We did it very similar to that of the [soldiers]
Americans in Vietnam
explained the director
Francis Ford Coppola
about the filming of
Apocalypse Now
(1979) after its screening at the Cannes Film Festival, in France.
We were in the jungle. We were many. We had access to a lot of money, a lot of equipment, and little by little, we went crazy.
The press documented, at the time, the troubled production of Coppola’s brutal and psychedelic epic, from financial problems to actor replacements, health issues, and extreme weather conditions.
But the true extent of chaos would only become clear in 1991, with the release of the documentary
Francis Ford Coppola: The Apocalypse of a Filmmaker
.
O
movie
It was based on the extensive images produced during the filming done by the director’s wife, Eleanor Coppola (1936-2024). They illustrate a production with remarkable scope, vision, and ambition, but also equally confusing, marked by drug use and full of seemingly insurmountable setbacks.
Two young directors – Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper (1963-2010) – were given the task of analyzing all the images, reel by reel, to make sense of that madness and tell the gripping story of the film’s production.
The documentary has now been restored in 4K and returned to cinemas in the United States and Europe.
Bahr still remembers the first day he saw Eleanor Coppola’s footage, which had been forgotten and virtually untouched for more than a decade.
There were some reports that said ‘oh, there is a lot of things out of focus,'” he told the BBC. “But the rolls we observed were extraordinary.
Only beautiful shots. Clearly, she had recorded extensively everything that was happening. It was a real gold mine.
A long list of problems
Apocalypse Now
It is a free adaptation of the novel
Heart of Darkness
(Ed. Cia. de Bolso, 2008), by Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), first published in 1899.
The film is considered one of the greatest works in the history of cinema, but its production almost fell apart at various stages.
When the filming started in the Philippines in March 1976, it was scheduled to last five months. But it ended up taking more than a year.
Coppola fired his main actor, Harvey Keitel, a few weeks after the start of filming. He was replaced by Martin Sheen, who suffered a heart attack during production — which nearly proved fatal.
A hurricane completely destroyed expensive sets, and some actors were infected by parasites. Others participated in parties and used drugs during the filming.
Marlon Brando (1924-2004) played Colonel Kurtz, a soldier absent without leave. But the actor showed up for filming much heavier than usual and completely unprepared, leading Coppola to rewrite and film the end of the film according to his conditions.
Over time, the movie far exceeded its budget. Coppola took on the financing of the project himself—and would have gone bankrupt if he hadn’t recovered the money.
Eleanor Coppola states in her book
Notes on the Making of Apocalypse Now
(“Notes on the production of”
Apocalypse Now
“, in a free translation) that, even after the end of the filming, during post-production, Coppola believed he had only a 20% chance of assembling a viable film from the footage obtained.
The documentary shows a production that aimed to recreate the
Vietnam War
(1955-1975). E, in many ways, it ended up mirroring many identical behavior patterns as those observed among combat soldiers.
The Dutch photojournalist and war photographer Chas Gerretsen has the necessary experience to make this comparison. He lived on the set for six months and his results were compiled in the book
Apocalypse Now: The Lost Photo Archive
(”
Apocalypse Now
“: the lost photo file”, in free translation), from 2021.
Vietnam was insane.
Apocalypse Now
“just a bit less than that,” said Gerretsen to the BBC.
The adverse conditions were totally exotic for most of the people who participated in the movie.
The team complained a lot about the heat, humidity, hotel rooms, bedbugs and mosquitoes,” he says. “The mud – sometimes up to the knees – was a real challenge.
Damien Leake played a machine gun operator in the film. He participated in the filming for three weeks and also remembers the physical environment as something he had never seen before.
The first thing I remember is getting off the plane and feeling the humidity as if it were a wet cloth,” he tells BBC. “Raised in New York [USA], I know what humidity is, but that was unbelievable.
The drinking water was not safe for consumption, lizards were climbing up the walls of the cabin where he stayed, and the weather was biblical, according to him.
Rain every day,” Leake reminds us. “It was raining as if the weather was angry at you. It was raining in sheets, like I had never seen before.
As the production dragged on, everything became more difficult for the production team and the actors, who began to miss home.
They were very similar to the Vietnam soldiers, who had never left home for anywhere farther than Canada,” recalls Gerretsen. “There were many who missed home.
A team member goes to Manila [the Filipino capital] almost every weekend — a three- to four-hour trip, one way, on a bad road. He stayed in a hotel room with a view of the airport, just to watch the flights leaving for the United States.
A visão de Coppola desmoronava cada vez mais com o passar do tempo. Ele não conseguia particularmente decidir qual seria o final do filme. Tanto é assim que, até hoje, o fim do longa varia nas suas diferentes edições e versões.
I called the movie ‘The Idiodyssey’,” Coppola said at the time, as recorded in the documentary. “None of my tools, none of my tricks, none of my ways of working work for this ending.
I’ve tried so many times that I know I can’t do it. It may have been a big victory to know that I can’t do it. I can’t write the ending of this movie.
But their actors apparently maintained their commitment and loyalty.
“Os atores andariam sobre o fogo por Francis” se fosse preciso, conta Leake, “porque ele dava muita liberdade e um sentido de que eles conseguiriam fazer aquilo [aquela cena/personagem] sozinhos.”
Then he shaped it into what he wanted. You can’t ask for more than that.
Enquanto muitos sofriam com a saudade de casa, a experiência de Leake foi diferente. Ele relembra seu tempo durante as filmagens como “as três semanas mais gloriosas da minha vida”.
I was going out to meet the Filipinos, whom I loved,” he says. “I found them wonderful.
I fell in love with a beautiful girl, and if I had a bigger role in the movie, I would probably still be there today. I loved that.
The story behind the scenes
When Bahr began to examine the images, he realized the miracle that was the existence of the film itself.
“I knew that it had been an extreme challenge to extract that movie, but only by diving into the details of the filming process can one truly understand the terrible obstacles they faced,” says Bahr.
The very task of telling the story behind the story was a unique challenge. He had to research about 80 hours of footage.
The first cut of the documentary was four and a half hours,” recalls Bahr, “because Ellie [Coppola] continued filming after the production ended, and we had a complete post-production chapter [in the original cut].
Of course, there were many dramas during that process, even when Coppola and his team left the jungle and returned to the comfort of the studio.
One of the editors hid with the copy in a hotel room,” recalls Bahr. “No one could find him, and they thought everything had been stolen.
He then returned burned celluloid in envelopes, saying, ‘I’m getting rid of the film, scene by scene.’ They were simply losing their minds.
Fortunately, the creative differences that caused the split were resolved before any serious damage occurred.
Bahr remembers the moment when he found out that the documentary had discovered something fundamental.
“The discovery of Francis’s audio tapes, made by Ellie, was revealing.” He is referring to the audio recordings that appear in the documentary about scenes from the movie.
“Ellie was the only person in the world capable of capturing Francis in that way, so close and personal,” according to Bahr.
That places you in contact with an American master in your most private moments. It was a real view of the very center of creativity: your doubts, concerns, anxieties, and your work with these ideas. It was incredibly special.
Coppola gave Bahr and Hickenlooper his blessing to do whatever they wanted with the footage. His only instruction was: be honest.
“He said, ‘there are some ugly things that happened here, but if you tell the story honestly, you will have my support,'” recalls Bahr.
The only request he made was that the narration, done by a speaker, be re-recorded by his wife. After all, the material belonged to her, and in many ways, that was a story seen through her eyes.
The final masterstroke made the documentary even more resemble the view of someone who was on the inside of the filming.
The best impression I have about the documentary is that it is a necessary accessory to understand
Apocalypse Now
, according to Bahr.
People say ‘well, I saw
Apocalypse Now
“I loved it, but after watching your documentary, I understand it in a more comprehensive way.” This is the best possible compliment.
For Bahr,
Apocalypse Now
It is totally unique.
It was a unique film in the history of cinema,” according to him. “I don’t think anyone, ever, will be able to do something like that again.
Not only because Francis was ready to bet all his fortune on the movie, but also due to ambition. I mean, he was willing to go as far as the Philippines, recreate Vietnam for the crew and make the entire company experience it. It was a brilliant vision.
For Gerretsen, his experiences became almost impossible to distinguish from his memories of the real war zones.
“As the explosions, the colorful smoke, the hours of waiting to form the scene — everything is mixed up,” he explains.
When Guerretsen saw the finished movie, the impact was significant.
It was amazing how he brought everything back,” according to him. “It was a masterpiece, no doubt, but I could only watch it again several years later.
The Vietnam and Cambodia wars [1967-1975], in addition to
Apocalypse Now
Continuing with me, because the madness of war is still among us.
Read it
original version of this report
(in English) on the site
BBC Culture
.
- Vietnam War, 50 Years Later: 7 Reasons for the US Defeat
- Why doesn’t Vietnam celebrate Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan, from “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
- The fantastic destinations of Vietnam, 50 years after the war
About The Author
