Apocalypse Now
This is the end...
Country
Production
Budget
$31 500 000
Box office
$83 762 092
Website
Director
Actors
Scenario
Producer
Camera operator
Composer
Artist
Dean Tavoularis, James J. Murakami
Audition
Terry Liebling, Vic Ramos
Editing
Short description
At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a mysterious Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz, who has been leading his personal army on illegal guerrilla missions into enemy territory.
What's left behind the scenes
- In scenes with Dennis Hopper, the inscription Apocalypse Now can be seen on stone structures.
- According to British channel Film4, the film ranked 1st on the list of "50 Films to See Before You Die."
- Initially, George Lucas was supposed to direct the film, as he was Coppola's protégé at the time at American Zoetrope studio. Coppola founded this studio as an alternative to the major Hollywood studios and planned to use it to support young directors who had just finished film school and courses. The Vietnam War was still raging at the time, and the original plan was to shoot the film directly in Vietnam, in a guerrilla style. However, Warner Bros., which had a contract with Zoetrope, refused to finance such a project, citing both doubts about the film's commercial success and safety concerns – the risk that the filmmakers would be harmed while filming in a combat zone was significant. Lucas later claimed that Zoetrope itself viewed the project as "crazy," and he and his colleagues on the project were treated similarly.
- Steve McQueen was invited for the role of Captain Willard.
- Harvey Keitel had already begun playing the role of Willard, but Coppola replaced him with Martin Sheen after two weeks.
- Sheen's character's full name is Benjamin Willard. Harrison Ford's older sons are named Benjamin and Willard.
- Coppola lost 100 pounds during filming.
- Marlon Brando behaved the worst on set. He had been paid a million dollars in advance, but he threatened to leave the film every time. Coppola then told his agent that he didn't care, and that in exchange for Brando, he wanted Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford, or Al Pacino. In the end, Brando stayed, gained 40 kilograms during filming, refused to read the original script and even Conrad's novel, rejected Coppola's directorial script, agreed only to improvise his role, and forbade being filmed in the light – only in the dark.
- Originally, Kurtz was supposed to be named Colonel Levi in the script.
- Coppola joked that if Al Pacino had agreed to the role of Kurtz, he would have had to film his movie in Pacino's New York apartment.
- In some scenes, the sound of helicopters taking off was reproduced on a synthesizer in order to better synchronize it with the music.
- Filming took place in the Philippines, and by contract, President Ferdinand Marcos was supposed to provide the film crew with helicopters and pilots. However, from time to time Marcos would take the aircraft to fight local rebels.
- According to the shooting schedule, the film was supposed to take just over six weeks to film, but it stretched to 16 months.
- The shooting was interrupted for several months by a typhoon.
- Rumor has it that Coppola and many others from the film crew were under the influence of marijuana and LSD during filming. At the very least, actor Sam Bottoms was caught doing so.
- The film has no opening credits. Its title only appears at the very end.
- One of the sound engineers, Randy Thom, said it took nine months to mix the sound the way Coppola wanted it.
- Many of the film's dialogues were recorded during post-production, as previously recorded noises (such as the sound of helicopters) ruined most of the scenes with dialogue.
- The character of G.D. Spradlin is named General Corman. This is a nod to the legendary producer Roger Corman, with whom Francis Ford Coppola began his career.
- To get into the film, Laurence Fishburne lied about his age (filming began in '76, at which point he was 14 years old).
- The American government and military command, seeing that Coppola was planning to make a film that would not align with the official view of the Vietnam War, refused to provide any assistance with the film's production. Coppola found support from the Philippine government, which was then in strained relations with the United States.
- During the filming of Captain Willard's suffering in the Saigon hotel, Coppola strived for maximum realism, and Sheen supported him in this, plunging himself into depression and deliberately abusing alcohol. It took him a long time to recover and return to work, and Coppola even considered shutting down the film's production. When filming resumed, Sheen was shielded from excessive workload, and in some scenes that needed to be reshot, he was replaced by his brother, Joe Estevez, who resembled Sheen in appearance and voice. He later also dubbed some of the film's dialogue.
- It took about 15 hours to view all the filmed material. Because of this, the film's editing, which at the time took about six months, stretched to almost two years. When the first cut of the film was ready, it turned out to be over five hours long, and it needed to be significantly shortened for release. Coppola recalled that this was a very difficult process for him, requiring him to discard entire plotlines that had taken a lot of time, effort, and money to film. Eventually, Coppola edited a three-hour version of the film, which was shown at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival as a "work in progress." The film was a stunning success and won the festival's top prize – the "Palme d'Or." At the press conference in Cannes, Coppola uttered the now-famous words: "My film is not about Vietnam; it *is* Vietnam."
- Coppola explained why the film has no titles, and shouldn't: each viewer attending a screening anywhere on the planet should receive a special booklet with their ticket containing a detailed account of the film's production and detailed information about its creators, including a list of all crew members.
- Roger Ebert declared 'Apocalypse Now' the best film of 1979 and later added it to his list of great films on the grounds that 'it goes further than any other into the dark corners of the human soul.' According to Ebert, it is 'less a film about war than about how war brings to the surface a truth about people that they would prefer never to know.'
- Some Vietnam War veterans consider 'Apocalypse Now' the most realistic film about that war.
- According to Philippine law, all the sets had to be destroyed after filming was completed. Coppola decided to demolish the sets using a series of explosions and film it, hoping to use the footage somehow later. Coppola and his team set up several cameras with different lenses and filters, and filmed the explosions from different angles and at different speeds. In the original 35mm version of the film, titles ran over these shots at the end, and many interpreted this as an indication that Willard had, after all, called in the airstrike. Upon learning of this reaction, Coppola cut these shots from the ending and left only the titles. He denied that the bombing of Kurtz's settlement was considered as one of the alternative endings.
- A cow is genuinely killed in the film.
- Coppola desperately searched for a final scene that satisfied him until his wife, Eleanor, told him she had witnessed an animal sacrifice in a local Ifugao tribe.
- In a private conversation during a visit to Moscow in 1979, Coppola recounted that in a previous version of the finale, the final shot of the film was to be a camera move (from a wide shot to a close-up) on Willard’s face as he emerged to the natives after killing Colonel Kurtz. Originally, the director intended this final shot to echo the first (which was never filmed), which the film was supposed to open with: the director’s screenplay preserves a mention of a rapid camera movement from outer space to Earth, to Southeast Asia, to Vietnam, to Saigon, to the hotel where Willard lies in bed, and the camera was to stop on Willard’s face (where the film now begins).
- There are several different versions of the end credits. The 70mm film release does not contain end credits (except for the Copyright 1979 Omni Zoetrope inscription), and in the final frames of the film, Willard sails past a statue of a stone idol that gradually dissolves into darkness. In the 35mm film version, the credits are shown against a backdrop of explosions. In the 1979 version, the most common one, the credits run on a black background. In the Redux version, the credits are also shown on a black background, but music plays and the sounds of the jungle can be heard.
- Among the scenes not included in the film, on the Blu-ray edition the last is a scene titled 'Special forces knife.' In this scene, Captain Willard witnesses the murder of a photojournalist on Kurtz’s orders, because he took a picture of him. The photojournalist is killed by Colby (a soldier who sided with Kurtz), after which Willard throws a knife at Colby and kills him.
- The film is based on Joseph Conrad’s novella “Heart of Darkness” (1902).
- Francis Ford Coppola played a small role as a journalist reporting during the battle. His words were: “Don’t look at the camera, pretend you’re fighting!”
- When Francis Ford Coppola offered Al Pacino the role of Willard, he refused, saying: “I know what this is going to be like. You’re going to sit there in the helicopter and tell me what to do, and I’m going to be stuck in this swamp for five months.” In reality, filming lasted 1 year and 4 months.
- John Milius wrote his screenplay in 1969. It was called "Psychedelic Soldier." According to him, the rebellious colonel not only proclaimed himself a god but also entered into direct conflict with the American army.
- By the time McQueen was considered for the lead role, the screenplay was titled "Apocalypse Three," featuring three main characters, all of whom, according to Coppola's vision, were to be played by major stars, including Gene Hackman.
- Several photographs of Colonel Kurtz from his file were stills from John Huston's 1967 film "Reflections in a Golden Eye," in which Brando played a military officer.
- "I am convinced that I created a work of art, and I could not have done it better," Francis Ford Coppola said about "Apocalypse Now."
- John Milius recounted that he was inspired to write the screenplay by the words of a professor he studied with: the professor argued that no one had yet managed to make a good film based on "Heart of Darkness," despite attempts by such legends as Orson Welles and Richard Brooks. Milius's screenplay did not initially envision the film as anti-war, as it later became. Milius held politically right-wing views, and the screenplay included several monologues in which Colonel Kurtz praised the virtues of war and the warrior lifestyle. Milius himself refused to direct the film, believing that George Lucas was a much better fit for the role.
- Coppola's statement about the filming is well-known: "We made this film much like the Americans waged war – there were too many of us, we spent too much money, and we gradually went insane." Since Coppola invested his own funds in the film's production, he experienced unprecedented pressure – if the film was not completed within a reasonable timeframe or proved commercially unsuccessful, the director faced the risk of bankruptcy.
- The film is based on the novella "Heart of Darkness" (1902) by Joseph Conrad.
- In the scenes with Dennis Hopper, the words "Apocalypse Now" can be seen on stone structures.
- Francis Ford Coppola played a small role as a journalist reporting during the battle. His lines are: "Don't look at the camera, pretend you're fighting!"
- When Francis Ford Coppola offered Al Pacino the role of Willard, he refused, saying: 'I know how it's going to be. You're going to sit there in a helicopter and tell me what to do, while I'm stuck in that swamp for five months.' In reality, filming lasted one year and four months.
- Initially, it was intended that George Lucas, who was Coppola's protégé at American Zoetrope at the time, would direct the film. Coppola had founded the studio as an alternative to the major Hollywood studios, planning to use it to support young directors who had just graduated from film schools and courses. The Vietnam War was still in full swing, and the original plan was to shoot the movie directly in Vietnam in a guerrilla style. However, Warner Bros., which had a contract with Zoetrope, refused to fund such a project, citing both doubts about the film's commercial success and security concerns—the risk that the filmmakers would be harmed while shooting in a combat zone was considerable. Lucas later claimed that Zoetrope studio itself viewed the project as 'eccentric,' and that he and his colleagues on the project were regarded as such as well.
- John Milius wrote his script in 1969. The script was titled 'The Psychedelic Soldier.' According to his version, the rebellious colonel not only proclaimed himself a god but also entered into a direct war with the American army.
- Steve McQueen was invited to play the role of Captain Willard.
- Harvey Keitel had already begun playing the role of Willard, but after two weeks, Coppola replaced him with Martin Sheen.
- The character Sheen's full name is Benjamin Willard. Harrison Ford's eldest sons are named Benjamin and Willard.
- At the time when McQueen was intended for the lead role, the script was titled 'Apocalypse Three'; it featured three protagonists, all of whom, according to Coppola's plan, were to be played by major stars, including Gene Hackman.
- During filming, Coppola lost 100 pounds.
- Marlon Brando was the most difficult on set. He had been paid a million dollars in advance, yet he threatened to leave the film at every turn. Coppola then told his agent that he didn't care, and that in place of Brando, he would prefer Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford, or Al Pacino. In the end, Brando stayed, gained 40 kilograms during filming, refused to read the original script or even Conrad's novel, rejected Coppola's shooting script, agreed only to improvise his role, and forbade himself from being filmed in the light—only in the dark.
- Rumor has it that Coppola and many others from the crew were under the influence of marijuana and LSD during filming. At the very least, actor Sam Bottoms was caught doing so.
- One of the sound engineers, Randy Thom, recounted that it took nine months to mix the sound exactly as Coppola wanted it.
- Several photos of Colonel Kurtz from his file were stills from John Huston's film 'The Gleam in His Eye' (1967), in which Brando played a military officer.
- G.D. Spradlin's character is named General Corman. This is a nod to the legendary producer Roger Corman, under whom Francis Ford Coppola began his career.
- To get into the movie, Laurence Fishburne lied about his age (filming began in '76, and he was 14 years old at the time).
- “I am confident that I have created a work of art, and I could not have done better,” Francis Ford Coppola said of Apocalypse Now.
- John Milius recounted that he was inspired to write the screenplay by the words of a professor he studied under: the professor claimed that no one had yet succeeded in making a good film based on the book Heart of Darkness, despite attempts by legendary figures such as Orson Welles and Richard Brooks. Milius's script did not intend for the film to be anti-war, as it eventually became. Milius held right-wing political views, and the screenplay included several monologues in which Colonel Kurtz praised the virtues of war and the warrior way of life. Milius himself declined to direct the film, believing that George Lucas was far better suited for the role.
- Seeing that Coppola intended to make a film that would not align with the official viewpoint on the Vietnam War, the American government and military command refused to provide any assistance in the filming. Coppola found support from the government of the Philippines, which was in strained relations with the US at the time.
- In filming Captain Willard's suffering at the hotel in Saigon, Coppola strove for maximum authenticity, and Sheen supported him in this by plunging himself into depression and intentionally abusing alcohol. It took him a long time to recover and return to work, and Coppola even considered shutting down production. When filming resumed, they tried not to overburden Sheen, and in some scenes that needed to be reshot, Martin was replaced by his brother Joe Estevez, who resembled Sheen in both appearance and voice. Later, he also provided voice-overs for some of the film's dialogue.
- Coppola is known for his comment on the production: “We made this movie roughly the same way the Americans fought the war—there were too many of us, we spent too much money, and we slowly went crazy.” Because Coppola invested his own funds into the production, he faced unprecedented pressure—had the film not been completed within a reasonable timeframe or proved to be a commercial failure, the director faced the risk of bankruptcy.
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