Apocalypse Now, the acclaimed Vietnam War film directed by
Francis Ford Coppola, opened in theaters around the United
States on August 15, 1979.

The film, inspired in part by Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella
Heart of Darkness, among other sources, told the story of
an Army captain (played by Martin Sheen) and crew of men
who are sent into the Cambodian jungle to kill a U.S. Special
Forces colonel (Marlon Brando) who has gone AWOL and is
thought to be crazy. Apocalypse Now, which co-starred Robert
Duvall and Dennis Hopper, became notorious for its long,
difficult production, which included budget problems, shooting
delays due to bad weather on the Philippines set, a heart attack 
for Sheen and a nervous breakdown for Coppola.  
                                             

Francis Ford Coppola became 83 in April.

The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland and featuring words
and music by E.Y. “Yip” Harburg and Harold Arlen, received
its world premiere in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, on August
12, 1939.

The beloved characters and familiar plot points were mostly
all there in the original children’s book, from the Kansas farm
girl in shiny slippers transported to Munchkin land by a terrible
tornado, to the wicked witch, the brainless scarecrow, the
heartless tin woodsman and the cowardly lion she encounters
once she gets there.

On August 10, 1984, the action thriller Red Dawn, starring
Patrick Swayze, opened in theaters as the first movie to be
released with a PG-13 rating. The Motion Picture Association
of America (MPAA), which oversees the movie rating system,
had announced the new PG-13 category in July of that same
year.

On August 3, 1977, “The Spy Who Loved Me,” starring Roger
Moore as the suave superspy James Bond, known for his love
of fast cars and dangerous women, was released in theaters
across America. The film features one of the most memorable
Bond cars of all time–a sleek, powerful Lotus Esprit sports car
that does double duty as a submarine. 

On July 28, 1978, National Lampoon’s Animal House, a movie
spoof about 1960s college fraternities starring John Belushi,
opened in U.S. theaters. Produced with an estimated budget
of $3 million, Animal House became a huge, multi-million-dollar
box-office hit, spawned a slew of cinematic imitations and
became part of pop-culture history with such memorable lines
as “Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.”

Set at the fictional Faber College (the University of Oregon
served as a stand-in during filming), Animal House centered
around the disreputable Delta House fraternity.

The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876.