i want you to hit me as hard as you can... In the history of Hollywood not many films have overcome
a disastrous production quite like Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now.
The unthinkable stories behind the notoriously tumultuous production are almost stranger than
fiction. It's no exaggeration to say it was a miracle that the movie was even completed.
It would be easier to list what did not go wrong making the film than what did. Get on the boat
and journey into the production jungle as we look at what the [ __ ] happened to this movie!
While collaborating with Francis Ford Coppola on the 1967 film The Rain People, John Milius was
approached by his pals George Lucas and Steven Spielberg to pen a Vietnam War script. Milius
pitched the idea of doing a Vietnam variation of Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness,
long considered unfilmable. Coppola liked the idea enough that he gave Milius fifteen thousand
dollars to write the screenplay and promised an additional ten grand if the film was approved for
production. Milius accepted and went off to write a script which he claims was completed in 1969.
The original title was Apocalypse 3 but was changed by Milius to poke fun at the
popular counterculture idiom Nirvana Now, seen on buttons and tattoos at the time.
Coppola implored Milius to write every scene he ever wanted to see go into that movie, resulting
in ten drafts and over a thousand pages of story material. Milius reportedly drew inspiration
from Stanley Kubrick's Doctor Strangelove and Michael Herr's article The Battle for Khe Sahn,
chronicling the psychological effects of soldiers mixing drugs and rock and roll with their daily
protocols. While writing, Milius listened to music by The Doors and Richard Wagner - it was
his idea to use Wagner's Flight of the Valkyries for the iconic helicopter scene in the film.
Warner Bros. and production company Seven Arts jointly optioned Milius's script in 1969 but the
project went into turnaround almost immediately. Production languished with Milius pushing for
his pal George Lucas to direct the film. Lucas spent four years of his life closely developing
the project with Milius with every intention to direct it himself. Lucas wanted to treat the
script as a black comedy and planned to shoot in 1971 following his feature debut with the sci-fi
film THX-1138. His vision was to make Apocalypse Now in Vietnam with real soldiers while the war
was still in process, doing so with a modest two million dollar budget using 16 millimeter
handheld documentary style camera work. When Warner Bros. flinched at such unsafe conditions,
Lucas instead went off to make American Graffiti and a little movie called Star Wars.
You've taken your first step into a larger world... In 1974 Coppola acquired the rights
to Milius's script, describing the project as a comedy and terrifying psychological horror story.
Like Lucas, John Milius also declined an invitation to direct due to obligations on
other projects. When Coppola decided to direct the film himself he made several revisions to Milius's
script. His vision was to guide viewers through an unprecedented experience of war and have
them react as much as those who had gone through the war. He wanted to emphasize the distinction
between good and evil ,and critique the demoralizing routines of modern warfare. In 1975
he began scouting military locations in Georgia and Florida with the hope that the U.S. Army would
accommodate his needs. When the Army refused to cooperate due to the seek and destroy mission of
the story, Coppola scouted locations in Australia before finally settling on the Philippines.
Coppola's producing partner Fred Roos had experience filming in the country, where Coppola
figured he could gain access to U.S. military equipment and cost-effective local crew members.
By the end of the year, United Artists gave Coppola a budget of roughly 15 million dollars
to make the film in the Philippines, with the understanding that it would star Steve Mcqueen,
Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando. One of the first major issues came in the casting process.
While Coppola originally wanted screen legend Steve Mcqueen to play Capt. Benjamin Willard, the
star refused to spend six weeks in the Philippine jungle. The filmmaker was also unwilling to pay
Mcqueen's 3 million dollar price tag. Coppola then offered the role to his Godfather star Al Pacino,
but he also declined due to the remote location shoot. Pacino had fallen ill while shooting scenes
in the Dominican Republic for The Godfather part 2 and he was leery of possibly repeating such a
horrible experience. The role of Capt Willard was then offered to Martin Sheen based on his
solid audition for The Godfather, but Sheen had a scheduling conflict. After that Coppola approached
actors like Jack Nicholson, James Caan, Robert Redford, Nick Nolte, Tommy Lee Jones and Burt
Reynolds. Frederick Forrest also auditioned for the part and would later join Willard on the boat
along with a 14 year old Laurence Fishburne, who lied about his age to join the production.
In 2015 Clint Eastwood confessed that Coppola had offered him the role of Willard,
but he also passed due to the dark material and having to be away from the United States for
such a prolonged period. Eastwood also admitted that Steve Mcqueen had encouraged him to play
Willard so that Mcqueen could assume the role of Colonel Kurtz instead, since playing Kurtz only
required two weeks on location. Ultimately, Harvey Keitel was cast as Capt. Willard.
In early 1976 Coppola approached the great Marlon Brando to play the role of Colonel Kurtz after
Orson Welles and Lee Marvin both passed. Following a lengthy negotiation Brando agreed to play the
role with several stipulations - he would work for one month on location for two million dollars,
including one million in advance, as well as receiving 10 percent of the movie's box office
gross and 10 of the television sales rights. In the end, Brando's demands earned him an extra 9
million dollars. Gene Hackman was originally slated to play Lt. Colonel Bill Kilgore,
originally named Colonel Carnage, but he was replaced with Robert Duvall.
James Caan was the first choice to play the role of a military officer who briefs Willard but his
asking fee was deemed too steep for such a minor role. Pre-Han Solo Harrison Ford was subsequently
cast in the role and he was allowed to name the character, which he selected to honor his
American Graffiti director George Lucas. Dennis Hopper was cast as the hippie photographer which
would create a contentious environment between him and Marlon Brando while filming. Coppola
traveled to Manila in the Philippines to begin principal photography in march 1976. The schedule
had now expanded from six weeks to an expected four months with the film planned for release
on Coppola's 38th birthday on April 7 1977. On March 20th 1976 principal photography officially
commenced with Coppola immediately dissatisfied with Harvey Keitel's performance as Willard.
Coppola found that Keitel had trouble maintaining a blank facade that could guide the audience
through the story as a passive observer. Coppola flew back to la and offered the part to Martin
Sheen, who was then available. Sheen accepted, reaching the Philippines a month later. Reshooting
the scenes with Sheen as Willard was expected to take just four days but like everything else on
the production, that didn't happen as planned. In May 1976, typhoon Olga ravaged a significant
portion of the sets built for the film, prompting the entire production to shut down temporarily.
Several crew members were marooned in hotels and rented houses until the storm blew over, while
others were sent back to America for roughly two months. The Playboy Playmate stage was annihilated
by the typhoon, which delayed filming for a month and required building a whole new set piece.
The vast number of helicopters used in the film was granted by Philippine president Ferdinand
Marcos. However they were far inferior to their U.S. counterparts and often broke down, or had
to be retrieved by the Filipino government in the middle of production to fend off rebel warlords
besieging the country, causing more delays for Coppola and the crew. And the choppers were so
deafening that much of the dialogue recorded on location was inaudible and had to be redubbed in
post-production. During this period more problems arose when the production payroll was pilfered one
night by unknown assailants, despite the heavy presence of bodyguards on location.
By that point the film was six weeks behind schedule and two million dollars over budget.
Following the devastating storm Coppola turned in a half million dollar typhoon insurance policy
and was granted a loan by United Artists with the caveat that if the film did not gross more than
40 million dollars at the box office, Coppola would assume the remaining costs on his own.
As production continued, Coppola sank around 7 million of his own money into the budget
causing him to refinance the mortgage on his home and winery in Napa Valley.
Through all the stress, strain and overwhelming anxiety, Coppola expressed suicidal tendencies and
lost 100 pounds during the process of making the film. In July 1976 Marlon Brando arrived on set,
drunk and 90 pounds overweight. He also had not read the novel or script, nor had he memorized
his lines. When he eventually did read Coppola's script he rejected it and incessantly lobbied for
changes, butting heads with the filmmaker every step of the way. Colonel Kurtz was always meant
to be a gaunt soldier at six foot five in height, prompting severe panic in Coppola and forcing him
to shoot the five foot seven overweight Brando in inventive ways. A compromise was made to shave
his head, drape him in black attire and mostly film the actor in shadow as a way to compensate
for his appearance. Brando also insisted on several other script changes including
Kurtz's name - he felt an American colonel should have a more English-sounding name like Leighley.
But after Brando read Heart of Darkness he demanded his name be reverted to Kurtz,
prompting line dubbing in post-production to refer to the character as originally planned.
Brando also refused to share the set with Dennis Hopper, who continuously antagonized the
legendary actor during filming. Brando's erratic behavior also included an improvised and largely
incoherent 18-minute monologue, which was reduced to around two minutes in the final film. Brando
angered Coppola so intensely that the director refused to even look at the actor's performance
and handed the responsibility to assistant director Jerry Zeismer during Kurtz's scenes.
Among others, Kurtz's line - You're an errand boy sent by grocery clerks
to collect a bill - was ad-libbed on the spot by Brando. Of the entire protracted shoot,
Brando spent six weeks on location, hiking his initial asking fee up to 3.5 million. When later
asked about such an exorbitant amount for 15 minutes of screen time, Brando's A Streetcar
Named Desire playwright Tennessee Williams mused that he must have been paid by the pound.
Another on-set mishap occurred with actor Sam Bottoms, who plays surfing gunner's mate Lance
Johnson. Bottoms became infected by a parasitic hookworm that caused severe liver damage.
He was also said to be high on LSD, speed and marijuana while filming,
but then again who wasn't? At one point during filming, real-life corpses were delivered to
the set by a man who turned out to be an illegal grave robber. The entire crew was grilled by the
local authorities until they were cleared and the bodies were removed from the set.
Around Christmas time in 1976, Coppola returned to the U.S. to assemble a rough cut of the footage he
had shot. Since there were no playback monitors on location, the film was shot blind with no way
of checking dailies. After he put together a cut, Coppola decided he needed a better ending for the
film. In early 1977 he returned to the Philippines to finish shooting. On March 5th while on
location, Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack at age 36 and stumbled a quarter mile to find help.
So far behind schedule and over budget, Coppola was hesitant to replace Sheen with another actor
given all of the footage he had shot, so instead Coppola lied to investors about Sheen's health,
declaring he suffered heat stroke rather than a heart attack. Before Sheen returned to the set
a month later, certain body doubles were used to film the character from behind or at a distance.
Sheen's brother Joe Estevez was brought in as a replacement. Coppola has since proclaimed that
he can't tell the difference between the two on screen. Earlier in the production Sheen had
also injured his hand while punching a mirror in the hotel room scene, during which he was
genuinely drunk and deeply disturbed by the dark material and overwhelming shooting experience.
Apocalypse Now officially wrapped principal photography on may 21 1977, 14 months after
it started. All told, Coppola spent 238 days shooting 230 hours of footage - over one and a
quarter million feet of printed film. Around 10 percent of that was just for the famous opening
napalm scene, which required 1200 gallons of fuel to torch a real-life Philippine forest.
Since the Filipino government was mired in its own civil war at the time of filming
they obviously did not put a priority on environmental protection.
By then the bloated budget saw Coppola's studio loan grow past 10 million dollars. To compensate
he offered to give up his vehicles, home and profits from The Godfather as collateral.
When Star Wars was becoming a massive blockbuster he solicited funding from George Lucas.
Due to the rising costs and his suicidal threats, United Artists actually took out a 25 million
life insurance policy on Coppola. With the release date now set for spring of 1978,
Coppola began the lengthy editing process. It ultimately took over two years to complete.
The previously mentioned helicopter sequence alone took almost a full year to edit.
By the summer of 1977 Coppola gave editor and sound man Walter Murch 4 months to
create a soundscape for the film. The raw material retrieved from the Philippines was insufficient,
meaning Murch had to manufacture the jungle noises and atmospheric audio work.
Apocalypse Now became the first film to use the Dolby stereo 70 millimeter six-track technology.
While assembling the film, Coppola and Murch realized they needed to re-insert Willard's
voice-over narration, a framing device that Coppola had ditched at one point
during production. In January 1978, Vietnam war correspondent and author of the acclaimed
book Dispatches, Michael Herr, was recruited to write as many as 10 different narrations,
claiming the pre-existing one was totally useless. When Martin Sheen proved unavailable, his brother
Joe Estevez was once again brought in to recite his lines, going uncredited for the work.
As of May 1978, the overall cost had ballooned to 18 million dollars over budget, leaving Coppola
personally liable for the outstanding costs. However, Coppola forever owned the rights to
the film and hoped it would be a big enough box office success to get him out of such a deep hole.
With the editing process still underway, the film was pushed back to a mid-1979 release.
According to Walter Murch's book In the Blink of an Eye, the original workprint of the film came
in at five hours long, which he whittled down to around three hours for the premiere at Cannes Film
Festival. After the festival Murch further chopped the runtime to a more digestible 147 minutes,
a length that Coppola felt would earn more money at the box office. Only in retrospect did
Coppola feel he removed too much footage and later reassembled a 196 minute version which we all know
as Apocalypse Now Redux. After winning the Palme D'or for best film at Cannes, an honor shared with
The Tin Drum, Apocalypse Now was released in three Los Angeles theaters on august 15 1979.
The locations were outfitted with the Dolby 70 millimeter stereo surround sound, which prompted
a then unprecedented ticket price increase to five dollars. The film finally expanded to 300 theaters
in October 1979. For all the pain and heartache the production caused, the film went on to gross
78 million dollars domestically and 150 million dollars worldwide on its way to becoming hailed
as one of the greatest movies ever constructed. Coppola's risky financial investment had paid off.
Apocalypse Now was nominated for numerous awards and won Oscars for sound and cinematography.
The haunting story was applauded by critics and it has been listed on countless greatest movies ever
made compilations and is widely considered one of the best war movies ever filmed.
Of course, with such a legendarily troubled production, it feels like we've only scratched
the surface of the saga. And besides the original theatrical release there's also the 289 minute
bootlegged workprint, Apocalypse Now Redux and Apocalypse Now Final Cut,
not to mention the documentary Hearts of Darkness - A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. But in the interest
of time, let's just revel in the head spinning jaw-dropping and awe-inspiring tale of what the
[ __ ] happened to Apocalypse Now. Somehow Coppola and his cast and crew miraculously
overcame impossible odds and a nightmare filming experience to deliver a cinematic masterpiece.
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