This war story's screenplay, written by John Milius and Coppola himself (with a separate credit for Michael Herr for Sheen's narration), became a metaphorical backdrop for the corruptive madness and folly of war itself for a generation of Americans. Francis Ford Coppola described his own motivation in the making of the 'quest' film, with elements borrowed from the horror, adventure and thriller genres: "to create a film experience that would give its audience a sense of the horror, the madness, the sensuousness, and the moral dilemma of the Vietnam War." Coppola's masterpiece chronicles the harrowing intersection of optimistic innocence and experiential reality in the Vietnam conflict. Although the film is flawed by its excesses, an ambiguous and incohesive script, and a baffling ending, it still remains a brilliant evocation of the madness and horrors of war.
The film's story, a type of Odyssey story similar to the one in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Werner Herzog's Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972), was indirectly inspired by Joseph Conrad's 1902 novella Heart of Darkness (about a steamer journey up a river into the Congo and African jungle - and into the darkest reaches of the human psyche), and also was derived from Michael Herr's Dispatches. The film tells about US Army assassin Willard's (Sheen) mission, both a mental and physical journey, to 'terminate' dangerously-lawless warlord and former Colonel Kurtz (Brando) who has gone AWOL, become a self-appointed god, and rules a band of native warriors in the jungle. [Incidentally, Orson Welles was director Coppola's first choice for the Kurtz role ultimately played by Marlon Brando. And both Steve McQueen and Harvey Keitel were considered for the Willard role ultimately played by Martin Sheen. A made-for-TV movie adaptation Heart of Darkness (1993), directed by Nicolas Roeg, starred John Malkovich (Kurtz) and Tim Roth (Marlow/Willard).]
Bron : http://www.filmsite.org/apoc.html
