When he set out to make the definitive cinematic study of the Vietnam War, Francis Ford Coppola had no idea what he was getting into. As chronicled by the documentary Hearts of Darkness, Apocalypse Now experienced its own hellish conflicts on the way to the big screen. From Coppola’s outrageous demands to the lead actor having a heart attack in the middle of shooting, the years-long production of this thinly veiled Joseph Conrad adaptation faced endless complications and obstacles. It resulted in an all-time movie classic, but at what cost? Without further ado, here are 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Apocalypse Now.
Martin Sheen had a heart attack in the middle of filming
In the middle of filming Apocalypse Now, the lead actor Martin Sheen suffered from a heart attack and had to take time off to recover from it. In the meantime, Francis Ford Coppola brought in Sheen’s brother Joe Estevez to stand in for him in all of his scenes during this hiatus. Years later, when Coppola was editing the movie and needed Sheen to redo some of his voiceover narrations, Sheen wasn’t available. ing that Estevez’s voice was almost identical to Sheen’s, Coppola brought him back in to do the voiceovers. Sadly, Estevez wasn’t credited for any of his work on the film.
The Doors’ “The End” was initially played over the opening scene as a joke
The film from Apocalypse Now’s opening scene, with grainy images of helicopters flying across psychedelic landscapes, was actually fished out of the trash in the cutting room. It started off as a joke to play the Doors’ “The End” over the beginning of the movie. Francis Ford Coppola was quoted as saying, “Oh, wouldn’t it be funny if we started the movie with ‘This is the end,’ at the beginning?” When it all converged on the screen, it became this tragically beautiful, hypnotic piece that ended up in the final cut. It could be argued that this scene perfectly sets the tone for the entire movie.
Filming took more than ten times longer than expected
Shooting for Apocalypse Now was initially scheduled to last for six weeks, but it ended up taking 16 months. This is around ten times longer than the production was scheduled to last. Naturally, the producers that were putting up money for Francis Ford Coppola to stay in the jungle with his cast and crew and all of the equipment for these extra 58-odd months of filming were not best pleased with the director. The result of 16 months of filming was a whopping 200 hours of footage that Coppola has continued shuffling around and repeatedly re-releasing.
Laurence Fishburne lied about his age to get a role in the film
Back in 1979, very few moviegoers noticed a young Laurence Fishburne in Apocalypse Now. He was years away from immortalizing himself as a screen icon with roles like Furious in Boyz n the Hood and Morpheus in The Matrix trilogy. As it turns out, Fishburne did something a little sneaky to land his role in Apocalypse Now.
When the war epic began shooting in 1976, Fishburne was just 14 years old, and therefore couldn’t legally take a role in the film. So, he had to lie about his age (it helped that he looked older when he was a teenager) in order to secure his part.
Francis Ford Coppola chipped in millions of dollars from his own pocket
The studio was furious when Francis Ford Coppola went way over-budget with Apocalypse Now. Movies are expected to sometimes exceed their budgets as the realities of filmmaking set in and unplanned incidents occur, but Apocalypse Now was ridiculously over-budget. It got to the point that Coppola contributed millions of dollars out of his own pocket, and even ended up having to take out another mortgage on his house and on his winery in Napa Valley. The director didn’t just blow through all of the studio’s money; he almost blew through all of his own, too.
The U.S. military refused to lend the filmmakers any equipment
When you’re making a war movie, it’s always a good idea to get the U.S. military on your side, because then they can lend out equipment that you can’t get anywhere else to use as props. However, since Apocalypse Now revolved around the U.S. military ordering a captain to assassinate one of their own colonels, the real military wanted nothing to do with the film. Francis Ford Coppola and his crew instead had to borrow equipment from armed forces that were local to where they were shooting in the Philippines.
The slaughter of the water buffalo was real
The scene in which the water buffalo gets brutally and ritualistically slaughtered was done for real. If the movie was shooting in America, there’s no way the crew would’ve gotten away with it. In fact, as an American production, despite shooting internationally, the filming of Apocalypse Now was subject to the animal cruelty laws of the U.S.. However, when they were shooting in the Philippines, no one was keeping an eye on the production and there were no police or overseers in sight. So, they did it for real and the movie ended up getting an “unacceptable” rating from the American Humane Association.
Marlon Brando didn’t learn any of his lines
The character of Colonel Kurtz was originally envisioned as a tall, slender man, and that’s what Marlon Brando was when he was cast. However, when Brando showed up on the set, Francis Ford Coppola was horrified to discover that the actor had become obese. He also didn’t learn any of his lines, or read Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, which the movie was based on.
This flagrant disregard for the work was the beginning of Brando’s slippery slope into becoming infamously difficult to work with. Coppola ended up getting so frustrated with Brando that he eventually just let assistant director Jerry Ziesmer shoot all of his scenes.
Dennis Hopper got a teenaged Laurence Fishburne hooked on heroin
On the set of Apocalypse Now, drugs were getting ed around the cast and crew like bottles of water. Dennis Hopper was particularly notorious for his substance abuse on the set, and even got Laurence Fishburne — who, as we mentioned earlier, was a teenager lying about his age when he appeared in the film — addicted to heroin. Those involved in the making of Apocalypse Now have often compared production of the film to the Vietnam War itself, and the casual drug use (not to mention, throwing a group of young, inexperienced American men into a hostile jungle) makes that apparent.
Martin Sheen really was drunk in the opening hotel room sequence
Apocalypse Now opens with Willard in a hotel room, set to the sounds of the Doors, going ballistic, possibly tripping. When this scene was filmed, Martin Sheen got really drunk and told the crew to keep rolling the cameras. He used the scene to confront his drinking problem, figuring that if the cameras kept filming as he disappeared into his own mind, he’d get to the root of his problems and start to work them out. During this lengthy take, Sheen punched a mirror and cut his hand, and even tried to attack Francis Ford Coppola. The crew was scared and uncomfortable and wanted to stop shooting, but Sheen insisted that they continue.
