RATINGS: IMDB ―8.5/10, Rotten Tomatoes ― 97%, ME ― 93%
Kurtz: Did they say why, Willard, why they want to terminate my command?
Willard: I was sent on a classified mission, sir.
Kurtz: It's no longer classified, is it? Did they tell you?
Willard: They told me that you had gone totally insane, and that your methods were unsound.
Kurtz: Are my methods unsound?
Willard: I don't see any method at all, sir.
Kurtz: I expected someone like you. What did you expect? Are you an assassin?
Willard: I'm a soldier.
Director Francis Ford Coppola was unable to find a satisfactory way of ending the film until his wife, Eleanor Coppola, witnessed the Ifugao tribesmen employed as extras performing an animal sacrifice.
In or just before each of the scenes where a member of the boat crew dies, purple smoke from a flare is visible. A similar thematic element is used by director Francis Ford Coppola in The Godfather trilogy (1972-1990) where oranges appear just before or in a scene where a character dies.
One ending considered for the film was that an air strike was called to destroy the temple. Explosives were rigged especially for this sequence, but director Francis Ford Coppola changed his mind, feeling that the finale should represent the end of war and the beginning of peace. However, since it was required by Philippine law to get rid of the sets after filming, the sets were blown up anyway. After its initial engagements, which presented the film without credits, Coppola decided to use footage of the demolition as the backdrop for the end title sequence. After the public misconstrued this sequence as the alternate ending, Coppola re-edited that portion and had the titles run on black.
The original script by John Milius climaxes with Kurtz fighting off an attack by U.S. Army helicopters, firing a machine gun while exclaiming to Willard, "I can feel the power in my loins!" Francis Ford Coppola thought this was absurd.
John Milius's early draft ended with Willard returning to America to take the news to Kurtz's wife and son.
One of the books on Kurtz's night table is "The Golden Bough" by James Frazer. It is an anthropological study of rites in several cultures in which a young usurper ritually kills an aging king and inherits his throne.
The sequence where the PBR gets attacked with spears exactly mirrors the attack on the jungle boat in the novel "Heart of Darkness." In the book, one of the helpers on the steam boat is killed whereas in the movie, it is the captain.
The document that Willard skims through near the film's conclusion, on which "DROP THE BOMB. EXTERMINATE THEM ALL" is scrawled, is entitled "The Role of Democratic Force in the Underdeveloped World, by Walter E. Kurtz, Colonel USSF" and is "Commissioned by The Center For Democratic Studies, Santa Barbara, California." This is taken directly from Joseph Conrad's novella, where a report written for "the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs" by Kurtz is also graffitied with a similar message: "Exterminate all the brutes!"
In the theatrical version of the film, Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper leave the exact same way, by standing up from a squatting position and walking out of the frame to the right. However, this changes in the "Redux" version of the film, which features a few extra minutes with Duvall's character.
Kurtz: You're neither. You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill.
Marlon Brando as Kurtz and Martin Sheen as Willard
Trivia (From IMDB):
Laurence Fishburne was fourteen years old when production began in 1976; he lied about his age.
There are no opening credits or titles. The title of the movie appears as graffiti late in the film, which reads, "Our motto: Apocalypse Now." This was done simply so the film could be copyrighted, since it could not be copyrighted as "Apocalypse Now" unless the title was seen in the film.
Marlon Brando improvised the line "You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill."
The scene at the beginning with Captain Willard alone in his hotel room was completely unscripted. Martin Sheen told the shooting crew to just let the cameras roll. Sheen was actually drunk in the scene and punched the mirror, which was real glass, cutting his thumb. Sheen also began sobbing and tried to attack director Francis Ford Coppola. The crew was so disturbed that they wanted to stop shooting, but Sheen wanted to keep the cameras going. Sheen was fighting a drinking problem and his own issues. He got so caught up in the scene and his personal internal struggles that he hit the mirror. He believed that continuing the scene would help face his problems. This was revealed later in a conversation with Coppola and Sheen and has been shown in the Redux version.
When Francis Ford Coppola asked Al Pacino to play Willard, Pacino turned him down saying, "I know what this is going to be like. You're going to be up there in a helicopter telling me what to do, and I'm gonna be down there in a swamp for five months." The shoot actually lasted sixteen months.
Robert Duvall's iconic Oscar-nominated performance as Colonel Kilgore amounts to just eleven minutes of screen time.
It took director Francis Ford Coppola nearly three years to edit the footage. While working on his final edit, it became apparent to him that Martin Sheen would be needed to tape a number of additional narrative voice-overs. Coppola soon discovered that Sheen was busy and unable to perform these voice-overs. He then called in Sheen's brother, Joe Estevez, whose voice sounded nearly identical, to perform the new narrative tracks. Estevez was also used as a stand-in when Sheen suffered a heart attack during the shoot in 1976. Estevez was not credited for his work as a stand-in or for his voice-over work.
Marlon Brando improvised a lot of Kurtz's dialogue, including an eighteen-minute speech of which only two minutes survived the final cut. According to Peter Manso's "Brando," Meade Roberts, screenwriter for The Fugitive Kind (1960), later heard the entire monologue and said that while some of it was incoherent, most of it was brilliant. At the end of the speech, Brando reportedly said to director Francis Ford Coppola, "Francis, I've gone as far as I can go. If you need more, you can get another actor."
Shooting was originally scheduled for six weeks. In the end, it took sixteen months.
Director Francis Ford Coppola lost 100 pounds while filming.
Francis Ford Coppola shot nearly two hundred hours of footage for this film.
The canteen scene with Lt. Col. Kilgore and the wounded Viet Cong is based on an actual wounded VC fighter who fought while keeping his entrails strapped to his belly in an enameled cooking pot. The incident was documented by the photojournalist Philip Jones Griffiths. The real-life U.S. soldier was quoted as saying, "Any soldier who can fight for three days with his insides out can drink from my canteen any time!"
More than a year had passed between the filming of Willard and Chef searching the jungle for mangoes and encountering the tiger, and the immediately following shots (part of the same scene) of Chef clambering back onto the boat, ripping off his shirt and screaming.
The famous helicopter battle where the helicopters swooped in on the village while playing "The Ride of the Valkyries" was meant to be an ironic comment on the Vietnam War. In the original Wagner magna opera "Der Ring des Nibelungen," the Valkyries arrive at a point of apparent victory, but which later results in defeat. Thus, the apparent victory in the helicopter battle would be followed by the eventual defeat in the war.
Director Francis Ford Coppola believed that Marlon Brando was familiar with Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," the novel Apocalypse Now (1979) is based on. When Brando arrived on set, Coppola was horrified to find that Brando had never read "Heart of Darkness," did not know his lines, and had become extremely overweight. Kurtz had always been written as tall and very thin. After some panic, Coppola decided to film the 5'10" Brando as if he was a massively built, 6'5" brute to explain his size, and kept the camera away from his huge belly.
Most of the dialogue was added in post-production, as extraneous noise (such as helicopters) left many scenes with unusable audio.
Marlon Brando was paid $1 million in advance. He threatened to quit and keep the advance. Director Francis Ford Coppola told his agent that he did not care, and if they could not get Brando, they would try Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford, and then Al Pacino. Brando eventually turned up late, drunk, 40kg (about 88lbs) overweight, and admitted he had not read the script or even "Heart of Darkness," the book the film was based on. He read Coppola's script, and refused to do it. After days of arguments over single lines of dialogue, an ad-lib style script was agreed upon, and this was shot according to Brando's stipulations that he be filmed mostly in shadows.
Director Francis Ford Coppola invested several million dollars of his own money in the film after it went severely over budget. He eventually had to mortgage his home and winery in Napa Valley in order to finish the film.
Director Francis Ford Coppola threatened suicide several times during the making of the film.
When director Francis Ford Coppola first described the role to Marlon Brando, Brando remarked that an American colonel would not have a name like Kurtz; he would have an English name like "Leighley." Having never read "Heart of Darkness," Brando did not appreciate the reference. Brando eventually read "Heart of Darkness," but not until after the film's completion. After reading the book and liking it, Brando demanded that his name be changed to Kurtz in the film, and Harrison Ford's lines were dubbed to accommodate him.
Clint Eastwood turned down the role of Captain Willard because he felt the film was too dark.
Harrison Ford was allowed to pick his own character's name and he chose "Lucas" to honor George Lucas, who had directed Ford in American Graffiti (1973) and Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), two films which made Ford famous. G.D. Spradlin's character is named "R. Corman," after producer Roger Corman.
Substance abuse was rampant among the cast and crew. Dennis Hopper got a teenaged Laurence Fishburne addicted to heroin.
Sam Bottoms was on speed, LSD, and marijuana during the shooting of parts of the movie.
While in pre-production, director Francis Ford Coppola consulted his friend and mentor Roger Corman for advice about shooting in the Phillipines. Corman's advice: "Don't go."
Harvey Keitel was initially cast as Willard. Two weeks into shooting, director Francis Ford Coppola replaced him with Martin Sheen. According to Coppola, one piece of film with him did make it into the final cut (although you really can not see him), in a shot from the distance of the river boat as it is moving through the water.
The water buffalo (carabao in Filipino) that was slaughtered in the film was real. The scene was inspired by a ritual performed by a local Ifugao tribe which Francis Ford Coppola had witnessed along with his wife (who filmed the ritual later shown in the documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991)) and film crew. Although this was an American production subject to American animal cruelty laws, scenes like this filmed in the Philippines were not policed or monitored and the American Humane Association gave the film an "unacceptable" rating.
The opening tracking shot of the film was originally a discarded trim from the footage of the village napalm attack. While going through the trims, Francis Ford Coppola accidentally stumbled on the trim and added it. He later said that having that trim complemented well with the The Doors' "The End" and the accompanying montage.
Marlon Brando so angered Francis Ford Coppola that the director turned over the filming of Brando's scenes to Jerry Ziesmer, the assistant director.
George Lucas was originally set to direct Apocalypse Now (1979) from a screenplay by John Milius. Lucas' initial plan was to shoot the movie as a faux documentary on location in South Vietnam while the war was still in progress. Francis Ford Coppola, who was to be the executive producer, tried to get the film made as part of a production deal with Warner Bros. The deal fell through, and Coppola went on to direct The Godfather (1972). By the time both men were powerful enough to get the film made, Saigon had fallen and Lucas was busy making Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). Milius had no interest in directing the film. Lucas gave Coppola his blessing to direct the film himself.
Director Francis Ford Coppola, who considered offering the role of Willard to Al Pacino, said that Pacino would probably have played the role if they could have filmed the movie in his New York City apartment. Jack Nicholson also was offered the role but turned it down.
Director Francis Ford Coppola spent days reading Joseph Conrad's source novel "Heart of Darkness" out loud to Marlon Brando on the set.
In a 2006 interview, writer John Milius said that after he had written the now famous line, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning," he thought to himself, "This is over the top. This will be the first thing they'll take out."
Nick Nolte has said that he had never wanted a role more than that of Captain Willard, and was very disappointed when director Francis Ford Coppola picked Harvey Keitel for the part. When Keitel was fired, Nolte thought the role was his, but Martin Sheen eventually won the role.
Martin Sheen had a heart attack during the filming and some shots of Willard's back are of doubles, including Sheen's brother Joe Estevez, who was flown out specially. Director Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Sheen himself were so worried that backing would be withdrawn by the studio and distributor if news of Sheen's heart attack leaked out, that they both kept it quiet, even to the extent of explaining Sheen's hospitalization as being due to "heat exhaustion" in the official Shoot Schedule.
The total length of film printed for the movie was approximately 1,250,000 feet. That number roughly translates to a total of around 230 hours worth of footage.
The letter Martin Sheen is reading in the deleted scene "Letter from Mrs. Kurtz" is actually a poem by Jim Morrison.
In May 1979, this became the first film to be awarded the Palme D'Or at The Cannes Film Festival before it had actually been completed. Because the Cannes jury was unable to come to a unanimous vote, this film shared the Best Picture prize with The Tin Drum (1979).
When asked what he thought about Marlon Brando's $3.5 million fee after a NYC screening of the film, Tennessee Williams reportedly said, "Gee, I don't know. I think they paid him by the pound."
According to writer John Milius, he wrote the entire script of the movie listening only to music by Richard Wagner and The Doors. To him, the music by The Doors had always been "music of war," though when he at one point mentioned this to the band, they were horrified. As, to them, it was the exact opposite. Ironically, the lead singer of the band, Jim Morrison, was a son of George S. Morrison, who was an important Admiral of the United States Navy.
Robert Duvall 's character, Col. Bill Killgore, was loosely based on author and syndicated columnist Col. David H. Hackworth's exploits in Vietnam. Hackworth, born and raised in Southern California, commanded a helicopter Air Cavalry brigade in which pilots actually wore Civil War campaign hats and flew in helicopters with crossed swords painted on them.
The first film to use the 70mm Dolby Stereo surround sound system.
While in the movie, the main character is sent to kill Kurtz, in the source novel, "Heart of Darkness," the main character is sent to rescue him.
Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos agreed to let his army supply the helicopters and pilots used in the film. The Marcos government was also fighting rebels in the area where filming was taking place, and sometimes withdrew the helicopters and pilots when they were needed in battle, replacing them with pilots who were not familiar with the filming, which caused some problems.
James Caan was the director's first choice to play Col. Lucas. Caan, however, wanted too much money for what was considered a minor part in the movie, and Harrison Ford was eventually cast in the role.
Steve McQueen was the first to turn down the role of Captain Willard. He had initially verbally agreed to play him when director Francis Ford Coppola agreed to his salary of $3,000,000 (equivalent to a little over $13,000,000 in 2013 dollars). But after thinking about the fact the work would require months of on-location shooting in the Philippine jungle, McQueen told Coppola he would rather play the Kilgore role instead, which would require much less location work, as long as he would still be paid his full salary. Coppola, who was essentially self-financing the movie, simply could not afford it and said no.
The famous line, "terminate... with extreme prejudice," is spoken by Jerry Ziesmer, who also served as the film's Assistant Director.
Director Francis Ford Coppola initially wanted to use Universal Studios-owned Sensurround system, but they would not let him do so. This forced Coppola to create his own version of the surround sound system.
The visit by the Playboy Playmates was based on an actual visit by 1965 Playmate of the Year Jo Collins. She was so popular with the troops that she was made an honorary GI. The Playmate of the Year character in the movie was played by Cynthia Wood, who was herself Playmate of the Year in 1974.
In the DVD commentary, Francis Ford Coppola downplays his involvement in the controversial slaughter of the water buffalo, saying he "happened to film a ritual" being performed by Ifugao natives. However, in the article "Ifugao extras and the making of Apocalypse Now," cast and crew detail how Coppola staged the entire scene, directing the natives to chant and sing while they killed the animal which Coppola provided. Afterwards, Coppola "went overboard and ordered a whole truckload" of animals which he gave to the Ifugao to slaughter on camera. However, only one water buffalo slaughter was used in the final cut. ('Flip Magazine 2003, v.2, n.3, pp. 29-33, 90-91')
A typhoon destroyed sets, causing a delay of several months.
According to his book "In the Blink of an Eye," Walter Murch took nearly two years to edit the movie, with an average of 1.47 cuts a day.
The people on the riverboat were actual Vietnamese refugees who had come to the Philippines less than six weeks earlier.
Kurtz reads from the T.S. Eliot poem "The Hollow Men." Eliot was inspired to write this poem by "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad, the book on which this movie was loosely based. The first line of the poem reads, "Mistah Kurtz - he dead." Kurtz leaves this line and the following line out when he reads. Also, the photojournalist says, "This is the way the fucking world ends. Look at this fuckin' shit we're in, man. Not with a bang, but with a whimper, and with a whimper, I'm fucking splitting, Jack." This is taken from the same poem's famous last two lines, "This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but with a whimper."
Military sets for the movie were nearly destroyed by a hurricane during filming. Instead of breaking them down and starting over, the partially-destroyed sets were used to create new scenes in the movie (including the scene in "Redux" where the playmates are stranded at the deserted military base).
John Milius explained how he had come up with the title "Apocalypse Now." Apparently, this was derived from, at that time (1965), a very popular tattoo amongst the hippie community of a peace sign that said "Nirvana Now." Milius, by adding just a couple of extra lines, edited the peace symbol to make it look like a circle with a B52 bomber in the middle and changed the slogan to "Apocalypse Now."
According to an interview given by Robert Duvall for NPR's Fresh Air on July 22, 2010, Colonel Kilgore's name was originally going to be Colonel Carnage, but they changed it to make their statement about him less obvious.
According to Dennis Hopper, Marlon Brando yelled at him over a simple misunderstanding. He then decided to deliberately antagonize Brando whenever he could. This resulted in Brando refusing to share the set with him and the one scene they share together being shot on separate nights. So when Kurtz throws the book at Hopper's photojournalist character and calls him a "mutt," one can only assume that was Brando's genuine feelings about him.
After Martin Sheen recovered from his heart attack, there was concern that he looked too healthy to be the war-weary cynical assassin that Willard was towards the end of his mission.
Carmine Coppola (director Francis Ford Coppola's father) wrote the score for this film.
Using "The Ride of the Valkyries" on the soundtrack was John Milius's idea. He claimed that it seemed so obvious to him that he almost did not write it, as he was certain it had to have been done in a film before.
The Philippines had no professional film laboratories at the time, meaning the raw camera negatives had to be shipped to the U.S. to be processed. Thus, the entire movie was shot blind. Francis Ford Coppola never saw a shot on film until after returning to California.
Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen had parts in the film that were cut. Estevez played a messenger boy, while Sheen was an extra.
Editing the helicopter napalm attack took one year to complete. Approximately ten percent of the footage shot (130,000 feet) was from that sequence itself.
Dennis Hopper's death scene was cut out of the film. It appears in the bootlegged workprint.
The United States military refused to lend director Francis Ford Coppola any military equipment, due to the order to "Kill Colonel Kurtz." Coppola instead had to borrow local military equipment.
According to the George Lucas biography "Skywalking," Lucas' decision to pull out of Apocalypse Now (1979) destroyed his working relationship with Francis Ford Coppola, who felt betrayed, and all but ended their friendship, and the Colonel Lucas character was meant as a back-handed snub to his then ex-friend. It would be years before they would be on speaking terms again, and would not work together again until 1986's Captain EO (1986).
Director Francis Ford Coppola wanted the film to be a special event by having it play in exactly one theater somewhere in Kansas in the geographical center of the country, built especially for the film with a specially-made sound system where the film would run continuously for ten years, and then hopefully anybody who wanted to show the film in their theaters would have to approach Coppola and exhibit it on his terms.
When the photographer (Dennis Hopper) is babbling about the religious fervor of Kurtz, he babbles out portions of the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling.
The scene in the beginning, where Willard is moving around chaotically in his underwear and eventually punches the mirror, was filmed on Martin Sheen's 36th birthday.
During some sequences, the sound of the helicopters was created on a synthesizer to blend in with the music.
Although no date or year is given for when the film takes place, a newspaper being read by the crew features an article on the trial of Charles Manson. This would date the action to November 1969.
The iconic opening scene of the palm trees burning under a storm of napalm as involved the destruction of a real forest. Around 1,200 gallons of gasoline were poured over the splendid palm trees and then set alight. Tires were also burned to generate more smoke for the shot, while canisters were dropped onto the area to look like falling napalm. Acres of the forest were destroyed in a matter of seconds. Since the movie was filmed in the Philippines who were in the midst of their own war with rebels, environmental issues were not a big priority. Francis Ford Coppola would later say, "They'd never let you (do it) in the U.S.--the environmentalists would kill you."
There are three different treatments of the opening and end credits. In the 35mm version, the credits roll over surrealistic explosions and burning jungle. The 70mm version has none of this, no credits, nothing but a one-line copyright notice at the end. Both versions are available on video. The 70mm version has been letterboxed. A third version has the credits rolling over a black background.
One of the sequences cut from the original release version but added to the "Redux" version is a sequence featuring the soldiers making out with two Playboy Playmates. Colleen Camp was the Playmate surrounded by birds. Camp said her character trained birds at Busch Gardens; she actually did this in real life. Camp, who had never been a Playmate (although Copplola thought she had), had to be specially photographed topless to make the ersatz centerfold seen in the movie.
The movie's line, "The horror... the horror..." was voted as #66 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.
Randy Thom, one of the film's sound mixers, said that the sound mix took over nine months to complete.
The character of Colonel Kurtz is inspired by the story of the traitor Lope de Aguirre, sixteenth-century Spanish soldier.
In the Playboy Bunny show scene, several drums with the name "Dow Chemicals" are visible. Dow is one of the companies that manufactured Agent Orange, the chemical defoliant used throughout Southeast Asia to kill the jungle plant life that the United States government claimed was aiding the enemy in hiding from Army forces.
Filmed in 1976 but released in 1979.
Emilio Estevez hung out on the set of the movie in the Phillipines with his father, Martin Sheen, during the filming of the movie. When casting for The Outsiders (1983) four years later, director Francis Ford Coppola remembered Estevez hanging out on the set of Apocalypse Now (1979), and wanted him to play Two-Bit in The Outsiders (1983).
Although the filming on locations in the Philippines lasted from March 1976 until May 1977, Marlon Brando's presence on set was only six weeks (from September 2nd until October 11, 1976).
Francis Ford Coppola's wife, Eleanor Coppola, filmed and recorded the making of this film, leading to Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991).
The character of the photojournalist, played by Dennis Hopper, was first suggested by Chas Gerretsen, unit photographer and Robert Capa, Gold Medal Award winner (1973) during a lunch with director Francis Ford Coppola. During the lunch, they discussed the scene where an American TV correspondent (played by Coppola) yells at some passing soldiers, "Don't look at the camera." Gerretsen suggested that if Coppola wanted to portray the manic side of the press, he should use a photojournalist because "We were all crazy." The three black body Nikon F cameras that Hopper's character had been used by Gerretsen in Vietnam. He sold the three cameras to Zoetrope Studios after Hopper, who had originally been cast as Captain Colby, became the photojournalist. Gerretsen used three Nikon F2 cameras and one Leica M4 during the filming of Apocalypse Now (1979). He did not like using blimps (sound boxes) because it prevented him from immediately shooting an image when he saw it (as he had learned as a photojournalist). Coppola gave him permission to shoot during filming in between the dialogue (except for Marlon Brando's dialogue), to the great unhappiness of the sound-man, who had to edit out the clicking of the camera.
Voted #1 in Film4's "50 Films To See Before You Die."
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The poem quoted by The Photojournalist (Dennis Hopper) (the line about "a pair of ragged claws") is from the poem "The Lovesong of J Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot.
The tape recording that Clean gets in the mail was recorded by Laurence Fishburne's own mother.
The film holds the record on the MovieMistakes.com website for the film with the most errors, a total of 395.
When Steve McQueen was being pursued for the role of Willard, the script was called "Apocalypse Three" as it featured three main characters, including a helicopter pilot. Gene Hackman reportedly was considered for the role of the pilot, as it was director Francis Ford Coppola's idea initially to cast the three roles with stars.
John Milius originally wrote the script in 1969, which was known then as "The Psychedelic Soldier." As Francis Ford Coppola described it, the original screenplay was a series of "comic book" scenes to point out the absurdity of the Vietnam War. Over the course of several years of rewrites, the final script kept some of the absurd elements from Milius' original screenplay for the first half with Joseph Conrad's novel, "Heart of Darkness," added to it for the second half of the movie.
The film was originally supposed to be scored by Francis Ford Coppola mainstay David Shire. His score was not used, however, in favor of Carmine Coppola and Mickey Hart's synth and percussion score.
Jeff Bridges auditioned for the role of Willard.
The movie's line, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning," was voted as the #12 movie quote by the American Film Institute, and as the #45 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.
At the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, Francis Ford Coppola iconically said about the film, "My movie is not about Vietnam...my movie is Vietnam".
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Unknown to director Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Sheen could not swim and was always scared when in the boat for most of the film. He revealed this in a later conversation with Coppola.
Francis Ford Coppola went to UCLA film school with all of the members of The Doors, including Jim Morrison, who agreed to let Coppola use the master recordings of their music for his Vietnam film. The five-and-a-half-hour early assembly cut of the movie was scored entirely using songs by The Doors before an actual score was created.
In one of the initial scenes, the jungle was actually burnt down.
This is one of Francis Ford Coppola's top five favourite films of his own.
Martin Sheen's son Charlie Sheen also starred as the main protagonist in a movie set during the Vietnam War, Platoon (1986). It is also in the IMDB Top 250.
Much of Scott Glenn's part ended up on the cutting room floor. He has more screentime in the workprint.
The photojournalist quotes two T.S. Eliot poems. In a late scene in the film, a slow pan over a table in Kurtz's room shows a copy of "From Ritual to Romance," a book by Jessie Weston that inspired Eliot's poem "The Waste Land."
The picture of Marlon Brando in military uniform in the dossier is from Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967). for which Francis Ford Coppola had contributed to the screenplay.
Voted #7 On Empire's 500 "Greatest Movies Of All Time" (September 2008).
Scenes featuring Aurore Clément as the owner of a French plantation were filmed but cut from the finished picture. They were replaced in the 2001 "Redux" edition.
Writer Michael Herr was called in to write much of Willard's voice-over dialogue and a few scenes. The scene where Roach uses a grenade launcher to kill the NVA soldier in the wire during the scene at the Do Long bridge is taken directly from "Dispatches," Herr's memoir of the year (1967-'68) he spent in-country as a journalist accredited to Esquire magazine during the war.
"Dennis Gassner" is the author of one of the articles about Kurtz in the dossier given to Willard. Dennis Gassner designed the dossier information for the movie and later became a noted production designer.
The character played by Scott Glenn does not have any lines in the movie.
Besides being a straightforward pun, Col. Kilgore's name is also the name of the hometown of a gung-ho helicopter door gunner, described by writer Michael Herr in his book "Dispatches."
This film features Laurence Fishburne and Scott Glenn. Both actors have played the role of FBI Agent Jack Crawford. Glenn played the role in the theatrical film The Silence of the Lambs (1991), while Fishburne played the role on the TV series Hannibal (2013).
Filmed in 238 days.
In a 1979 interview with Playboy magazine, Colleen Camp stated that Lynda Carter did some test shots, but this story has never been substantiated by director Francis Ford Coppola, or anyone from the film company.
In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #30 Greatest Movie of All Time.
The original editor, Barry Malkin, withdrew in the earlier stages of the production. However, it was Malkin who recommended his friend Richard Marks to do the editing.
At the end of the USO show, the Playboy Bunnies and the Emcee leave by helicopter. The Emcee is played by Bill Graham, who died in a helicopter crash in 1991.
In the original script and the shooting of some scenes, Colonel Kurtz was originally to be called Colonel "Leighley" (this can be seen in bonus materials of "Apocalypse Now Redux" DVD edition). In the movie when Harrison Ford says the line, "pick up Colonel Kurtz path at Nu Mung Ba," you can see his mouth does not match the word "Kurtz" (indicating it was re-dubbed). (see the Alternate Versions)
The boat's name is "Erebus," seen on the transom, referring to the son of the Greek god of utter darkness, as the movie's source novel was Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness." (Erebus and Terror were also the two lost ships in the famous 1845-1846 British polar expedition of Sir John Franklin.) The back of the seat in the forward turret (with dual M2 .50 cal MGs) of the PBR (Lance's position) has the words "God's Country" written on it. The steel gun-shield protecting the gun mount (single M2 .50 cal MG) on the back of the boat is marked with the words "Canned Heat."
In Kurtz's village, "Our Motto: Apocalypse Now!" is spray-painted on a wall.
Francis Ford Coppola actually played the Reporter on the Camera Crew that were yelling at Sheen "Don't look at the camera... Just keep moving" during the beginning of the "Air Cav" Scene with Robert Duvall. The actors that were to play the Camera Crew didn't show up so Coppola stood in as the Reporter.
In addition to the other T.S. Eliot references, one book shown at the Kurtz compound is "The Golden Bough," one that Eliot said, along with "From Ritual to Romance," his "The Waste Land" was largely based.
The film was voted "Best Picture of the last 25 years" by the Dutch movie magazine "Skrien" on December 3, 2002.
One of the photos Willard studies in the dossier shows Kurtz in a line of soldiers being decorated by Gen. William C. Westmoreland.
Martin Sheen's character's name combines the names of the two eldest sons of Harrison Ford, Benjamin and Willard.
Actual Locales: The film was not shot in Vietnam, but rather in the Philippines. The surfing scenes ("Charlie doesn't surf") were shot in a place called Baler (Aurora), which now has surfing shops. The beach is now called "Charlie Beach" after the movie. Other scenes were shot in: Zambales, north of Subic bay which was then a U.S. Navy base, in a beach near Iba; typhoon struck at that time and yet the crew shot a few scenes; it was also shot in Pagsanjan (near Manila). Francis Ford Coppola initially wanted to shoot the movie in Vietnam, but felt that would be too dangerous and it would be difficult to convince the cast and crew.
When Willard and Chef are running back to the boat and there is a reaction shot of the rest of the crew, Bill Kilgore's surfboard can be seen. In the Redux version, Willard stole it.
The Photojournalist was based on Sean Flynn.
Animaniacs: Hitchcock Opening/Hearts of Twilight/The Boids (1993) parodies this film. It tells of Yakko, Wakko and Dot Warner being sent by Warner Bros. studio chief Mr. Plotz to a distant soundstage to pull the plug on a movie by a crazed and egomaniacal director (a caricature of Jerry Lewis).
Director Francis Ford Coppola first offered the role of Kurtz to Orson Welles (who had previously tried to adapt "Heart of Darkness" to the screen himself), but for some reason or another, Welles declined.
The IMAX poster for " Kong: Skull Island " is an obvious homage to the original iconic onesheet for " Apocalypse Now ".
After being fired from this film, Harvey Keitel went on to appear in The Duellists (1977), a film also based on a Joseph Conrad novel.
Warner Bros put an ad in " Boxoffice Magazine " in November 1970 announcing their future production slate. It had " Apocalypse Now" scheduled to start shooting in 1971.
The film cast includes four Oscar winners (in any category): Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Francis Ford Coppola, Vittorio Storaro, and six Oscar nominees: Dennis Hopper, Frederic Forrest, Harrison Ford, Laurence Fishburne, Evan A. Lottman and Roman Coppola.
The film was originally distributed by United Artists. Since then, ownership has switched from United Artists to MGM/UA, then to Zoetrope Studios and to Paramount Pictures.
Tommy Lee Jones was considered for the role of Captain Richard Colby.
Two pairs of actors from this film have shared a role elsewhere. Scott Glenn played Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), a role later played by Laurence Fishburne in the TV show Hannibal (2013). The role was also played in Red Dragon (2002) by Harvey Keitel, who was originally cast in the lead role in this film, before being replaced by Martin Sheen. Martin Sheen played Robert E. Lee in Gettysburg (1993), a role later played by Robert Duvall in Gods and Generals (2003).
War movie staple R. Lee Ermey has an uncredited cameo as a pilot who flies one of the Huey helicopters during the "Flight of the Valkyries" scene, almost a decade before he would gain fame as the drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket.
While Willard is riding on the boat, one section of the dossier on Kurtz he reads is entitled "IVORY IV." In "Heart of Darkness," the book on which this film is based, Kurtz is an ivory trader and Marlow (the book's version of Willard) is a boat captain working for the same ivory company.
The original choice for the soundtrack was to be done by Isao Tomita, as director Francis Ford Coppola liked his version of Holst's Planets. Tomita even travelled to the Philippines to see the filming. Because Tomita's contract was with RCA and the film was released through United Artists, he could not compose the score.
The opening hotel scene (which is supposed to be Saigon) was actually shot in a town called Olongapo, just outside Subic bay naval base, which was a U.S. navy base at that time. The main street was closed for traffic for a day to shoot the scene.
Al Pacino was the first choice to play Captain Benjamin L. Willard.
The music during the helicopter scene is Wagner's "Ritt der Walküren" ("Ride of The Valkyries") and the original music was about speared men charging while riding buffalo.
Included among the "1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die," edited by Steven Schneider.
Harrison Ford's character is named "Col. G. Lucas," a clear play on director George Lucas. Lucas, of course, directed Ford in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), in which his character, Han Solo, was modeled after director Francis Ford Coppola. The last film in that series, Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), also featured Ian McDiarmid, who appeared in TV movie Heart of Darkness (1993).The climax of the film was also modeled after Lucas's original concept for the ending of this film.
The film was shown again as an "official selection," though not part of competition, at the May 2001 Cannes Film Festival.
Francis Ford Coppola approached Lee Marvin to play Colonel Kurtz.
The film is included on Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" list.
Benjamin Willard, like Martin Sheen, who plays the character, is from Ohio.
G.D. Spradlin as Corman sends Captain Willard to find Colonel Kurtz. In Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), Spradlin played a real-life naval officer called Commander Curts.
John Milius had written the story for Apocalypse Now (1979) a few years earlier. It was originally planned to be directed by George Lucas, but after Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), Lucas lost interest in this project and Francis Ford Coppola and Milius decided to make the movie.
Released less than a year after another Vietnam-related film, The Deer Hunter (1978). Two of the actors from this film have played the on-screen fathers of actors in that one. Marlon Brando played the father of John Cazale in The Godfather (1972). Robert De Niro played the younger version of his character in The Godfather: Part II (1974). Robert Duvall appeared in both of those films, while John Savage played his son in The Godfather: Part III (1990). Martin Sheen is also the real-life father of Charlie Sheen, who appeared in the Vietnam-themed film Platoon (1986).
Although it is said that Sean Flynn was the main inspiration for the drug-addled-brave war photographer played by actor Dennis Hopper, the character was largely based on English-born Tim Page. He was regarded by his press friends from that time as one of the craziest and most daring photographers running around between Saigon, May Lay and Hamburger Hill.
Favorite film of screenwriter David Hwang.
One of around five cinema movie collaborations of actor Frederic Forrest and director Francis Ford Coppola. The films include Hammett (1982), The Conversation (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979), One from the Heart (1981), and Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988),
The helicopter attack scene bears more than a resemblance to some parts of a 1941 German propaganda-newsreel "Angriff auf Kreta" (Attack on Crete). Replace the helicopters with Junkers 52, otherwise everything is there : in- and outside shots, attacking airplanes and above all Wagner's music.
French visa # 44564.
Cameo ―
Vittorio Storaro: the cinematographer filming a war documentary.
Dean Tavoularis: the production designer filming a war documentary.
Director Cameo ―
Francis Ford Coppola: filming a war documentary.
Spoilers ―
Although top billed, Marlon Brando does not appear until more than 2.5 hours into the movie (Redux version) and his total appearance time is fifteen minutes.
Marlon Brando as Kurtz and Martin Sheen as Willard
Trivia (From IMDB):
Laurence Fishburne was fourteen years old when production began in 1976; he lied about his age.
There are no opening credits or titles. The title of the movie appears as graffiti late in the film, which reads, "Our motto: Apocalypse Now." This was done simply so the film could be copyrighted, since it could not be copyrighted as "Apocalypse Now" unless the title was seen in the film.
Marlon Brando improvised the line "You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill."
The scene at the beginning with Captain Willard alone in his hotel room was completely unscripted. Martin Sheen told the shooting crew to just let the cameras roll. Sheen was actually drunk in the scene and punched the mirror, which was real glass, cutting his thumb. Sheen also began sobbing and tried to attack director Francis Ford Coppola. The crew was so disturbed that they wanted to stop shooting, but Sheen wanted to keep the cameras going. Sheen was fighting a drinking problem and his own issues. He got so caught up in the scene and his personal internal struggles that he hit the mirror. He believed that continuing the scene would help face his problems. This was revealed later in a conversation with Coppola and Sheen and has been shown in the Redux version.
When Francis Ford Coppola asked Al Pacino to play Willard, Pacino turned him down saying, "I know what this is going to be like. You're going to be up there in a helicopter telling me what to do, and I'm gonna be down there in a swamp for five months." The shoot actually lasted sixteen months.
Robert Duvall's iconic Oscar-nominated performance as Colonel Kilgore amounts to just eleven minutes of screen time.
It took director Francis Ford Coppola nearly three years to edit the footage. While working on his final edit, it became apparent to him that Martin Sheen would be needed to tape a number of additional narrative voice-overs. Coppola soon discovered that Sheen was busy and unable to perform these voice-overs. He then called in Sheen's brother, Joe Estevez, whose voice sounded nearly identical, to perform the new narrative tracks. Estevez was also used as a stand-in when Sheen suffered a heart attack during the shoot in 1976. Estevez was not credited for his work as a stand-in or for his voice-over work.
Marlon Brando improvised a lot of Kurtz's dialogue, including an eighteen-minute speech of which only two minutes survived the final cut. According to Peter Manso's "Brando," Meade Roberts, screenwriter for The Fugitive Kind (1960), later heard the entire monologue and said that while some of it was incoherent, most of it was brilliant. At the end of the speech, Brando reportedly said to director Francis Ford Coppola, "Francis, I've gone as far as I can go. If you need more, you can get another actor."
Shooting was originally scheduled for six weeks. In the end, it took sixteen months.
Director Francis Ford Coppola lost 100 pounds while filming.
Francis Ford Coppola shot nearly two hundred hours of footage for this film.
The canteen scene with Lt. Col. Kilgore and the wounded Viet Cong is based on an actual wounded VC fighter who fought while keeping his entrails strapped to his belly in an enameled cooking pot. The incident was documented by the photojournalist Philip Jones Griffiths. The real-life U.S. soldier was quoted as saying, "Any soldier who can fight for three days with his insides out can drink from my canteen any time!"
More than a year had passed between the filming of Willard and Chef searching the jungle for mangoes and encountering the tiger, and the immediately following shots (part of the same scene) of Chef clambering back onto the boat, ripping off his shirt and screaming.
The famous helicopter battle where the helicopters swooped in on the village while playing "The Ride of the Valkyries" was meant to be an ironic comment on the Vietnam War. In the original Wagner magna opera "Der Ring des Nibelungen," the Valkyries arrive at a point of apparent victory, but which later results in defeat. Thus, the apparent victory in the helicopter battle would be followed by the eventual defeat in the war.
Director Francis Ford Coppola believed that Marlon Brando was familiar with Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," the novel Apocalypse Now (1979) is based on. When Brando arrived on set, Coppola was horrified to find that Brando had never read "Heart of Darkness," did not know his lines, and had become extremely overweight. Kurtz had always been written as tall and very thin. After some panic, Coppola decided to film the 5'10" Brando as if he was a massively built, 6'5" brute to explain his size, and kept the camera away from his huge belly.
Most of the dialogue was added in post-production, as extraneous noise (such as helicopters) left many scenes with unusable audio.
Marlon Brando was paid $1 million in advance. He threatened to quit and keep the advance. Director Francis Ford Coppola told his agent that he did not care, and if they could not get Brando, they would try Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford, and then Al Pacino. Brando eventually turned up late, drunk, 40kg (about 88lbs) overweight, and admitted he had not read the script or even "Heart of Darkness," the book the film was based on. He read Coppola's script, and refused to do it. After days of arguments over single lines of dialogue, an ad-lib style script was agreed upon, and this was shot according to Brando's stipulations that he be filmed mostly in shadows.
Director Francis Ford Coppola invested several million dollars of his own money in the film after it went severely over budget. He eventually had to mortgage his home and winery in Napa Valley in order to finish the film.
Director Francis Ford Coppola threatened suicide several times during the making of the film.
When director Francis Ford Coppola first described the role to Marlon Brando, Brando remarked that an American colonel would not have a name like Kurtz; he would have an English name like "Leighley." Having never read "Heart of Darkness," Brando did not appreciate the reference. Brando eventually read "Heart of Darkness," but not until after the film's completion. After reading the book and liking it, Brando demanded that his name be changed to Kurtz in the film, and Harrison Ford's lines were dubbed to accommodate him.
Clint Eastwood turned down the role of Captain Willard because he felt the film was too dark.
Harrison Ford was allowed to pick his own character's name and he chose "Lucas" to honor George Lucas, who had directed Ford in American Graffiti (1973) and Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), two films which made Ford famous. G.D. Spradlin's character is named "R. Corman," after producer Roger Corman.
Substance abuse was rampant among the cast and crew. Dennis Hopper got a teenaged Laurence Fishburne addicted to heroin.
Sam Bottoms was on speed, LSD, and marijuana during the shooting of parts of the movie.
While in pre-production, director Francis Ford Coppola consulted his friend and mentor Roger Corman for advice about shooting in the Phillipines. Corman's advice: "Don't go."
Harvey Keitel was initially cast as Willard. Two weeks into shooting, director Francis Ford Coppola replaced him with Martin Sheen. According to Coppola, one piece of film with him did make it into the final cut (although you really can not see him), in a shot from the distance of the river boat as it is moving through the water.
The water buffalo (carabao in Filipino) that was slaughtered in the film was real. The scene was inspired by a ritual performed by a local Ifugao tribe which Francis Ford Coppola had witnessed along with his wife (who filmed the ritual later shown in the documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991)) and film crew. Although this was an American production subject to American animal cruelty laws, scenes like this filmed in the Philippines were not policed or monitored and the American Humane Association gave the film an "unacceptable" rating.
The opening tracking shot of the film was originally a discarded trim from the footage of the village napalm attack. While going through the trims, Francis Ford Coppola accidentally stumbled on the trim and added it. He later said that having that trim complemented well with the The Doors' "The End" and the accompanying montage.
Marlon Brando so angered Francis Ford Coppola that the director turned over the filming of Brando's scenes to Jerry Ziesmer, the assistant director.
George Lucas was originally set to direct Apocalypse Now (1979) from a screenplay by John Milius. Lucas' initial plan was to shoot the movie as a faux documentary on location in South Vietnam while the war was still in progress. Francis Ford Coppola, who was to be the executive producer, tried to get the film made as part of a production deal with Warner Bros. The deal fell through, and Coppola went on to direct The Godfather (1972). By the time both men were powerful enough to get the film made, Saigon had fallen and Lucas was busy making Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). Milius had no interest in directing the film. Lucas gave Coppola his blessing to direct the film himself.
Director Francis Ford Coppola, who considered offering the role of Willard to Al Pacino, said that Pacino would probably have played the role if they could have filmed the movie in his New York City apartment. Jack Nicholson also was offered the role but turned it down.
Director Francis Ford Coppola spent days reading Joseph Conrad's source novel "Heart of Darkness" out loud to Marlon Brando on the set.
In a 2006 interview, writer John Milius said that after he had written the now famous line, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning," he thought to himself, "This is over the top. This will be the first thing they'll take out."
Nick Nolte has said that he had never wanted a role more than that of Captain Willard, and was very disappointed when director Francis Ford Coppola picked Harvey Keitel for the part. When Keitel was fired, Nolte thought the role was his, but Martin Sheen eventually won the role.
Martin Sheen had a heart attack during the filming and some shots of Willard's back are of doubles, including Sheen's brother Joe Estevez, who was flown out specially. Director Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Sheen himself were so worried that backing would be withdrawn by the studio and distributor if news of Sheen's heart attack leaked out, that they both kept it quiet, even to the extent of explaining Sheen's hospitalization as being due to "heat exhaustion" in the official Shoot Schedule.
The total length of film printed for the movie was approximately 1,250,000 feet. That number roughly translates to a total of around 230 hours worth of footage.
The letter Martin Sheen is reading in the deleted scene "Letter from Mrs. Kurtz" is actually a poem by Jim Morrison.
In May 1979, this became the first film to be awarded the Palme D'Or at The Cannes Film Festival before it had actually been completed. Because the Cannes jury was unable to come to a unanimous vote, this film shared the Best Picture prize with The Tin Drum (1979).
When asked what he thought about Marlon Brando's $3.5 million fee after a NYC screening of the film, Tennessee Williams reportedly said, "Gee, I don't know. I think they paid him by the pound."
According to writer John Milius, he wrote the entire script of the movie listening only to music by Richard Wagner and The Doors. To him, the music by The Doors had always been "music of war," though when he at one point mentioned this to the band, they were horrified. As, to them, it was the exact opposite. Ironically, the lead singer of the band, Jim Morrison, was a son of George S. Morrison, who was an important Admiral of the United States Navy.
Robert Duvall 's character, Col. Bill Killgore, was loosely based on author and syndicated columnist Col. David H. Hackworth's exploits in Vietnam. Hackworth, born and raised in Southern California, commanded a helicopter Air Cavalry brigade in which pilots actually wore Civil War campaign hats and flew in helicopters with crossed swords painted on them.
The first film to use the 70mm Dolby Stereo surround sound system.
While in the movie, the main character is sent to kill Kurtz, in the source novel, "Heart of Darkness," the main character is sent to rescue him.
Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos agreed to let his army supply the helicopters and pilots used in the film. The Marcos government was also fighting rebels in the area where filming was taking place, and sometimes withdrew the helicopters and pilots when they were needed in battle, replacing them with pilots who were not familiar with the filming, which caused some problems.
James Caan was the director's first choice to play Col. Lucas. Caan, however, wanted too much money for what was considered a minor part in the movie, and Harrison Ford was eventually cast in the role.
Steve McQueen was the first to turn down the role of Captain Willard. He had initially verbally agreed to play him when director Francis Ford Coppola agreed to his salary of $3,000,000 (equivalent to a little over $13,000,000 in 2013 dollars). But after thinking about the fact the work would require months of on-location shooting in the Philippine jungle, McQueen told Coppola he would rather play the Kilgore role instead, which would require much less location work, as long as he would still be paid his full salary. Coppola, who was essentially self-financing the movie, simply could not afford it and said no.
The famous line, "terminate... with extreme prejudice," is spoken by Jerry Ziesmer, who also served as the film's Assistant Director.
Director Francis Ford Coppola initially wanted to use Universal Studios-owned Sensurround system, but they would not let him do so. This forced Coppola to create his own version of the surround sound system.
The visit by the Playboy Playmates was based on an actual visit by 1965 Playmate of the Year Jo Collins. She was so popular with the troops that she was made an honorary GI. The Playmate of the Year character in the movie was played by Cynthia Wood, who was herself Playmate of the Year in 1974.
In the DVD commentary, Francis Ford Coppola downplays his involvement in the controversial slaughter of the water buffalo, saying he "happened to film a ritual" being performed by Ifugao natives. However, in the article "Ifugao extras and the making of Apocalypse Now," cast and crew detail how Coppola staged the entire scene, directing the natives to chant and sing while they killed the animal which Coppola provided. Afterwards, Coppola "went overboard and ordered a whole truckload" of animals which he gave to the Ifugao to slaughter on camera. However, only one water buffalo slaughter was used in the final cut. ('Flip Magazine 2003, v.2, n.3, pp. 29-33, 90-91')
A typhoon destroyed sets, causing a delay of several months.
According to his book "In the Blink of an Eye," Walter Murch took nearly two years to edit the movie, with an average of 1.47 cuts a day.
The people on the riverboat were actual Vietnamese refugees who had come to the Philippines less than six weeks earlier.
Kurtz reads from the T.S. Eliot poem "The Hollow Men." Eliot was inspired to write this poem by "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad, the book on which this movie was loosely based. The first line of the poem reads, "Mistah Kurtz - he dead." Kurtz leaves this line and the following line out when he reads. Also, the photojournalist says, "This is the way the fucking world ends. Look at this fuckin' shit we're in, man. Not with a bang, but with a whimper, and with a whimper, I'm fucking splitting, Jack." This is taken from the same poem's famous last two lines, "This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but with a whimper."
Military sets for the movie were nearly destroyed by a hurricane during filming. Instead of breaking them down and starting over, the partially-destroyed sets were used to create new scenes in the movie (including the scene in "Redux" where the playmates are stranded at the deserted military base).
John Milius explained how he had come up with the title "Apocalypse Now." Apparently, this was derived from, at that time (1965), a very popular tattoo amongst the hippie community of a peace sign that said "Nirvana Now." Milius, by adding just a couple of extra lines, edited the peace symbol to make it look like a circle with a B52 bomber in the middle and changed the slogan to "Apocalypse Now."
According to an interview given by Robert Duvall for NPR's Fresh Air on July 22, 2010, Colonel Kilgore's name was originally going to be Colonel Carnage, but they changed it to make their statement about him less obvious.
According to Dennis Hopper, Marlon Brando yelled at him over a simple misunderstanding. He then decided to deliberately antagonize Brando whenever he could. This resulted in Brando refusing to share the set with him and the one scene they share together being shot on separate nights. So when Kurtz throws the book at Hopper's photojournalist character and calls him a "mutt," one can only assume that was Brando's genuine feelings about him.
After Martin Sheen recovered from his heart attack, there was concern that he looked too healthy to be the war-weary cynical assassin that Willard was towards the end of his mission.
Carmine Coppola (director Francis Ford Coppola's father) wrote the score for this film.
Using "The Ride of the Valkyries" on the soundtrack was John Milius's idea. He claimed that it seemed so obvious to him that he almost did not write it, as he was certain it had to have been done in a film before.
The Philippines had no professional film laboratories at the time, meaning the raw camera negatives had to be shipped to the U.S. to be processed. Thus, the entire movie was shot blind. Francis Ford Coppola never saw a shot on film until after returning to California.
Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen had parts in the film that were cut. Estevez played a messenger boy, while Sheen was an extra.
Editing the helicopter napalm attack took one year to complete. Approximately ten percent of the footage shot (130,000 feet) was from that sequence itself.
Dennis Hopper's death scene was cut out of the film. It appears in the bootlegged workprint.
The United States military refused to lend director Francis Ford Coppola any military equipment, due to the order to "Kill Colonel Kurtz." Coppola instead had to borrow local military equipment.
According to the George Lucas biography "Skywalking," Lucas' decision to pull out of Apocalypse Now (1979) destroyed his working relationship with Francis Ford Coppola, who felt betrayed, and all but ended their friendship, and the Colonel Lucas character was meant as a back-handed snub to his then ex-friend. It would be years before they would be on speaking terms again, and would not work together again until 1986's Captain EO (1986).
Director Francis Ford Coppola wanted the film to be a special event by having it play in exactly one theater somewhere in Kansas in the geographical center of the country, built especially for the film with a specially-made sound system where the film would run continuously for ten years, and then hopefully anybody who wanted to show the film in their theaters would have to approach Coppola and exhibit it on his terms.
When the photographer (Dennis Hopper) is babbling about the religious fervor of Kurtz, he babbles out portions of the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling.
The scene in the beginning, where Willard is moving around chaotically in his underwear and eventually punches the mirror, was filmed on Martin Sheen's 36th birthday.
During some sequences, the sound of the helicopters was created on a synthesizer to blend in with the music.
Although no date or year is given for when the film takes place, a newspaper being read by the crew features an article on the trial of Charles Manson. This would date the action to November 1969.
The iconic opening scene of the palm trees burning under a storm of napalm as involved the destruction of a real forest. Around 1,200 gallons of gasoline were poured over the splendid palm trees and then set alight. Tires were also burned to generate more smoke for the shot, while canisters were dropped onto the area to look like falling napalm. Acres of the forest were destroyed in a matter of seconds. Since the movie was filmed in the Philippines who were in the midst of their own war with rebels, environmental issues were not a big priority. Francis Ford Coppola would later say, "They'd never let you (do it) in the U.S.--the environmentalists would kill you."
There are three different treatments of the opening and end credits. In the 35mm version, the credits roll over surrealistic explosions and burning jungle. The 70mm version has none of this, no credits, nothing but a one-line copyright notice at the end. Both versions are available on video. The 70mm version has been letterboxed. A third version has the credits rolling over a black background.
One of the sequences cut from the original release version but added to the "Redux" version is a sequence featuring the soldiers making out with two Playboy Playmates. Colleen Camp was the Playmate surrounded by birds. Camp said her character trained birds at Busch Gardens; she actually did this in real life. Camp, who had never been a Playmate (although Copplola thought she had), had to be specially photographed topless to make the ersatz centerfold seen in the movie.
The movie's line, "The horror... the horror..." was voted as #66 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.
Randy Thom, one of the film's sound mixers, said that the sound mix took over nine months to complete.
The character of Colonel Kurtz is inspired by the story of the traitor Lope de Aguirre, sixteenth-century Spanish soldier.
In the Playboy Bunny show scene, several drums with the name "Dow Chemicals" are visible. Dow is one of the companies that manufactured Agent Orange, the chemical defoliant used throughout Southeast Asia to kill the jungle plant life that the United States government claimed was aiding the enemy in hiding from Army forces.
Filmed in 1976 but released in 1979.
Emilio Estevez hung out on the set of the movie in the Phillipines with his father, Martin Sheen, during the filming of the movie. When casting for The Outsiders (1983) four years later, director Francis Ford Coppola remembered Estevez hanging out on the set of Apocalypse Now (1979), and wanted him to play Two-Bit in The Outsiders (1983).
Although the filming on locations in the Philippines lasted from March 1976 until May 1977, Marlon Brando's presence on set was only six weeks (from September 2nd until October 11, 1976).
Francis Ford Coppola's wife, Eleanor Coppola, filmed and recorded the making of this film, leading to Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991).
The character of the photojournalist, played by Dennis Hopper, was first suggested by Chas Gerretsen, unit photographer and Robert Capa, Gold Medal Award winner (1973) during a lunch with director Francis Ford Coppola. During the lunch, they discussed the scene where an American TV correspondent (played by Coppola) yells at some passing soldiers, "Don't look at the camera." Gerretsen suggested that if Coppola wanted to portray the manic side of the press, he should use a photojournalist because "We were all crazy." The three black body Nikon F cameras that Hopper's character had been used by Gerretsen in Vietnam. He sold the three cameras to Zoetrope Studios after Hopper, who had originally been cast as Captain Colby, became the photojournalist. Gerretsen used three Nikon F2 cameras and one Leica M4 during the filming of Apocalypse Now (1979). He did not like using blimps (sound boxes) because it prevented him from immediately shooting an image when he saw it (as he had learned as a photojournalist). Coppola gave him permission to shoot during filming in between the dialogue (except for Marlon Brando's dialogue), to the great unhappiness of the sound-man, who had to edit out the clicking of the camera.
Voted #1 in Film4's "50 Films To See Before You Die."
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The poem quoted by The Photojournalist (Dennis Hopper) (the line about "a pair of ragged claws") is from the poem "The Lovesong of J Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot.
The tape recording that Clean gets in the mail was recorded by Laurence Fishburne's own mother.
The film holds the record on the MovieMistakes.com website for the film with the most errors, a total of 395.
When Steve McQueen was being pursued for the role of Willard, the script was called "Apocalypse Three" as it featured three main characters, including a helicopter pilot. Gene Hackman reportedly was considered for the role of the pilot, as it was director Francis Ford Coppola's idea initially to cast the three roles with stars.
John Milius originally wrote the script in 1969, which was known then as "The Psychedelic Soldier." As Francis Ford Coppola described it, the original screenplay was a series of "comic book" scenes to point out the absurdity of the Vietnam War. Over the course of several years of rewrites, the final script kept some of the absurd elements from Milius' original screenplay for the first half with Joseph Conrad's novel, "Heart of Darkness," added to it for the second half of the movie.
The film was originally supposed to be scored by Francis Ford Coppola mainstay David Shire. His score was not used, however, in favor of Carmine Coppola and Mickey Hart's synth and percussion score.
Jeff Bridges auditioned for the role of Willard.
The movie's line, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning," was voted as the #12 movie quote by the American Film Institute, and as the #45 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.
At the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, Francis Ford Coppola iconically said about the film, "My movie is not about Vietnam...my movie is Vietnam".
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Unknown to director Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Sheen could not swim and was always scared when in the boat for most of the film. He revealed this in a later conversation with Coppola.
Francis Ford Coppola went to UCLA film school with all of the members of The Doors, including Jim Morrison, who agreed to let Coppola use the master recordings of their music for his Vietnam film. The five-and-a-half-hour early assembly cut of the movie was scored entirely using songs by The Doors before an actual score was created.
In one of the initial scenes, the jungle was actually burnt down.
This is one of Francis Ford Coppola's top five favourite films of his own.
Martin Sheen's son Charlie Sheen also starred as the main protagonist in a movie set during the Vietnam War, Platoon (1986). It is also in the IMDB Top 250.
Much of Scott Glenn's part ended up on the cutting room floor. He has more screentime in the workprint.
The photojournalist quotes two T.S. Eliot poems. In a late scene in the film, a slow pan over a table in Kurtz's room shows a copy of "From Ritual to Romance," a book by Jessie Weston that inspired Eliot's poem "The Waste Land."
The picture of Marlon Brando in military uniform in the dossier is from Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967). for which Francis Ford Coppola had contributed to the screenplay.
Voted #7 On Empire's 500 "Greatest Movies Of All Time" (September 2008).
Scenes featuring Aurore Clément as the owner of a French plantation were filmed but cut from the finished picture. They were replaced in the 2001 "Redux" edition.
Writer Michael Herr was called in to write much of Willard's voice-over dialogue and a few scenes. The scene where Roach uses a grenade launcher to kill the NVA soldier in the wire during the scene at the Do Long bridge is taken directly from "Dispatches," Herr's memoir of the year (1967-'68) he spent in-country as a journalist accredited to Esquire magazine during the war.
"Dennis Gassner" is the author of one of the articles about Kurtz in the dossier given to Willard. Dennis Gassner designed the dossier information for the movie and later became a noted production designer.
The character played by Scott Glenn does not have any lines in the movie.
Besides being a straightforward pun, Col. Kilgore's name is also the name of the hometown of a gung-ho helicopter door gunner, described by writer Michael Herr in his book "Dispatches."
This film features Laurence Fishburne and Scott Glenn. Both actors have played the role of FBI Agent Jack Crawford. Glenn played the role in the theatrical film The Silence of the Lambs (1991), while Fishburne played the role on the TV series Hannibal (2013).
Filmed in 238 days.
In a 1979 interview with Playboy magazine, Colleen Camp stated that Lynda Carter did some test shots, but this story has never been substantiated by director Francis Ford Coppola, or anyone from the film company.
In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #30 Greatest Movie of All Time.
The original editor, Barry Malkin, withdrew in the earlier stages of the production. However, it was Malkin who recommended his friend Richard Marks to do the editing.
At the end of the USO show, the Playboy Bunnies and the Emcee leave by helicopter. The Emcee is played by Bill Graham, who died in a helicopter crash in 1991.
In the original script and the shooting of some scenes, Colonel Kurtz was originally to be called Colonel "Leighley" (this can be seen in bonus materials of "Apocalypse Now Redux" DVD edition). In the movie when Harrison Ford says the line, "pick up Colonel Kurtz path at Nu Mung Ba," you can see his mouth does not match the word "Kurtz" (indicating it was re-dubbed). (see the Alternate Versions)
The boat's name is "Erebus," seen on the transom, referring to the son of the Greek god of utter darkness, as the movie's source novel was Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness." (Erebus and Terror were also the two lost ships in the famous 1845-1846 British polar expedition of Sir John Franklin.) The back of the seat in the forward turret (with dual M2 .50 cal MGs) of the PBR (Lance's position) has the words "God's Country" written on it. The steel gun-shield protecting the gun mount (single M2 .50 cal MG) on the back of the boat is marked with the words "Canned Heat."
In Kurtz's village, "Our Motto: Apocalypse Now!" is spray-painted on a wall.
Francis Ford Coppola actually played the Reporter on the Camera Crew that were yelling at Sheen "Don't look at the camera... Just keep moving" during the beginning of the "Air Cav" Scene with Robert Duvall. The actors that were to play the Camera Crew didn't show up so Coppola stood in as the Reporter.
In addition to the other T.S. Eliot references, one book shown at the Kurtz compound is "The Golden Bough," one that Eliot said, along with "From Ritual to Romance," his "The Waste Land" was largely based.
The film was voted "Best Picture of the last 25 years" by the Dutch movie magazine "Skrien" on December 3, 2002.
One of the photos Willard studies in the dossier shows Kurtz in a line of soldiers being decorated by Gen. William C. Westmoreland.
Martin Sheen's character's name combines the names of the two eldest sons of Harrison Ford, Benjamin and Willard.
Actual Locales: The film was not shot in Vietnam, but rather in the Philippines. The surfing scenes ("Charlie doesn't surf") were shot in a place called Baler (Aurora), which now has surfing shops. The beach is now called "Charlie Beach" after the movie. Other scenes were shot in: Zambales, north of Subic bay which was then a U.S. Navy base, in a beach near Iba; typhoon struck at that time and yet the crew shot a few scenes; it was also shot in Pagsanjan (near Manila). Francis Ford Coppola initially wanted to shoot the movie in Vietnam, but felt that would be too dangerous and it would be difficult to convince the cast and crew.
When Willard and Chef are running back to the boat and there is a reaction shot of the rest of the crew, Bill Kilgore's surfboard can be seen. In the Redux version, Willard stole it.
The Photojournalist was based on Sean Flynn.
Animaniacs: Hitchcock Opening/Hearts of Twilight/The Boids (1993) parodies this film. It tells of Yakko, Wakko and Dot Warner being sent by Warner Bros. studio chief Mr. Plotz to a distant soundstage to pull the plug on a movie by a crazed and egomaniacal director (a caricature of Jerry Lewis).
Director Francis Ford Coppola first offered the role of Kurtz to Orson Welles (who had previously tried to adapt "Heart of Darkness" to the screen himself), but for some reason or another, Welles declined.
The IMAX poster for " Kong: Skull Island " is an obvious homage to the original iconic onesheet for " Apocalypse Now ".
After being fired from this film, Harvey Keitel went on to appear in The Duellists (1977), a film also based on a Joseph Conrad novel.
Warner Bros put an ad in " Boxoffice Magazine " in November 1970 announcing their future production slate. It had " Apocalypse Now" scheduled to start shooting in 1971.
The film cast includes four Oscar winners (in any category): Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Francis Ford Coppola, Vittorio Storaro, and six Oscar nominees: Dennis Hopper, Frederic Forrest, Harrison Ford, Laurence Fishburne, Evan A. Lottman and Roman Coppola.
The film was originally distributed by United Artists. Since then, ownership has switched from United Artists to MGM/UA, then to Zoetrope Studios and to Paramount Pictures.
Tommy Lee Jones was considered for the role of Captain Richard Colby.
Two pairs of actors from this film have shared a role elsewhere. Scott Glenn played Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), a role later played by Laurence Fishburne in the TV show Hannibal (2013). The role was also played in Red Dragon (2002) by Harvey Keitel, who was originally cast in the lead role in this film, before being replaced by Martin Sheen. Martin Sheen played Robert E. Lee in Gettysburg (1993), a role later played by Robert Duvall in Gods and Generals (2003).
War movie staple R. Lee Ermey has an uncredited cameo as a pilot who flies one of the Huey helicopters during the "Flight of the Valkyries" scene, almost a decade before he would gain fame as the drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket.
While Willard is riding on the boat, one section of the dossier on Kurtz he reads is entitled "IVORY IV." In "Heart of Darkness," the book on which this film is based, Kurtz is an ivory trader and Marlow (the book's version of Willard) is a boat captain working for the same ivory company.
The original choice for the soundtrack was to be done by Isao Tomita, as director Francis Ford Coppola liked his version of Holst's Planets. Tomita even travelled to the Philippines to see the filming. Because Tomita's contract was with RCA and the film was released through United Artists, he could not compose the score.
The opening hotel scene (which is supposed to be Saigon) was actually shot in a town called Olongapo, just outside Subic bay naval base, which was a U.S. navy base at that time. The main street was closed for traffic for a day to shoot the scene.
Al Pacino was the first choice to play Captain Benjamin L. Willard.
The music during the helicopter scene is Wagner's "Ritt der Walküren" ("Ride of The Valkyries") and the original music was about speared men charging while riding buffalo.
Included among the "1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die," edited by Steven Schneider.
Harrison Ford's character is named "Col. G. Lucas," a clear play on director George Lucas. Lucas, of course, directed Ford in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), in which his character, Han Solo, was modeled after director Francis Ford Coppola. The last film in that series, Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), also featured Ian McDiarmid, who appeared in TV movie Heart of Darkness (1993).The climax of the film was also modeled after Lucas's original concept for the ending of this film.
The film was shown again as an "official selection," though not part of competition, at the May 2001 Cannes Film Festival.
Francis Ford Coppola approached Lee Marvin to play Colonel Kurtz.
The film is included on Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" list.
Benjamin Willard, like Martin Sheen, who plays the character, is from Ohio.
G.D. Spradlin as Corman sends Captain Willard to find Colonel Kurtz. In Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), Spradlin played a real-life naval officer called Commander Curts.
John Milius had written the story for Apocalypse Now (1979) a few years earlier. It was originally planned to be directed by George Lucas, but after Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), Lucas lost interest in this project and Francis Ford Coppola and Milius decided to make the movie.
Released less than a year after another Vietnam-related film, The Deer Hunter (1978). Two of the actors from this film have played the on-screen fathers of actors in that one. Marlon Brando played the father of John Cazale in The Godfather (1972). Robert De Niro played the younger version of his character in The Godfather: Part II (1974). Robert Duvall appeared in both of those films, while John Savage played his son in The Godfather: Part III (1990). Martin Sheen is also the real-life father of Charlie Sheen, who appeared in the Vietnam-themed film Platoon (1986).
Although it is said that Sean Flynn was the main inspiration for the drug-addled-brave war photographer played by actor Dennis Hopper, the character was largely based on English-born Tim Page. He was regarded by his press friends from that time as one of the craziest and most daring photographers running around between Saigon, May Lay and Hamburger Hill.
Favorite film of screenwriter David Hwang.
One of around five cinema movie collaborations of actor Frederic Forrest and director Francis Ford Coppola. The films include Hammett (1982), The Conversation (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979), One from the Heart (1981), and Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988),
The helicopter attack scene bears more than a resemblance to some parts of a 1941 German propaganda-newsreel "Angriff auf Kreta" (Attack on Crete). Replace the helicopters with Junkers 52, otherwise everything is there : in- and outside shots, attacking airplanes and above all Wagner's music.
French visa # 44564.
Cameo ―
Vittorio Storaro: the cinematographer filming a war documentary.
Dean Tavoularis: the production designer filming a war documentary.
Director Cameo ―
Francis Ford Coppola: filming a war documentary.
Spoilers ―
Although top billed, Marlon Brando does not appear until more than 2.5 hours into the movie (Redux version) and his total appearance time is fifteen minutes.
Director Francis Ford Coppola was unable to find a satisfactory way of ending the film until his wife, Eleanor Coppola, witnessed the Ifugao tribesmen employed as extras performing an animal sacrifice.
In or just before each of the scenes where a member of the boat crew dies, purple smoke from a flare is visible. A similar thematic element is used by director Francis Ford Coppola in The Godfather trilogy (1972-1990) where oranges appear just before or in a scene where a character dies.
One ending considered for the film was that an air strike was called to destroy the temple. Explosives were rigged especially for this sequence, but director Francis Ford Coppola changed his mind, feeling that the finale should represent the end of war and the beginning of peace. However, since it was required by Philippine law to get rid of the sets after filming, the sets were blown up anyway. After its initial engagements, which presented the film without credits, Coppola decided to use footage of the demolition as the backdrop for the end title sequence. After the public misconstrued this sequence as the alternate ending, Coppola re-edited that portion and had the titles run on black.
The original script by John Milius climaxes with Kurtz fighting off an attack by U.S. Army helicopters, firing a machine gun while exclaiming to Willard, "I can feel the power in my loins!" Francis Ford Coppola thought this was absurd.
John Milius's early draft ended with Willard returning to America to take the news to Kurtz's wife and son.
One of the books on Kurtz's night table is "The Golden Bough" by James Frazer. It is an anthropological study of rites in several cultures in which a young usurper ritually kills an aging king and inherits his throne.
The sequence where the PBR gets attacked with spears exactly mirrors the attack on the jungle boat in the novel "Heart of Darkness." In the book, one of the helpers on the steam boat is killed whereas in the movie, it is the captain.
The document that Willard skims through near the film's conclusion, on which "DROP THE BOMB. EXTERMINATE THEM ALL" is scrawled, is entitled "The Role of Democratic Force in the Underdeveloped World, by Walter E. Kurtz, Colonel USSF" and is "Commissioned by The Center For Democratic Studies, Santa Barbara, California." This is taken directly from Joseph Conrad's novella, where a report written for "the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs" by Kurtz is also graffitied with a similar message: "Exterminate all the brutes!"
In the theatrical version of the film, Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper leave the exact same way, by standing up from a squatting position and walking out of the frame to the right. However, this changes in the "Redux" version of the film, which features a few extra minutes with Duvall's character.
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