In May 1979, Francis Ford Coppola unveiled a 'work in progress' cut of his film, Apocalypse Now, at the Cannes Film Festival. After winning the prestigious Palme d'Or, the convention-shattering film was nominated for eight Academy Awards and became a worldwide phenomenon. In 2001 Coppola introduced a new version - wholly re-edited from the original raw footage - that included forty-nine minutes of never-before-seen footage: Apocalypse Now Redux.Apocalypse Now relocates Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness to the Vietnam War, focusing on the hazardous mission of Captain Willard to find and terminate 'with extreme prejudice' a renegade American colonel in Cambodia.

A cinematic legend: The making of Francis Ford Coppola's epic about Vietnam and the folly of war, based on unprecedented access to Coppola's private archives

In this new scene-by-scene break-down of the 1979 film Apocalypse Now, contemporary culture critic John David Ebert frames the work in reference to an archaeology of the film's images. At the same time, Ebert connects this ancient history with"postmodern" contemporary critical theory, drawing upon Lacan, Derrida, Gadamer, and Cornelius Castoriadis, unpacking and analyzing Francis Ford Coppola's classic, one of the most famous and wildly inventive works in cinema history. In 23 chapters, Ebert interprets the longer Apocalypse Now Redux version, delving deep into the film's complex layers of literary meaning and aesthetic significance. John David Ebert has authored ten previous books, including Art After Metaphysics, Dead Celebrities Living Icons, The New Media Invasion, Post-Classic Cinema, and Gods & Heroes of the Media Age.

Now available in paperback! No movie has ever been made, or made well, without the character who toils just outside the spotlight. He arranged for the spotlight, hired the spotlight operator, and even made sure that it was trained correctly on the stars. At the end of the day, there would be no blinking movie screens, no blinking Oscar winners, no finished films, good or bad, without the Assistant Director. Jerry Ziesmer was an assistant director for over thirty years, working on countless films before his retirement in the middle-nineties. He has worked with some of Hollywood's biggest directors, and its biggest stars. In this memoir, he recounts his time in Hollywood including his work on the sets of Apocalypse Now, Close Encounters, and Jerry Maguire. Written with the craft and humor that made Jerry Ziesmer one of the most sought-after assistant directors in Hollywood, this book will be a treasure for students and fans of twentieth-century Hollywood. Cloth edition previously published in 2000.

In 1975, after his two Godfather epics, Francis Ford Coppola went to the Philippines to film Apocalypse Now. He scrapped much of the original script, a jingoistic narrative of U.S. Special Forces winning an unwinnable war. Harvey Keitel, originally cast in the lead role, was fired and replaced by Martin Sheen, who had a heart attack. An overweight Marlon Brando, paid a huge salary, did more philosophizing than acting. It rained almost every day and a hurricane wiped out the set. The Philippine government promised the use of helicopters but diverted them at the last minute to fight communist and Muslim separatists. Coppola filmed for four years with no ending in the script. The shoot threatened to be the biggest disaster in movie history. Providing a detailed snapshot of American cinema during the Vietnam War, this book tells the story of how Apocalypse Now became one of the great films of all time.