Use of T. S. Eliot's poetry

In the film, shortly before Colonel Kurtz dies, he recites part of T. S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men." The poem is preceded in printed editions by the epigraph "Mistah Kurtz – he dead," a quotation from Conrad's Heart of Darkness.^[30]

Two books seen opened on Kurtz's desk in the film are From Ritual to Romance by Jessie Weston and The Golden Bough by Sir James Frazer, the two books that Eliot cited as the chief sources and inspiration for his poem "The Waste Land." Eliot's original epigraph for "The Waste Land" was this passage from Heart of Darkness, which ends with Kurtz's final words:^[31]

Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision, – he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath –

"The horror! The horror!"

When Willard is first introduced to Dennis Hopper's character, the photojournalist describes his own worth in relation to that of Kurtz with: "I should have been a pair of ragged claws/Scuttling across the floors of silent seas," from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."^[32] Additionally, Dennis Hopper's character paraphrases the end of "The Hollow Men" to Martin Sheen's character: "This is the way the fucking world ends! [...] Not with a bang, but with a whimper."^[33]

Development

While working as an assistant for Francis Ford Coppola on The Rain People in 1967, filmmaker John Milius was encouraged by his friends George Lucas and Steven Spielberg to write a Vietnam War film.^[34][1] Milius had wanted to volunteer for the war, and was disappointed when he was rejected for having asthma.^[35] He came up with the idea for adapting the plot of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness to the Vietnam War setting. He had read the novel as a teenager and was reminded about it when his college screenwriting professor, Irwin Blacker of USC, mentioned the several unsuccessful attempts to adapt it into a movie. Blacker challenged his class by saying, "No screenwriter has ever perfected a film adaption of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness."^{[36][37][lower-alpha 2]}

Coppola gave Milius $15,000 to write the screenplay with the promise of an additional $10,000 if it were green-lit.^[38][39] Milius claims that he wrote the screenplay in 1969.^[36] He wanted to use Conrad's novel as "a sort of allegory. It would have been too simple to have followed the book completely."^[38] Some sources state that Milius' original title was The Psychedelic Soldier,^[40] but Milius disputed this in a 2010 interview, claiming Apocalypse Now was always the intended title.^[41]

Milius based the character of Willard and some of Kurtz's on a friend of his, Fred Rexer. Rexer claimed to have experienced, first-hand, the scene relayed by Brando's character wherein the arms of villagers are hacked off by the Viet Cong; and that Kurtz was based on Robert B. Rheault, head of Special Forces in Vietnam.^[42] Scholars have never found any evidence to corroborate Rexer's claim, nor any similar Viet Cong behavior, and consider it an urban legend.^[43][44] The title Apocalypse Now was inspired by a button badge popular with hippies during the 1960s that said "Nirvana Now".^[45]

At one point, Coppola told Milius, "Write every scene you ever wanted to go into that movie",^[36] and he wrote ten drafts, amounting to over a thousand pages.^[46] He was influenced by an article by Michael Herr, "The Battle for Khe Sanh", which referred to drugs, rock 'n' roll, and people calling airstrikes down on themselves.^[36] He was also inspired by such films as Dr. Strangelove.

Milius says the classic line "Charlie don't surf" was inspired by a comment Ariel Sharon made during the Six-Day War, when he went skin diving after capturing enemy territory and announced, "We're eating their fish". He says the line "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" just came to him.^[47]

Warner Bros.-Seven Arts acquired the screenplay in 1969 but put it into turnaround.^[48][1] Milius had no desire to direct the film himself and felt that Lucas was the right person for the job.^[36] Lucas worked with Milius for four years developing the film, while working on other films, including his script for Star Wars.^[49] He approached Apocalypse Now as a black comedy,^[50] and intended to shoot it after making THX 1138, with principal photography to start in 1971.^[38] Lucas's friend and producer Gary Kurtz traveled to the Philippines, scouting suitable locations. They intended to shoot the film both in the rice fields between Stockton and Sacramento, California, and on-location in South Vietnam, on a $2 million budget, cinéma vérité style, using 16 mm cameras, and real soldiers, while the war was still going on.^[36][49][51] However, due to the studios' safety concerns and Lucas's involvement with American Graffiti, and later Star Wars, Lucas decided to put the project on hold.^[38][49]

Pre-production

Coppola was drawn to Milius's script, which he described as "a comedy and a terrifying psychological horror story", and acquired the rights.^[52] In the spring of 1974, he discussed with friends and co-producers Fred Roos and Gray Frederickson the idea of producing the film.^[53] He asked Lucas, then Milius, to direct it, but both were involved with other projects.^[53] (Lucas had gotten the go-ahead to make Star Wars.^[36]) Coppola was determined to make the film and pressed ahead himself. He envisioned it as a definitive statement on the nature of modern war, the contrasts between good and evil, and the impact of American culture on the rest of the world. He said he wanted to take the audience "through an unprecedented experience of war and have them react as much as those who had gone through the war".^[52]

In 1975, Coppola hoped for cooperation from the United States Army and scouted military locations in Georgia and Florida;^[1] but the Army was not interested. While promoting The Godfather Part II in Australia, Coppola and his producers scouted possible locations for Apocalypse Now in Cairns in northern Queensland, as it had jungle resembling Vietnam's,^[54] and in Malaysia.^[1] He decided to make the film in the Philippines for its access to American military equipment and cheap labor. Production coordinator Fred Roos had already made two low-budget films there for Monte Hellman, and had friends and contacts there.^[52] Frederickson went to the Philippines and had dinner with President Ferdinand Marcos to formalize support for the production and to allow them to use some of the country's military equipment.^[55] Coppola spent the last few months of 1975 revising Milius's script and negotiating with United Artists to secure financing for the production. Milius claimed it would be the "most violent film ever made".^[1] According to Frederickson, the budget was estimated between $12 and 14 million.^[56] Coppola's American Zoetrope obtained $7.5 million from United Artists for domestic distribution rights and $8 million from international sales, on the assumption that the film would star Marlon Brando, Steve McQueen and Gene Hackman.^[52]

Casting

Steve McQueen was Coppola's first choice to play Willard, but McQueen did not want to leave America for three weeks and Coppola was unwilling to pay his $3 million fee.^[1] When McQueen dropped out in February 1976, Coppola had to return $5 million of the $21 million he had raised.^[1] Al Pacino was also offered the role, but he too did not want to be away that long, and was afraid of falling ill in the jungle as he had done in the Dominican Republic during the shooting of The Godfather Part II.^[52] Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford and James Caan were approached to play either Kurtz or Willard.^[51] Keith Carradine, Tommy Lee Jones, Nick Nolte, and Frederic Forrest were also considered for Willard.^[57] In a 2015 The Hollywood Reporter interview, Clint Eastwood revealed that Coppola offered him the role of Willard, but much like McQueen and Pacino, he did not want to be away from America for a long time. He also revealed that McQueen tried to convince him to play Willard; McQueen wanted to play Kurtz because he would have to work for only two weeks.^[58] Coppola offered the lead role of Willard to Robert De Niro, but he declined due to other commitments.^[59]

Coppola also offered the role of Colonel Kurtz to Orson Welles and Lee Marvin, both of whom turned it down.^[60][61][62]

Coppola and Roos had been impressed by Martin Sheen's screen test for Michael in The Godfather and he became the second choice to play Willard, but he had already accepted another project. Harvey Keitel was cast in the role based on his work in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets.^[63][64] By early 1976, Coppola had persuaded Marlon Brando to play Kurtz, for a fee of $2 million for a month's work on location in September 1976. Brando also received 10% of the gross theatrical rental and 10% of the TV sale rights, earning him around $9 million.^[65][66]

Hackman was set to play Wyatt Khanage, who later became Kilgore, played by Robert Duvall.^[1] Dennis Hopper was cast as a war correspondent and observer of Kurtz; when Coppola heard Hopper talking nonstop on location, he remembered putting "the cameras and the Montagnard shirt on him, and [shooting] the scene where he greets them on the boat".^[51] James Caan was the first choice to play Colonel Lucas, but Caan wanted too much money for what was considered a minor part, and Harrison Ford was cast instead.

Before departing for principal photography, Coppola took out an advertisement in the trade press declaring Keitel, Duvall and others as the "first choices" for the film.^[1] It also listed other actors who did not appear in the film, including Harry Dean Stanton, Robby Benson and Michael Learned.^[1]

Sam Bottoms, Larry Fishburne and Albert Hall all signed seven-year deals, with Coppola including acting training of their choice in their deal.^[1] Bottoms was infected with hookworm while filming in the Philippines, and the parasite "wrecked his liver".^[67] Robert Englund auditioned for the role of Lance Johnson.^[68]

Principal photography

On March 1, 1976, Coppola and his family flew to Manila and rented a large house there for the planned four-month shoot.^[51][1] Sound and photographic equipment had been coming in from California since late 1975. John Ashley assisted with production in the Philippines.^[69] The film was due to be released on Coppola's 38th birthday, April 7, 1977.^[1]

Shooting began on March 20, 1976.^[48] Within a few days, Coppola was unhappy with Harvey Keitel's take on Willard, saying that the actor "found it difficult to play him as a passive onlooker".^[51] With Brando not due to film until three months later, as he did not want to work while his children were on school vacation, Keitel left the project in April and quit the seven-year deal he had signed as well.^[1][70] Coppola returned to Los Angeles and replaced Keitel with Martin Sheen, who arrived in the Philippines on April 24.^[70][71] Only four days of reshoots were reportedly required after the change.^[1]

Typhoon Olga wrecked 40–80% of the sets at Iba and on May 26, 1976, production was closed down. Dean Tavoularis remembers that it "started raining harder and harder until finally it was literally white outside, and all the trees were bent at forty-five degrees". Some of the crew were stranded in a hotel and the others were in small houses that were immobilized by the storm. The Playboy Playmate set was destroyed, ruining a month's scheduled shooting. Most of the cast and crew returned to the United States for six to eight weeks. Tavoularis and his team stayed on to scout new locations and rebuild the Playmate set in a different place. Also, the production had bodyguards watching constantly at night and one day the entire payroll was stolen. According to Coppola's wife, Eleanor, the film was six weeks behind schedule and $2 million over budget;^[72] Coppola filed a $500,000 insurance claim for typhoon damage^[1] and took out a loan from United Artists on the condition that if the film did not generate theatrical rentals of over $40 million, he would be liable for the overruns.^[73][74] Despite the increasing costs, Coppola promised the University of the Philippines Film Center 1% of the profits, up to $1 million, for a film study trust fund.^[1]

Coppola flew back to the U.S. in June 1976. He read a book about Genghis Khan to get a better handle on the character of Kurtz.^[72] When filming commenced in July 1976,^[48] Marlon Brando arrived in Manila very overweight and began working with Coppola to rewrite the ending. The director downplayed Brando's weight by dressing him in black, photographing only his face, and having another, taller actor double for him to portray him as an almost mythical character.^[75][76]

After Christmas 1976, Coppola viewed a rough assembly of the footage but still needed to improvise an ending. He returned to the Philippines in early 1977 and resumed filming.^[75]

On March 5 of that year, Sheen, then only 36, had a near-fatal heart attack and struggled for a quarter of a mile to reach help. By then the film was so over-budget, Sheen worried that funding would be halted if word about his condition reached investors, and he claimed that he'd suffered heat stroke instead. Until he returned to the set on April 19, his brother Joe Estevez filled in for him and provided voiceovers for his character. Coppola later admitted that he could no longer tell which scenes were of Joe or Martin.^[77] A major sequence in a French plantation cost hundreds of thousands of dollars but was cut from the final film. Rumors began to circulate that Apocalypse Now had several endings, but Richard Beggs, who worked on the sound elements, said, "There were never five endings, but just the one, even if there were differently edited versions". These rumors came from Coppola departing frequently from the original screenplay. Coppola admitted that he had no ending because Brando was too fat to play the scenes as written in the original script. With the help of Dennis Jakob, Coppola decided the ending could be "the classic myth of the murderer who gets up the river, kills the king, and then himself becomes the king – it's the Fisher King, from The Golden Bough".^[78] Principal photography ended on May 21, 1977,^[79] after 238 days.^[48]

Post-production and audio

The budget had doubled to over $25 million, and Coppola's loan from United Artists to fund the overruns had been extended to over $10 million.^[1] UA took out a $15 million life insurance policy on Coppola.^[80] By June 1977, Coppola had offered his car, house, and The Godfather profits as security to finish the film.^[81][1] When Star Wars became a major hit, Coppola sent a telegram to George Lucas asking for money.^[82] The release date was pushed back to spring 1978.^[1]

Japanese composer Isao Tomita was signed to provide an original score, with Coppola desiring the film's soundtrack to sound like Tomita's electronic adaptation of The Planets by Gustav Holst. Tomita went as far as to accompany the film crew in the Philippines, but label contracts ultimately prevented his involvement.^[83] In the summer of 1977, Coppola told Walter Murch that he had four months to assemble the sound. Murch realized that the script had originally been narrated but Coppola abandoned the idea during filming.^[79] Murch thought that there was a way to assemble the film without narration but that it would take ten months, and decided to give it another try.^[84] He put it back in, recording it all himself. By September, Coppola told his wife that he felt "there is only about a 20% chance [I] can pull the film off".^[85] He convinced United Artists executives to delay the premiere from May to October 1978. Author Michael Herr received a call from Zoetrope in January 1978 and was asked to work on the film's narration based on his well-received book about Vietnam, Dispatches.^[85] He said that the narration already written was "totally useless" and spent a year creating a new narration, with Coppola giving him very definite guidelines.^[85]

Murch had problems trying to make a stereo soundtrack for Apocalypse Now because sound libraries had no stereo recordings of weapons. The sound material brought back from the Philippines was inadequate because the small location crew lacked the time and resources to record jungle sounds and ambient noises. Murch and his crew fabricated the mood of the jungle on the soundtrack. Apocalypse Now used novel sound techniques for a movie, as Murch insisted on recording the most up-to-date gunfire and employed the Dolby Stereo 70 mm Six Track system for the 70 mm release, which used two channels of sound behind the audience as well as three channels from behind the movie screen.^[85] The 35 mm release used the new Dolby Stereo optical stereo system, but due to limitations of the technology at the time, the 35 mm release that played in most theaters did not include surround sound.^[86] In May 1978, Coppola postponed the opening until spring of 1979.^[87] The cost overruns had reached $18 million, for which Coppola was personally liable, but he had retained rights to the picture in perpetuity.^[88]

Controversies

A water buffalo was slaughtered with a machete for the climactic scene in a ritual performed by a local Ifugao tribe, which Coppola had previously witnessed with his wife Eleanor (who filmed the ritual later shown in the documentary Hearts of Darkness) and film crew. Although it was an American production subject to American animal cruelty laws, such scenes filmed in the Philippines were not policed or monitored; the American Humane Association gave the film an "unacceptable" rating.^[89] Coppola would later say that the animals were part of the production deal.^[90]

Real human corpses were bought from a man who turned out to be a grave-robber. The police questioned the film crew, holding their passports, and soldiers took the bodies away. Instead, extras were used to pose as corpses in the film.^[91]

During filming, Dennis Hopper and Marlon Brando did not get along, leading Brando to refuse to be on the set at the same time as Hopper.^[92]

Cannes screening

The 1979 Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or was awarded to Apocalypse Now.

At Cannes, Zoetrope technicians worked during the night before the screening to install additional speakers to achieve Murch's 5.1 soundtrack.^[93] A three-hour version of Apocalypse Now was screened as a work in progress at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, May 19, 1979^[1] and met with prolonged applause.^[96] It was the first work in progress ever shown in competition at the festival.^[95] At the subsequent press conference, Coppola criticized the media for releasing premature reviews^[48] and for attacking him and the production during their problems filming in the Philippines. He said, "We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little we went insane", and "My film is not about Vietnam, it is Vietnam".^[96][97] His comments upset newspaper critic Rex Reed, who reportedly stormed out of the conference. Apocalypse Now won the Palme d'Or for best film, along with Volker Schlöndorff's The Tin Drum – a decision reportedly greeted with "some boos and jeers from the audience".^[98]

Theatrical release

On August 15, 1979, Apocalypse Now was released in North America in only three theaters equipped to play the Dolby Stereo 70 mm prints with stereo surround sound:^[99] the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City, the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles and the University Theatre in Toronto.^[48] The film, without credits, ran 147 minutes and tickets were $5, a new high for L.A.^[48]

It ran exclusively in these three locations for four weeks before opening in an additional 12 theaters on October 3, 1979.^[100] On October 10, 1979, the 35 mm version, with credits, was released in over 300 theaters.^[48]

The film had a $9 million advertising campaign, bringing its total costs to $45 million.^[48]

Alternative and varied endings

At the time of the film's release, discussion and rumors circulated about its supposed various endings. Coppola said the original ending was written in haste, where Kurtz convinced Willard to join him and together they repelled the air strike on the compound. Coppola said he never fully agreed with Kurtz and Willard dying in fatalistic explosive intensity, preferring to end the film in a more positive way.

When Coppola originally organized the ending, he considered two significant versions. One had Willard leading Lance by the hand as everyone in Kurtz's base threw down their weapons; Willard then piloted the PBR slowly away from Kurtz's compound, and this final shot was superimposed over the face of a stone idol, which then faded to black. The other version had the base spectacularly blown to bits in an air strike, killing everyone left within it.

The original 1979 70mm exclusive theatrical release ended with Willard's boat, the stone statue, and the fade to black with no credits, save for '"Copyright 1979 Omni Zoetrope"' at its very end. This mirrored the lack of opening titles and supposedly stemmed from Coppola's original intention to "tour" the film as one would a play: The credits appeared on printed programs provided before the screening began.^[4]

There have been, to date, many variations of the end credit sequence, beginning with the 35 mm general release, where Coppola elected to show the credits superimposed over shots of the jungle exploding into flames.^[4][48] The explosions were from the detonations of the sets.^[48] Rental prints circulated with this ending, and can be found in the hands of a few collectors. Some versions had the subtitle "A United Artists release", while others had "An Omni Zoetrope release". The network television version of the credits ended with "... from MGM/UA Entertainment Company" (as it made its network debut shortly after the merger of MGM and UA). Another variation of the end credits can be seen on both YouTube and as a supplement on the current Lionsgate Blu-ray.

When Coppola later heard that the audiences interpreted this as an air strike called by Willard, he pulled the film from its 35 mm run and added credits on a black screen.^[48] The "air strike" footage continued to circulate in repertory theaters well into the 1980s, and was included in the 1980s LaserDisc release. In the DVD commentary, Coppola explains that the images of explosions were not intended as part of the story, but were simply a graphic background he had added for the credits.^[101]

Coppola explained he had shot the explosion footage during demolition of the sets, whose destruction and removal were required by the Philippine government. He filmed the demolition with cameras fitted with different film stocks and lenses to capture the explosions at different speeds. He wanted to do something with the dramatic footage and decided to add them to the credits.^[102]

Re-release

The film was re-released on August 28, 1987, in six cities, to capitalize on the success of Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and other Vietnam War movies. New 70 mm prints were shown in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, St. Louis and Cincinnati—cities where the film had done well in 1979. It was given the same kind of release as the exclusive 1979 engagement, with no logo or credits, and audiences were given a printed program.^[81]

Reception

Versions

Home media

The home media release history of Apocalypse Now is summarized in the following table. Although the dates are for the American publication of the home media editions, releases by publishers in other territories are identical in content and format. Despite filming Apocalypse Now in 2.39:1, the film's cinematographer Vittorio Storraro periodically approved home media releases in his preferred aspect ratio, the 2.0:1 Univisium. This aggressive crop of the original 2.39:1 film negative has been done away with in all releases since Coppola's American Zoetrope reassigned home media rights to Lionsgate Home Entertainment in 2010.^[128]