The horror (the horror) of Apocalypse Now has consistently remained ranked among the greatest films ever made for decades. First released in 1979 after one of the notorious and troubled productions in history, Francis Ford Coppola’s epic about the Vietnam War was re-released in 2001 as Apocalypse Now Redux...
Despite its prime location in the heart of New York City, the Tribeca Film Festival has always been regarded more as a regional film festival than a destination for big world premieres. That being said, Tribeca does have one thing that other festivals lack: unfettered access to Robert De Niro, the festival’s co-founder and cinematic advocate for all things New York. This has made Tribeca a prime destination for anniversary screenings of some of the actor’s biggest films; in 2015, for example, Tribeca hosted a 25th anniversary celebration of Goodfellas with the cast and crew in attendance. And this year, De Niro has topped himself, bringing together the men and women behind The Godfather for a frank discussion about the film.
Just last week author Mark Harris announced his latest project on twitter: a Netflix docuseries based on his book about Hollywood and World War II. Today Netflix has officially announced the project with the first trailer for a series cinephiles and history buffs will want to clear their calendars for.
Francis Ford Coppola was a pretty intense dude during the ’70s. He damn near lost his mind while shooting Apocalypse Now in the jungles of Southeast Asia, a quagmire duly chronicled in the documentary Hearts of Darkness. While shooting The Godfather Part II on location in Trieste, Coppola told Italian journalists, “To some extent, I have become Michael.” He’s a larger-than-life character, and it’s only fitting that he’ll now be dramatized himself.
Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now is one of the defining works of cinema of the 1970s. And in the very near future, you could play it as a video game.
Given how much space physical media takes up, it’s hard for movie buffs to say no to the great promise of “cloud storage,” and the idea that we could summon anything we want to watch with just a couple of clicks. But so far, reality hasn’t matched the hype. Streaming services have been focused on exclusives and original programming, to the extent that the only way to have access to everything available is to spend hundreds of dollars a month on subscription fees. Meanwhile, older films keep disappearing from the digital archives; and even items that cinephiles “own” sometimes become inaccessible whenever software updates or a site shutters.