Apocalypse Now is a 1979 Acaemy Award, Cannes Palme d'Or and Golden Globe winning adventure war film set during the Vietnam War. It tells the tale of Army Captain Benjamin L. Willard who is sent into the jungle to assassinate United States Army Special Forces Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (played by Marlon Brando), who has gone AWOL and is believed to be insane. The film has been viewed as a journey into the darkness of the human psyche.