Revealing mistake: In the major helicopter scene when Ride of the Valkyries is played, the actual tape isn't going over the playing heads. (00:37:29)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Plot summary
Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Frederic Forrest
Based on Joseph Conrad's "Heart Of Darkness". Set in 1969 Vietnam, the movie follows U.S. Special Forces Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) on his mission up a river into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade Green Beret (Marlon Brando) who has set himself up as a "god" among a local tribe.
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Trivia: Harvey Keitel was originally cast as Captain Willard. Two weeks into filming, director Francis Ford Coppola felt Keitel wasn't taking the role seriously enough, so he fired him and reshot scenes with Martin Sheen as his replacement.
More questions & answers from Apocalypse Now
Chosen answer: Kurtz was protected by political connections and his military record from being relieved of command, and the Montagnard people whose village he was in were considered American allies, so they couldn't just send a force in to kill him or relieve him of command, but an individual assassin could go in. (The US Government's "official" policy is that they do not engage in assassination, which is why "this mission does not exist, nor will it ever exist").
Captain Defenestrator