step out of this rat-race-madness in order to build a quite literal own realm with all the fascination and charisma gained, as soon as one doesn't allow to be squashed into the box of nonsensical norms anymore.
So in a way you get multiple movies here in one: A phoenix-like revival, one about the irrationality and atrocities of war, one about the cultural clash between the occupying and occupied forces (the french discussions alone could serve as a short-movie), and a journey into the mystical world of an irrepressible free spirit.
I left the cinema and felt like coming home from a long journey.
And as for this specific version: Even though I am not best qualified to judge in comparison, because I only can remember parts of the original and have not seen the Redux version, my feeling is that this is an excellent compromise between bringing us all important scenes, which were cut out in the first one, whilst not to try the viewers patience too hard with an overlong version.
Regardless of my subjective opinion, one thing is certain: Due to the most modern restoration to highest possible standards, the sound and picture quality of this version are objectively the best of all versions and fully live up to 2019-sounds and 2020-visions.