The film tells of six central characters, their failures, obsessions and darkest desires. Set at a U.S. Army post in the South in the late 1940s, it features Major Weldon Penderton and his wife Leonora. Other central characters are Lieutenant Colonel Morris Langdon and his depressed wife Alison, the Langdons' houseboy Anacleto, and Private Ellgee Williams. Major Penderton assigns Private Williams to clear some foliage at his private officer's quarters instead of his usual duty of maintaining the horses and stables. Penderton's wife Leonora prepares to go horseback riding with Lt. Col. Langdon. Their affair is revealed, as well as Leonora's strong bond with her horse Firebird. Williams is shown to be sympathetic to all the horses in the stable. One day while riding, Langdon, Leonora and Penderton see Williams riding nude and bareback on one of the military horses. Penderton is critical of this to Leonora but his secret interest in the free-spirited Williams is clear. Leonora and Penderton have an argument that same night, in which Leonora taunts Penderton and strips naked in front of him. Williams watches them from outside the house, and from then on spies on them. He eventually breaks into the house and watches Leonora sleep at night. As he continues this practice, Williams starts to go through Leonora's belongings, especially her lingerie and perfume. Penderton takes Leonora's horse and rides wildly into the woods, passing the naked Williams at high speed. Penderton falls off, catching his foot in the stirrup, and is dragged for a distance. In a fit of uncontrollable rage, he beats the horse. Williams appears still naked, and takes the horse. As Penderton stands mute in the woods, Williams brings the horse back to the stable to tend its wounds. Penderton returns to the house, locked in his room while the party goes on outside. Upon finding out about her horse, Leonora interrupts her party and in front of the guests repeatedly strikes her husband in the face with her riding crop. Penderton becomes infatuated with Williams and starts to follow him around the camp. After her newborn infant died, Alison Langdon mutilated herself while deeply depressed. Alison's only bonds now are with her effeminate Filipino houseboy Anacleto and with Capt. Murray Weincheck, a cultured and sensitive soldier who is being harassed out of the army by his superiors. Aware of her husband's adultery, Alison decides to divorce him. However, after witnessing Williams in Leonora's room, she becomes traumatized. When she tries to leave him, Langdon commits her to a sanatorium. Langdon tells Leonora and Penderton that Alison was going insane. Soon, Penderton is informed that Alison died of a heart attack, but she may have committed suicide, possibly assisted by Anacleto who disappears soon after her death. One night, Penderton looks out his window and sees Williams outside the house. He thinks Williams is coming to see him, but watches the younger man enter his wife Leonora's room. Penderton goes to the room and shoots Williams dead. The film ends with the camera wildly veering back and forth among the dead body, the screaming Leonora, and Penderton. The opening line of the novel and the film is restated: "There is a fort in the South where a few years ago a murder was committed."
Cast
Marlon Brando – Major Weldon Penderton
Elizabeth Taylor – Leonora Penderton
Brian Keith – Lt Colonel Morris Langdon
Julie Harris – Alison Langdon
Zorro David – Anacleto
Robert Forster – Private L. G. Williams
Production background
The film was to have starred Montgomery Clift, but he died on July 23, 1966, of a heart attack before production began. The role subsequently went to Brando, after both Richard Burton and Lee Marvin had turned it down. Some of the film was shot in New York City and on Long Island, where Huston was permitted to use the former Mitchel Field, then in use by Nassau Community College. Many of the interiors and some of the exteriors were done in Italy. The film originally was released in a version in which all scenes were suffused with the color gold, with one object in each scene normally colored. This was in reference to the houseboy's drawing of a golden peacock, in whose eye the world is a reflection. As that version puzzled audiences, it was withdrawn and a normally colored version released. American film critic Roger Ebert wrote
"Since the film was photographed in full color and the 'fading' was done in post-production, most of the video versions have simply restored the color. That's not what Huston intended, and the thing to do is to use your color adjustment to fade the color to almost but not quite b&w. Does it work? That's for you to decide."
Reception
The film received mixed reviews at the time of its release. Variety called it a "pretentious melodrama" but praised Keith's "superb" performance as the "rationalizing and insensitive middle-class hypocrite." Time described it as a "gallery of grotesques", with the poetry of the novel missing from the film. The critic wrote: "All that remains praiseworthy is the film's extraordinary photographic technique." Roger Ebert observed that the film was released without the usual publicity, despite its stellar cast and director. "Was the movie so wretchedly bad that Warner Bros. decided to keep it a secret? Or could it be, perhaps, that it was too good?" Ebert concludes the latter, praising all aspects of the production, but notes that the audience he saw it with greeted the film's emotional moments with guffaws and nervous laughter. The film received a score of 55% on Rotten Tomatoes from 22 reviews.
Usage of images in ''Apocalypse Now''
Still photographs of Brando in character as Major Penderton were used later by the producers of Apocalypse Now. These photos of a younger Brando were displayed in the service record of the character Colonel Walter E. Kurtz.
