1. Apocalypse Now (1979) (Dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
The story behind Apocalypse Now is almost as great as the movie itself, and has since become the stuff of legend: Francis Ford Coppola threatened to shoot himself; Martin Sheen suffered from a heart-attack half-way through filming; Marlon Brando turned up overweight, demanded heaps of cash and told his director that he hadn’t even read the script. But oh boy was it all worth it: a movie that Coppola himself thought destined to fail emerged as the greatest epic of the seventies, a Vietnam movie that somehow managed to encompass the entire spectrum of that troubling war as its filmmakers went through their own personal hell making the damned thing.
Based loosely on Joseph Conrad’s dark and powerful novella Heart of Darkness, Coppola transfers the story to Cambodia and sends Cpt. Wilard, a Vietnam veteran, on a dangerous mission to assassinate a renegade Green Beret who has set himself up as a God amongst a local tribe. Be it that this movie haunts your dreams, shakes your expectations, or gifts you with great performances from every member of its huge cast, Apocalypse Now remains the definitive masterpiece of the seventies because Coppola lived it thoroughly: it’s there in every frame. It is the ultimate advertisement for perseverance, a hellish and beautiful experience from start to finish, and a war movie that feels both relevant and wholly cinematic all at once.
Last time: Check out our best film lists for The Nineties, The Noughties and The Eighties.
Next time: The Sixties get our top 10 film treatment… stay tuned!
Do you agree with our choices for the 10 best films of the Seventies? Let us know in the comments below.
