All language subtitles for Hearts.of.Darkness.A.Filmmakers.Apocalypse.1991.1080p.BluRay.x265-RARBG

(PEOPLE CHATTERlNG)

My film is not a movie.

(ΤRANSLATING IN FRENCH)

My film is not about Vietnam.

(ΤRANSLATING IN FRENCH)

lt is Vietnam.

lt's what it was really like.
It was crazy.

(MAN CONΤlNUES
TRANSLAΤlNG lN FRENCH)

And the way we made it was very much

like the way
the Americans were in Vietnam.

We were in the jungle.

There were too many of us.

(MAN TRANSLAΤlNG lN FRENCH)

We had access to too much money,

too much equipment,

and little by little,
we went insane.

COPPOLA: This movie I'm making
is not in the tradition

of the great Max Ophüls
or David Lean even.

This movie was made in the tradition
of Irwin Allen.

l made the most vulgar,
entertaining,

exciting, action-full, sensoramic,

give-them-a-new-thrill-
every-five-minutes,

have it everything, sex,
νiolence,

humor,

because I want people
to come and see it.

Βut the questions that l kept facing
or running into,

into the stupid script about
four guys going up to kill a guy.. .

But that was the story.

But the questions that that story
kept putting me, l couldn't answer.

Yet I knew that I had constructed
the film in such a way

that to not answer would be to fail.

ELEANOR: The film Francis is making

is a metaphor
for a journey into self.

He has made that journey
and is still making it.

It's scary to watch someone you love
go into the center of himself

and confront his fears,

fear of failure, fear of death,
fear of going insane.

You have to fail a little,
die a little, go insane a little,

to come out the other side.

The process is not over for Francis.

COPPOLA: My greatest
fear is to make a really shitty,

embarrassing, pompous film
on an important subject,

and I am doing it.

I confront it. I acknowledge.

I will tell you right straight

from the most sincere
depths of my heart,

the film will not be good.

ELEANOR: It's like going to school.
You finish your term paper

and maybe you get a B instead
of an A+ that you wanted.

COPPOLA: But I'm gonna get an F.

This film is a $20-million disaster.
Why won't anyone believe me?

I am thinking of shooting myself!

Good evening. This is Orson Welles
inviting you to listen now

to The Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad.

Imagine the feelings of a skipper
of a fine frigate.

A civilized man
at the very end of the world.

He'd land in a swamp,
march through the woods,

and in some inland post
feel the savagery,

the utter savagery that stirs
in the forests and the jungles

in the hearts of wild men.

ELEANOR: In 1939,

Orson Welles planned
to make Heart of Darkness

as his first motion picture.

Heart of Darkness is the story
of a ship captain's journey

up the Congo River
to find Mr. Kurtz, an ivory trader

stationed deep in the jungle.

A brilliant man of high ideals,

Kurtz intends
to enlighten the natives.

lnstead, he succumbs
to the primal temptations

of the jungle and goes insane.

Screen tests were done
with Welles as Kurtz

and sets were designed,

but the studio backed away
from the project,

fearing the elaborate production
would go over budget.

Welles made Citizen Kane instead.

Heart of Darkness was abandoned
in pre-production.

In 1 969, Francis founded
American Zoetrope,

a company dedicated to filmmaking
outside of the Hollywood system.

One of their first projects
was Apocalypse Now,

a Vietnam War story based loosely
on Heart of Darkness.

Apocalypse Now concerns
a Captain Willard on his mission

to assassinate
a Green Beret colonel named Kurtz.

Kurtz has gone insane

and is conducting the war
on his own terms deep in Cambodia.

George Lucas was to direct
John Milius' screenplay.

MILIUS: Francis said
that Heart of Darkness,

which was one of my favorite things
l'd ever read,

he said it had been tried
and no one could lick it.

He said that Orson Welles tried it
and he couldn't lick it.

Richard Brooks, I think,
or somebody else.. .

That's the best thing
to tell a young writing student,

you know, say,
"No one could possibly write this."

That was the first thing I tried.

The war was raging then,

and everybody was either
getting set to go

or to get out of it

or whatever they were going to do.

And we prepared a method of
doing this whole thing in Vietnam.

We were going to do it
in 1 6 millimeter in Vietnam.

That was John's idea.
That was John's idea.

l was the one that was gonna
have to go over and do it.

John is very good at being grand.

We would have been there right
in time for Tet, probably,

and whatever.

And all these people
that were in school with me

who'd done terrible things
or were planning to go to Canada,

do something as drastic
as getting married to avoid the war,

they were willing to go to Vietnam.
They didn't care.

They wanted to carry lights
and sound equipment

over minefields.

Warner Βrothers
finally backed off on it

because they figured
most of us would probably be killed

because we were so stupid.

We tried to take Apocalypse
around to the other studios.

Nobody wanted to have
anything to do with it. "No way."

INTERVlEWER: Why?

Βecause it was during the war
and there was a lot of.. .

l don't know whether it was pressure
or just fear or whatever,

but the studios would not finance
a film about the Vietnam War.

People were so bitter
about the war, you know,

that there were riots.
At that time,

there were riots on the streets.
People were spitting on soldiers.

And studio executives,
they're the last people

who are gonna get
in the middle of that thing.

Studio executives are not noted
for their social courage.

ELEANOR: Without a studio,
Apocalypse Now was shelved,

and Francis put his dreams
for Zoetrope on hold.

He went on to direct
The Godfather Parts l and Il.

The films won eight Academy Awards
and made Francis

a multimillionaire.

In 1 975, he revived his plans
for Zoetrope

and chose Apocalypse Now
as its first project.

l wanted to always write
original work.

Original work really takes
six, eight months minimum to do,

and here was the script
of Apocalypse

that we could clean up
and send out immediately.

So l basically said,

"Well, what if l just
did Apocalypse Now?"

And in doing so,

we were able to make our company
independent and further our goal.

But nothing really prepared me
for the date I had with trying

to do a modern telling
of Heart of Darkness

in a Vietnam setting.

Mike, would you read Kilgore?

Glenn, I'd like you to read.. . No.
I'll wait for a minute.

l'd like Tommy, you read Willard.

Freddy's gonna read Chef.

And, Sam, you read Lance.

And, Albert, you read Chief, okay?

We'll just read it
to know what we're doing.

ELEANOR: Apocalypse Now
has been budgeted at $1 3 million.

ln order to maintain
creative control,

Francis had to raise
the money himself.

If the film goes over budget,
Francis is responsible.

He has put up our personal assets
as collateral.

STERNBERG: A couple of million
dollars of Francis' money was in it.

But that was Francis' style.

His philosophy was always,
and remains to this date is,

"I'm gonna go and make the movie.

"And if everybody knows
l'm going to make it,

"it will fall into place.

"And if I don't go forward
as if I'm making it

"and start making it
nothing will happen."

My attitude towards money

has always been,
"l don't have very much of it,

"but if I use it in a very
audacious way, it multiplies it."

If you have $1 ,000,
but you're willing to use it,

not caring of risking,
you can make it feel like $1 0,000.

ELEANOR: Marlon Brando said
that he will do the part of Kurtz.

He agreed to three weeks of shooting
at a million dollars a week.

Francis sent him
a $1 million advance.

After auditioning dozens of actors,

Harvey Keitel has been cast
as Captain Willard.

For the four-man boat crew
who will take Willard upriver,

Sam Bottoms will play Lance.

Albert Hall, Chief.

Frederic Forrest, Chef,

and Larry Fishburne, age 1 4,
will play Mr. Clean.

The whole thing's really fun.
I mean, a war is fun. Shit.

You can do anything you want to.

That's why Vietnam must
have been so much fun

for the guys that were out there.

l mean, like, I know this one dude
who came back. Shit.

And he's nothing but a dope smoker,
and all he does is smoke dope.

He said, "Vietnam was the best thing
they could have done for my ass."

ELEANOR: The Philippines
has been chosen as the location

because of its similarity
to the terrain in Vietnam.

Since the US Army
has refused to cooperate

with a movie about the Vietnam War,

Francis has made a deal with
Philippine President,

Ferdinand Marcos.

The production will pay the military
thousands of dollars per day

as well as overtime
for the Philippine pilots.

In return, Francis can use
Marcos' entire fleet of helicopters

as long as they're not needed
to fight the communist

insurgency in the south.

A band of rebels
has been waging a fierce war

for control of
the southern Philippine islands.

COPPOLA: But the real phenomenon
of being in that situation,

being in the middle of that jungle

and dealing with all the unfriendly
elements that we were dealing with

was part
of what the movie was about.

That was the first
directorial decision

that put us all in a circumstance

that reflected
what the movie was about.

LUCAS:
I gave him all the information

that we had developed

on shooting in the Philippines.

"It's one thing to go over there

"for three weeks with five people

"and sort of scrounge

"a lot of footage
using the Philippine army.

"But as a big Hollywood production,

"they're gonna kill you, you know.

"The longer you stay,
the more in danger you are

"of getting sucked into the swamp."

ELEANOR: On March 1st,
I came to the Philippines

with Francis and our three children,

Gio, 1 2, Roman, 1 0,

and Sofia, four.

Francis has asked me
to make a documentary film

for the United Artists
publicity department.

I don't know if he wants to avoid
a professional team

on an already-overloaded production

or if he's just trying
to keep me busy.

The heat and humidity
are overwhelming.

It's the first time any of us
have seen water buffalo,

rice paddies and nipa huts.

Sofia said, "It looks Iike
the Disneyland jungle cruise."

Today, I shot some footage
of the construction

at the main set, Kurtz's compound.

It is supposed to be
a decaying Cambodian temple

at the end of the river

where the character of Willard
will confront Kurtz.

Dean Tavoularis,
the production designer,

is orchestrating
the construction of the temple

out of dried adobe blocks,
each weighing 300 pounds.

(MEN CLAMORlNG)

TAVOULARlS: There were 600 people
working on this thing.

In Hollywood,

if you want another person,
it's a big deal.

With their salary,
it's thousands of dollars.

So, for a dollar a day
or three dollars a day,

I hope we weren't taking
advantage of people,

but that's what they were paid.

So, you could get not one person.
You could get 1 0 or 20 or 1 00.

COPPOLA: Ever since l was
a student in college,

we used to do a thing
before every production,

and since l've been making films,
we did it,

and it made those films
have good luck.

And what it is.. .

Everyone kind of just grab someone
or touch someone

that's connected with everyone.

Gather round
so that everybody can see.

-Good luck.
-WOMAN: Good luck.

And then we say this word
three times. "Puwaba."

(MAN TRANSLATING IN lTALlAN)

MAN: What's the word?

ALL: Puwaba.

COPPOLA: One, two, three.

ALL: Puwaba, puwaba, puwaba!

ELEANOR: It's the first day.

There's a current of excitement.

The location is a salt farm
next to a river.

A helicopter brings Willard
to meet the patrol boat

that will take him on his mission.

COPPOLA: Okay. Stand by!

Action!

COPPOLA: On one Ievel, the fiIm
is an action-adventure story.

It's a story of a journey
into a strange and unknown area,

but it also willexist on a
philosophical and allegorical level,

so that is that it sheds some light

on the events that took place
and why they took place

and what it did
to the people involved in them.

WELLES: Almost we are persuaded
that there is something after all,

something essential
waiting for all of us

in the dark areas of the world,

aboriginally loathsome,
immeasurabIe,

and certainly, nameless.

ELEANOR: Francis watched
the first week's footage.

They were the scenes with
Harvey Keitel, who plays Willard.

Afterward, he sat down on the couch
with the editors and said,

"Well, what do you think?"

I went upstairs to say
good night to the children,

and when l came down
1 5 minutes later,

Francis had made the decision
to replace his leading man.

ROOS: We bit the bullet

and did a very,
very unpleasant thing,

which is replace an actor
in mid-shooting.

Not only unpleasant, but expensive,

since we had to throw out several
weeks of work and start over.

MAN: Take one.

COPPOLA: Action.

What do you think, Willard?

Terminate the Colonel.

Terminate with extreme prejudice.

ELEANOR: Francis shaved off
his beard and flew

to Los Angeles.

He met with Martin Sheen
at the airport.

Marty agreed to take
the role of Willard.

SHEEN: I had some personal concerns
about my own physical condition.

I was 36 at the time,
and I felt old and out of shape,

and I was smoking three packs a day,
not a healthy guy.

I wondered if l'd be able
to keep up a strenuous schedule.

At the time l hired on, I remember
it was only a 1 6-week shoot,

which didn't prove to be the case,
but who knew that at the time?

ELEANOR:
It is the fifth week of shooting.

It's getting hotter
as we move into summer.

Every day,
the project seems to get bigger.

Now, what I want is
five helicopters, right?

Then you have a camera here,
a camera there.

l want two cameras at once.

We'll have a camera
with Enrico inside the Loach.

ELEANOR: In the script,

a helicopter unit led by a brash
air cavalry colonel named Kilgore

leads an attack on a coastal village

in order to escort Willard's boat

into the river
that will lead him to Kurtz.

This scene with all the extras
and special effects

is the most logistically complicated
of Francis' career.

STORARO: Francis was always

reminding me.

"Vittorio, remember,
this is not just a documentary

"about the war in Vietnam.

"This is a main show in the sense
that wherever America goes,

"they make a big show on everything.

"They make a big event.

"They make a big show
about lights, music.

"Even the idea to put Wagner on
during the battle sequence,

"it's part of the show.
It's part of the opera.

"It's part of the major fantasy
that American people has."

(RIDE OF THE VALKYRIES PLAYING)

(MACHINE GUNS FlRlNG)

-Tell them to cut.
-MAN: Cutting.

VlTTORIO: Very good.
MAN: All cameras are cutting!

You know, just at the last scene,
the third trip,

when the Huey come,

they pass too high.

COPPOLA: (ON RADIO)
This is Coppola.

AII aircraft, aII Hornets,
all picture aircraft,

everyone land in the rice paddies.
We'll have a meeting.

ELEANOR: Because of the civil war
in the south,

everyday, the government
sends different pilots

who haven't participated
in the rehearsals,

wrecking tens of thousands
of dollars worth of shots.

All day today, a Philippine
air force general was on the set.

There were rumors that the rebels

were in the hills
about 1 0 miles away.

The Filipino commanders were afraid

there could be an attack
on the helicopters we were using.

In the middle of a complicated shot,

the helicopters were called away
to fight the rebels.

COPPOLA: So, what?

MAN: They're taking away five.
COPPOLA: Five? They said two.

Wait a second. Stand by.

We just heard they're taking away
five of our helicopters.

Should we do it?

The Huey go away.

MAN: We'll do it next week.

JOURNALIST: There have been stories

about production problems
with the film.

Has the filming been delayed?

Well, we're behind, but we have not
stopped shooting at all.

I mean, it's just that
the film is enormous.

l would say it's twice the scope

in terms of the production
of any film I've done,

including the two Godfathers.

And it's such an enormous film
with so many different aspects.

We're out here hacking inch by inch.

We are up against, everyday,
1 00 problems.

It's like a great war itself.

(MACHINE GUNS FlRlNG)

-Change!
-You mean right now, sir?

I wanna see how rideable
that stuff is. Go change.

lt's still pretty hairy
out there, sir.

-Do you wanna surf, soldier?
-Yes, sir.

That's good, son, 'cause you either
surf or fight. That clear?

Now, get going.

DUVALL: T hese air cavalry guys
did some pretty crazy stuff.

I heard from some
of the technical advisors

stories about the air cavalry
that were real,

that would serve
my fulfilling fiction,

that they really did,
you know, like, for instance,

a guy would go into his helicopter
in North Vietnam

and try to hook a bicycle
and steal it with the runner.

And they would shoot at him.

He'd hover a while
until they stopped shooting.

Then they'd finally hook the bicycle
and stole. ..

lt's like games to break up
the boredom of being in that war.

Men play strange games.

l love the smell of napalm
in the morning.

You know, one time
we had a hill bombed for 1 2 hours.

And when it was all over,
I walked up.

We didn't find one of them,
not one stinking dink body.

Βut the smell, you know,
that gasoline smell. ..

The whole hill,

it smelled like

victory.

Someday this war's gonna end.

MILIUS: It was a combination of
notjust Heart of Darkness,

but, like, the Odyssey .

Kilgore was like the Cyclops.

He was something that had to
be overcome, had to be tricked.

And then the Playboy bunnies
were like the Sirens.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

This sure enough is a bizarre sight
in the middle of this shit.

MlLlUS: The war was taking on
an interesting character,

and it was becoming
a psychedelic war, you know.

The culture was influencing,
sort of seeping into Southeast Asia.

The strange US culture
that was going on

where you really get a tone
that it is a rock 'n' roll war,

that things have gone a little
further than anyone realized.

LUCAS: At the point
when we were developing this,

nobody knew that
there were drugs over there.

Nobody knew all the craziness
that was going on.

A lot was being kept back.

So it was a chance
to really make a movie

that would reveal a lot of things.

What we'd done is strung together
all of John's anecdotes

and some of the things
that he had from his friends

who had been fighting over there.

And it was really a quest
or a trek or something

that would take us through
the various aspects

of the Vietnam War,

and we would see it
for the insanity that it was.

At that point, we had it ending

in a very large battle
with the Viet Cong

and having Willard
and the Kurtz character

fighting off all the Viet Cong.

And then when they bring in the
helicopters to bring his men out,

he says, "No, I fought too hard
for this land,"

and he shoots down the helicopter.

(MlLlUS READING)

"l summon fire from the sky.

"Do you know what it is
to be a white man

"who can summon fire from the sky?
What it means?

"You can live and die
for these things.

"Not silly ideals
that are always betrayed.. .

"What do you fight for, Captain?"

Then he answers,
"Βecause it feels good."

I never cared for the ending
so much.

l always thought
the ending was weak.

The ending didn't top what had
happened with the helicopters,

and it didn't answer
any of the kind of moral issues

that got into a real gung-ho,
macho kind of a comic book ending.

And my choice was to make it
much more back to Heart of Darkness

than really John and George
were intending.

l'd like to save the in-depth stuff
for the second reading.

And l think very early on, I knew
that even when l arrived there,

I was gonna take John's script
and mate it with Heart of Darkness

and whatever happened
to me in the jungle.

I mean, l knew that was, like,
my concept.

ELEANOR: This afternoon Francis
got a call from his attorney.

Apparently, Brando is refusing to
give Francis the extra time he needs

to rewrite the ending of the movie.

Brando is threatening
to drop out of the project

and keep his million-dollar advance.

Are they seriously saying that
Marlon would take a million dollars

and then not show up?

COPPOLA: And imagine, here I am

with about 50 things that
are just quasi in my control,

like the Philippine government
and fucking helicopters

which they take away
whenever they feel like,

and they've done it
three times already.

All I'm asking is for Marlon
to allow me

to start him a little later.

And I know it's all my fault.
But I'm saying is that

do I also have to shoot
the last 30 minutes of the movie

in the beginning?

Tell them to keep acting, Randy.

COPPOLA:
l assumed that there would be

some malleability about Marlon,

and I also didn't realize

the immensity
of the constructions and stuff.

I mean, the picture's bigger
than I thought. It's just gigantic.

I personally, as an artist,
would love the opportunity

to just finish the picture
up until the end,

take four weeks off,
work with Marlon, rewrite it,

and then in just three weeks,
do the ending.

l think I could make
the best film that way.

It seems like such a,
kind of, bright thing to do.

And I feel that the people
back there

feel that postponement is like,
"The picture's in trouble."

It's just that very intelligent,
major studios

did things like this all the time.
No, I know that.

And that's what sort of bugs me
is the ludicrousness of thinking

that I'm gonna go through
all that I'm doing,

after all I've been through,
after all the pictures I've made

and after shooting 1 6 weeks,
that I'm not gonna finish a movie

in which I've invested three years
of my life just because.. .

I mean, it's stupid, man.

Yeah, but even if Brando drops dead,
l can still finish the movie.

I'll just get another actor.

If I can't get Redford,
I'll go back to Nicholson.

If I can't get Nicholson,
I'll go back to Pacino.

If I can't go to Pacino,
I'll go back to someone else.

l mean, sooner or later,
I can get someone for three weeks.

l mean, it's not in the cards that
we're not going to finish the movie.

ELEANOR:
This is the first day of heavy rain.

A typhoon is off the coast.

I've never seen it rain so hard.

Water has started coming
in the rooms downstairs,

and Sofia is splashing around in it.

Francis has decided to make pasta,

and he's turned on
La Bohème full voIume.

l knew that if weather came,

that l was gonna try
to incorporate it.

l didn't realize that
it was on such a big scale.

So l was only thinking
that I got to shoot tomorrow.

SHEEN: Even after that typhoon hit,

he began to film.

He said, "This has happened,
and monsoons hit Vietnam.

"There's a lot of mud,
a lot of rain around. Let's film."

Hey, don't leave without me.

FlSHBURNE: We went to lba
to shoot the scene that got cut.

The set was, like, 80% demolished.

lt was, like, mud up to the knees.

It was like pissing, man.

lt was hitting you so hard,
it hurt.

It started out
just as raining a lot,

and after a while, we realized

it was knocking out
centers of civilizations,

and rivers were overrunning, and
people couldn't get to the places.. .

They were all on the roofs
of hotels and stuff.

We had to stop for a while.

And I realized that certain sets
had been destroyed.

ELEANOR:
In order to rebuiId the sets,

Francis has closed down
the production for two months.

The cast and crew
have been sent home.

It was an opportunity
for everyone, really,

to have a little relief
from the situation,

because it became apparent
that it was gonna go on longer

than we realized in the beginning.

ELEANOR: Last night,
we slept outside on the lawn.

lt was beautiful,
so clear, with stars.

Francis tossed and turned,
having nightmares.

This morning he said
he'd had a dream

about how to finish the script.

But now that he was awake,
it wasn't any good.

He said he couldn't go on
making the John Milius script

because it didn't really express
his ideas,

and he still doesn't know
how to make the film

into his personal vision.

He's been struggling with this
for so long.

He knows the material
backwards and forwards.

He is practically chasing his tail.

COPPOLA: First of aII, I call
this whole movie the Idiodyssey.

ELEANOR: The Idiodyssey?
COPPOLA: This is the Idiodyssey.

None of my tools, none of my tricks,

none of my ways of doing things
works for this ending.

I have tried so many times
that l know l can't do it.

It might be a big victory
to know that I can't do it.

l can't write
the ending to this movie.

I was on the spot. l had gotten
myself into something big.

Some people had come through,
a lot of people hadn't.

And it was my job
and also my financial burden

to pick up the pieces
and finish the movie.

I didn't quite understand all
the ramifications of the financing.

I felt that he'd do whatever
he had to, we'd borrow the money.

But I really support him
as an artist,

and l feel like whatever
the artist needs to do

in order to get his artwork is okay.

And l always felt confident.
So what's the worst that can happen?

They take away

your big house,
your car, so what?

He was a very creative person
and could make another film

and could do another job and earn
his living and provide for us.

So I really wasn't frightened by it.

In fact, at that point in time,
we had escalated our lifestyle.

We had this big
22-room Victorian house,

you know,
a staff and a screening room.

Life was kind of complicated for me.

And I would have loved

to have had my lifestyle
reduced to some smaller scale.

So that part of me
was just fearless in that regard.

It really didn't matter
if it all went down the tubes

in financing this project.
It was really okay.

A melodrama is currently
playing itself out in Hollywood

that for sheer emotionalism
rivals anything put on film.

The embattled figure in this drama
is director Francis Coppola,

who once again finds himself
waging a war

to keep his dream
financially afloat.

If you read newspapers at all
or listen to the radio, you know

that Mr. Coppola has been involved

in the production
of this motion picture

for more years than
even he would care to count.

COPPOLA:
The press painted a portrait of me

as a crazy person
and financially irresponsible,

which l don't particularly think
is really true.

No doubt that it was my money.

But the difference was that
Apocalypse Now was about Vietnam.

That was what made it sound
like such a crazy financial bet.

lNTERVIEWER: Did you ever
consider quitting?

How am I going to quit from myself?
To say, "Francis, I quit"?

You know, I was financing the movie.
How could I quit?

ELEANOR: July 25th, 1976.

We've returned to the Philippines
to resume production.

Francis hopes to finish shooting
in the early fall.

There is a kind of powerful
exhilaration

in the face of losing everything,

like the excitement of war

when one kills
or takes the chance of being killed.

Francis has taken
the biggest risk of his life

in the way he's making this film.

This film is now $3 million
over budget,

which the distributor,
United Artists,

has agreed to put up.

But Francis has to pay it back
if the film

doesn't make $40 million or more.

That just gets me all the more
focused on the present moment

and not allow myself to think
about the "what-ifs" of the future.

l know that every building
that's built

runs into big production overages,
every bridge that's built.

Every NASA project,

any large project

that involves lots of people,
conditions, weather,

of a construction nature,
goes over all the time.

And a movie is no exception.

lt's true that
since it was my own money,

and once I felt that
I was going in a direction,

I wanted to continue
going in that direction.

Since it was my money,
l just did it, really.

There was a sequence in the film,

so-called the French plantation
sequence,

and it involved

the PΒR coming ashore

to this rubber plantation still run
by these French-speaking people,

and they had a whole bunch of cadre,

and they'd been fighting
the Viet Minh before the Viet Cong,

and they weren't letting go.

MAN: Hey, this is
French plantation discussion.

COPPOLA: French plantation. ..

The whole scene is gonna be made
of wisps of fog close to the ground,

and a place that's like a dream.

If you need more fog machines.. .

Have more than enough machines.
How much do they cost?

Can I buy the ones
I already bought?

I'll give them to you as a gift
after the show,

but have enough of them.

Now, I want some real machine guns.

Get the PC to go over
and strafe the side of that house

as though Fidel Castro
had his last stand there.

I'd like three or four
French people,

and I'll spend money for it.

But I don't want to fly them
from France.

If you can't get them
from Hong Kong,

Singapore, Japan, Okinawa,

then I will fly them from France.

White wine
should be served ice cold.

Red wine should be served
at about 58 degrees.

Should be opened approximately
an hour to an hour-and-a-half

to even two hours before served.

I want a French ceremony
that is right out of a fucking.. .

I want the French to say,
"My God, how did they do that?"

Well, my idea was,
as they progressed up the river,

they were, like,
going back more and more in time

in a funny kind of way,

that we were revisiting
the history of Vietnam in reverse.

And the first stop was
in the '50s almost.

We now are with the French.

That was what I was looking for

in the French plantation

that was a kind of ghostly afterview
of something,

almost like they talk
about the light from the stars.

We see it after the star's
already dead,

you know,
and it was that kind of mood.

WILLARD: It was like having dinner
with a family of ghosts.

There were still
a few hundred of them

left on plantations
all over Vietnam,

trying to keep themselves convinced
that it was still 1 950.

They weren't French anymore,
and they'd never be Vietnamese.

They were floating loose in history,
without a country.

They were hanging on by
their fingernails, but so were we.

We just had more fingernails in it.

How long can you possibly stay here?

-Stay?
-No, no. l mean,

when will you go back home
to France?

(CHUCKLING)

Back home?

l mean, this is our home, Captain.

-Sooner or later, you're gonna. ..
-No, Captain!

(lN FRENCH)

l mean, you don't know anything
about the French mentality.

MlLlUS: It wasjust the idea
of the French still being there.

There was some speech
at the end,

that he said,

"lf they drive us from the house,
we will live in a ditch,

"and if they push us
out of the ditch,

"we'll live in the jungle.

"All the time we will clean
the blood from our bayonets."

l like that.

So when you ask me
why we want to stay here, Captain,

we want to stay here
because it's ours. It belongs to us.

It keeps our family together.

I mean, we fight for that.

While you Americans,

you are fighting
for the biggest nothing in history.

COPPOLA:
Our budgets were cut way down

and we didn't get the cast
that we wanted.

But of course, the art department
and the other departments

didn't cut theirs down,
so I was very incensed

that l had this extraordinary set,
that costly set.

Extraordinary decorations and stuff.

I was just angry
at the French sequence.

I cut it out, out of that.

COPPOLA: l was very unhappy
on every count.

The light, the whole thing.

So everyone forget
that we even shot it.

No longer does it exist.

(BUZZING)

COPPOLA: What l'm worried about
is that I'm getting

into a self-indulgent pattern.

ELEANOR: But don't you,
on the one hand, feel like that's

where your gifts as an artist
are working?

They're on that brink
of not knowing what to do.

What if you just scream out
to the heavens,

"l don't know
what the fuck I'm doing!"

COPPOLA: I've done that.

That's another form
of self-indulgence.

l'm sure I've missed
a whole bunch of opportunities,

and I'm gonna miss others.

But I've caught a lot of them, too.

In the end, it's how many I catch,
not how many I lose.

ELEANOR: Francis is in a place
within himself,

a place he never intended to reach,

a place of conflict.

And he can't go back down the river
because the journey has changed him.

I was watching from the point
of view of the observer,

not realizing
I was on the journey, too.

Now, I can't go back
to the way it was.

Neither can Francis.
Neither can Willard.

WELLES: It was like traveling back

to the earliest
beginnings of the world

when vegetation rioted on the Earth
and the big trees were kings.

Trees, millions of trees,

massive, immense, running up high.

And at their foot,
hugging the bank against the stream,

crept the little begrimed steamboat,
like a sluggish beetle

crawling on the floor
of a lofty portico.

Where the company men imagined
it crawIed to, I don't know.

For me,

it crawled toward Kurtz.

LUCAS: Francis works
in a very intuitive way.

He likes to take advantage of things
as he moves along through a picture.

And Francis just likes it to flow.

And whenever you do that,

you end up with a problem
of having a film

at times that is way too long

and a film that doesn't have
a really strong

narrative line in it

that you can keep
the audience hooked in.

COPPOLA: And when you get
into this anger, Albert,

don't decide
where you're gonna get to.

Wherever you get to,
as long as it's out of you, is okay.

Francis used to write
on these little cards.

I managed to hold
on to some of these.

lNTERVIEWER:
Read one of them?

Well, let me get the pages right.

And see, we put them
on little cards like this.

Now we have
the main boat approaching.

Now we have the birds.
We don't have the birds great,

but we'll never get it great.

And then I propose
that we do four close-ups.

Sam, Chief, Martin, everyone,
looking at the birds,

so I can use the sound of the birds
or maybe three birds going through,

and l can create the illusion
of there being birds.

ΒOTTOMS: "Birds. Lance.
POVs of blackbirds. Boat."

It was like this.
This was his shot list.

Sometimes we'd get pages
that would say.. .

lt'd say "scenes unknown"
on the call sheet.

You just would show up, you know.

They didn't know
what they were going to do.

We didn't just go out there and,
"Oh, what can we do today?"

There was a real plan for each day.

But since Francis is a writer

and was a co-writer of the script,

he could create things
at the moment,

and if a new idea came up,

he would sit there up all night
and write it.

Then you're gonna get into this
weird speech of, "Fire, fire.

"You demons. You sons of bitches.

"Get away from us.
Get away from this boat.

"Back, you walking dead,
you zombies, you sons of bitches.

"Captain, you made this.

"This is your hell, your nightmare."

I felt that he just thought
a lot of his actors,

we were gems
who were to bring his ideas to life.

And he also took
a lot of our creative input.

Why don't we go,
"You want to kill us all.

"You're insane.

"You've gone insane.
You're more of a savage.

"You're insane,
savage like those people."

-Or something like that?
-Okay.

You try it, though.

"This dream is your hell.
This is your nightmare.

"You made it, you liquor-guzzling,
dipsomaniac son of a bitch.

"You bastard!"

Somehow get the idea that you.. .
You're going mad.

You've gone mad.

Once he set that feel for us,
we just started improvising

everything that was happening
on the boat.

Sampan off the port bow.
Let's take a look.

-Lance. Bring them in.
-(SlREN WAILING)

Clean, on the .60. Chef, get a . 1 6.

BOTTOMS: Francis had us write up

lists of things
that we wanted our characters to do.

l remember we all decided

that we wanted to do
sort of a My Lai Massacre.

We thought
an interrogation of a boat

that ended in a firefight
and the loss of many lives.

We wanted to experience
something like that.

-There ain't nothing in here.
-CHIEF: What's in the boxes?

Not a fucking thing.

Look in that tin can.

-That rusty can.
-Just fucking rice!

Check the yellow can.

She was sitting on it. What's in it?

Chef!

Motherfuckers!

-CHIEF: Hold it!
-Come on, let's kill them all!

-Fucking cocksucking mothers!
-Hold it! Hold it!

Let's kill all the assholes!
Shoot the shit out of all of them.

-CHlEF: Chef, hold it!
-Why not? Jesus Christ.

CHEF: Why the fuck not?

-CHIEF: Clean?
-l'm good.

See what she was running for?

(CHUCKLES SARCASTICALLY)

It's a fucking puppy!

FISHΒURNE: What it was

that was me that was Clean
was just that I was a kid.

That's what my role is about.

l mean, it's about the kids
that were over there

who didn't know anything
about anything.

They were snatched up

and used as cannon fodder
for this war.

ELEANOR: Everyone who has
come out here to the Philippines

seems to be going through something
that is affecting them profoundly,

changing their perspective
about the world or themseIves,

while the same thing
is happening to Willard

in the course of the film.

Something is definitely
happening to me and to Francis.

(ALL SINGlNG lN ITALIAN)

(lNAUDlΒLE)

COPPOLA: Filmmaking
wasn't just a matter

of writing this little script

and then going and doing it
as you thought that your own life

and your own experience
during the making of it

was also a very strong element,

and that somehow the director works

with more
than just haνing the script

and haνing the team
of people and actors.

Also, the conditions and the mood
of the company

and of each individual
and what people are going through

is also one of
the primary elements of the film.

l mean, what's the matter with you?
You're acting kind of weird.

Hey, you know that last tab of acid
l was saving?

-Yeah.
-l dropped it.

-You dropped acid?
-Far out.

BOTTOMS: Most of my character
was done under the influence of pot.

We smoked a lot of that.

The film crew just became
our guests upriver with us.

-Did you drop any acid?
-Sure.

Did you drop any acid
during filming?

Sure.

At Do Luong bridge?

No, l did something else
at Do Luong bridge. l. ..

l didn't take any acid there.
l did something else.

-lNTERVIEWER: What did you do?
-l was doing speed then.

We were working lots of nights,
and I wanted a speedy sort of edge.

And marijuana and alcohol.. .

I mean, we were bad.
We were just bad boys.

Sort of crazy, you know.
Slightly mad.

The whole thing was mad.

We felt after a while
we really weren't there.

lt was like
we were in a dream or something.

We'd say to Francis,

"I'm not here, Francis.
I'm in Montana with Jack Nicholson."

So they'd say,
"Where are you today, Freddy?"

I'd be in Waco,
l could be in Des Moines...

Wherever l wanted to be.

You would just go through your day.
You weren't in that place.

.. .study at the Escoffier School.

FORREST: That was really crazy,

that time in the jungle
with me and Marty and the tiger.

Yeah, that was really.. .
That was just insane.

We had this guy there
with the tiger.. .

A couple, the trainers.

He had a speech impediment.

He had scar tissue,
like, all over his face

where he'd had some bouts
with his tiger, Gambi.

You had a cat that's done that two
or three times,

it's no longer worth it.

Βecause once
they put a hole in your leg. ..

lt's usually on the joint because
it's where they're going for,

and you can't walk for a year.

And you don't wanna do it anymore,

so you usually put the cat out
and start over again.

FORREST: The trainer had, like,
a pig on a string,

so the tiger would see him.

Then he was gonna pull him back
to make him jump.

So the guy'd come around and say,

"Gambi's very hungry today, Martin.
He's very hungry, Mr. Coppola.

"l'm sure he will do exactly
what you want.

"We haven't fed him in a week."

Oh, shit.

Action.

FORREST: Francis'd keep saying,
"Get closer."

We're saying, "You get closer,
Francis. You get closer."

(WHISPERING) What is it?

Charlie? VC?

Tiger!

FORREST: Man, I've never been
so frightened in my life,

because it was so fast, man.

Guys were running everywhere,
climbing trees.

I gotta remember.
Never get out of the boat.

Never get out of the boat!

FORREST: That was the essence
of the whole film in Vietnam,

where it was the look
in that tiger's eyes, the madness,

like it didn't matter
what you wanted.

There was no reality anymore.

If that tiger wanted you,
you were his.

WlLLARD: Never get out of the boat.

Absolutely goddamn right.

Unless you were going all the way.

SHEEN: I remember complaining
to Francis one day

about my confusion

about all that was going down,

and I said to him,

"I don't know who this guy is.
Who is this Willard?"

And Francis just looked at me
square in the eye and he said,

"He's you. Whoever you are.

"Whatever we're filming at the time,
you are that character."

ELEANOR: Francis said
he had a dream

about being on the set
of the Saigon hotel room

with Marty
and a Green Beret advisor.

In the dream,
the Green Beret was telling Francis

that what he was doing with Marty
was wrong.

lt would never be like that.

The Green Beret said
those guys were vain.

The guy would go to the mirror

and admire his beautiful hair
and beautiful mouth.

In Francis' dream, he had Marty

go to the mirror
and look at himself,

admire his mouth.

And when he turned around,

Francis could see that Marty
had suddenly turned into Willard.

Francis was going for a moment

where you see
Martin Sheen's dark side,

his primeval being or something.. .

Some part of him
that would lead you to understand

how this person could
commit an assassination.

At the time of doing that scene,
l was talking in terms of

showing the different levels
of good and evil in yourself.

And I imagined that this guy

did things
that nobody had ever seen,

or he'd never talk to anyone,
must still be in him.

And he must have that Kurtzian
other side in him.

MAN: Fellows, get ready as soon
as you can, please!

Let's go. Got to reload.

Give us a little boost here!

Okay, fellows, here we go.

ELEANOR: They set up

this hotel room, and Marty decided
to have a few drinks.

He wasn't drinking all the time,

and they rolled the cameras
without telling him what to do.

MAN 1 : Watch your reflections
in the mirror. Here we go.

Five-Β, take three, camera A.

Action!

SHEEN:
That opening sequence was shot

on my 36th birthday, August 3rd,

and I was so drunk,
I couldn't stand up, frankly.

COPPOLA: Marty,
go look at yourself in the mirror.

Look at how beautiful you are.

I want you to look at your mouth,
your mouth and your hair.

You look like a movie star.

Now frighten yourself, Marty.

Show yourself
the part that's an animal.

(GLASS SHATTERING)

(EXCLAlMING)

SHEEN: I was so intoxicated,

I didn't realize
how close to the mirror I was.

So when I struck it,

I ended up catching my thumb
in the mirror

and split it open a bit.

COPPOLA: Okay, cut.

Do we have a doctor?

Francis tried to stop it,
and he called for a doctor.

There was a nurse standing by,
and l said, "No, let it go.

"I want to have this out
right here and now."

lt had to do with facing
my worst enemy, myself.

I was in a chaotic,
spiritual state inside.

Talk to me.

(SHOUTING)

COPPOLA: Why did you come back?

SHEEN: I fought him like a tiger.

It was real hard for me
to reveal myself.

You fucker!

COPPOLA: Think about it.

Your wife.

-Your home.
-l. ..

COPPOLA: Your car.

My. ..

My heart is broken!

God damn it!

ELEANOR: The room had been
charged with the possibility

that Marty might lunge at the camera
or attack Francis.

There was an electricity
in the room.

Anything could happen.

They were inside somebody,
in his personal territory,

with a man alone
in his most private moment.

I pretended I couldn't remember

a lot of the things
I'd done that night.

Actually, l remembered it all.

MAN: Dave, give me a hand,
would you?

Come on, pal, let's take a shower.

Marty is extremely generous,
big-hearted man.

He's filled with a lot of love,

and.. .

Much unlike Willard.

And so, when you ask Marty

to examine the darker nature
of this character,

it meant closing himself down a lot

and becoming very inward,

in order to find the killer

who could carry out the task
and terminate Kurtz.

I think it was...

Willard was definitely responsible

for Marty's own breakdown.

ELEANOR: March 1, 1977.

Last night at 2:00 in the morning,

Marty Sheen experienced
severe chest pains.

At daybreak,
he crawled out of his room

and down to the local highway,

where he was picked up
by a public bus.

After being taken
to the production office,

he was rushed to the hospital.

Marty, it turned out,
had suffered a serious heart attack.

He received last rites from a priest
who did not speak English.

I really had a very close call
and I realized. ..

lt's nothing
that I can put into words.

I just knew that if I wanted
to live, it was my choice.

lf I wanted to die,
that was my choice, too.

There wasn't even any fear.

The fear only came when I realized
later how close I came to the end.

That's when I got scared.

STERNΒERG: I remember the phone
ringing, and my secretary said,

"Marty's had a heart attack, and
Francis doesn't want to admit it."

COPPOLA: Dave Salvin let Melissa
tell Barry Hirsch

that Marty had a heart attack!
What the fuck is that?

What the fuck is that?

It's gonna be all over Hollywood
in a half an hour!

If Marty is so seriously stricken,

then he must go back.

Of course he will go back,
and we'II eat it,

but when I talked to the doctor,
they didn't know.

Marty's a young man.

He probably would be able
to be up and about in three weeks.

l said,
"Could he do non-strenuous work

"such as just close-ups,
sitting and acting?"

He said, "Possibly, yes."

That's all l need to hear
from the doctor.

So what's going on in fucking
trade winds is fucking gossip.

Gossip.

That gossip can finish me off.

If UA hears that it's eight weeks,

UA with a $27 million negative

is gonna force me
to complete it with what I've got,

and I don't have the movie yet.

All right, now,
you understand exactly?

If Marty dies, I wanna hear
that everything's okay,

until I say, "Marty is dead."

You got it?

lf it's not done, man,
ship the whole office out of here.

-You know what I'm saying?
-MAN: Yes.

COPPOLA:
Okay, I'm really scared, guys.

The first time
I've been scared on this movie.

Whenever Francis gets in trouble
on a picture,

the thing is to keep going,
which I respect and admire.

You gotta keep moving forward.

'Cause, l mean, of course,

the guy had mortgaged his home
and everything else

to be able to make this movie.

We shot masters of scenes.

A lot of that material we shot
with a double over Marty's shoulder.

Then we went back when
he came back and shot the close-ups.

So we had to find work

for the shooting unit

for as long as it was gonna take
to get Marty back.

COPPOLA: Okay...

I'll shoot anything.
Tell me something I can shoot.

CLAYΒOURNE: We're out
of little pickups to shoot.

COPPOLA: I'll shoot the transition
to medevac.

Or I'll do a take of this.
I'll shoot anything.

Give me a break.
What did I accomplish today?

CLAYBOURNE:
You found out, number one,

that we're going to have
a tremendous problem

without Marty with these scenes.

We knew we were gonna have to

at least open one major scene
without Marty.

l knew that a lot.

I told you we could get through
three weeks or four weeks maybe,

but after that, we were in trouble.
We both knew it.

COPPOLA: All I'm saying is,
I'd like to do something.

I feel like I'm this Peck's Bad Boy
who's, like, being unreasonable.

Can I have a club soda?

-Club soda department?
-MAN: Yeah.

(HUMMING)

MILIUS: Who knows
what Francis had put together?

And they brought me back
to put the script back together,

and everybody said,

"Thank God!
He's returned to reason!

"Thank God! This will be
all right now! This is a new day!

"This thing
will finally be released."

They said, "Go in there and tell him
that he's been crazy."

And all this kind of stuff.

I felt like von Rundstedt
going to see Hitler in 1 944,

and l was gonna be telling him

there was no more gasoline
on the eastern front,

and the whole thing
was going to fold.

And l came out
an hour-and-a-half later,

and he had conνinced me
that this was the first film

that would win a Nobel Prize,
you know.

And so I came out of the room
like von Rundstedt,

"We can win!

"We don't need gasoline!"

He had completely turned me around.
l would have done anything.

ELEANOR: April 19th, 1977.

This is Marty's first day back
on the set.

He arrived about an hour ago.

He looks tan and terrific,

just like he came back
from Palm Beach.

Francis put his ear on Marty's chest
to check him out.

He said he looked too good.

WILLARD: Part of me was afraid
of what l would find

and what I would do
when I got there.

I knew the risks,

or imagined I knew.

But the thing I felt the most,
much stronger than fear,

was the desire to confront him.

COPPOLA: What l have to arrive at
in my mind

is Willard's state of mind
when he arrives at the compound.

He could either arrive
incredibly angry

or like a newborn baby.

And I think what he should find
at the end is death.

That at the end of this whole thing,

there is a frightening.. .

A frightening place
that just smells of death.

ELEANOR: In the script,

Kurtz has trained a tribe of local
Montagnard Indians

as his private army.

Rather than dress up Filipino extras
everyday,

Francis has recruited
a tribe of Ifugao Indians

from the mountains to the north.

There is a rumor on the set that,
until recently,

the Ifugao
were practicing headhunters.

Last Saturday, they had a feast.

The old men of the tribe sat
in the priest's house and chanted.

I wanted to film the ceremony,

so their mayor asked
permission for me to shoot.

I was told if I entered,

I could not leave
during the first set of chants.

l was interested in documenting,
photographing the actual ritual

that they performed.

They began at night,
inside their hut up on stilts,

and they drank a lot of rice wine
and chanted,

and they told a long story
in their own language.

This went on during the night.

The next morning, they began to kill
some chickens and look at their bile

and tell the fortune of the tribe.

And then they killed some pigs
in a very sacrificial way.

(PlGS GRUNTING)

(SHRIEKlNG)

ELEANOR: By this time,

I felt that there was something
very profound and moving

so I ran back to the house
to get Francis.

"You've got to see this,

"because they're going to kill
a caribou."

He was writing
and didn't really wanna come,

but I really encouraged him
to come back to the location.

And we got back there
just maybe 1 0 minutes

before they killed this caribou
in this ritual way.

The caribou was standing there,

and they just seemed to come out
from nowhere

and just kill it very quickly
with these big machetes,

and it fell to the ground.

There was something very beautiful
and strong and profound

about these people
who killed this animal,

and then they all ate it
at a festival,

kind of like Thanksgiving.

As Francis and I
were getting ready to leave,

the mayor asked
if we would do the priest

the honor of accepting
the best part of the caribou

that is usually reserved for him,
the heart.

We thanked him.

Through a translator,

he said that he would like
his picture taken with Francis.

I took a photograph

of the two priests and Francis
standing there together.

COPPOLA:
It was enough like people in war

who get set up
like little tribal chieftains

to stimulate the imagination
along those lines.

A film director is kind of
one of the last

truly dictatorial posts left

in a world
getting more and more democratic.

So that, plus being

in a distant, Oriental country,

the fact that
it was my own money

and that I was making it
on the crest

of the acclaim
of the Godfather films,

you know, I was wealthy,

did contribute to a state of mind
that was like Kurtz.

What did they tell you?

WlLLARD: They told me

that you had gone

totally insane,

and that your methods were

unsound.

Are my methods unsound?

l don't see any method at all, sir.

ELEANOR: Thirty-eight takes

and Francis said the scene
was never the way he wanted it.

The people who were
playing the severed heads

sat in their boxes
buried in the ground

from 8:00 in the morning
till 6:00 at night.

All day they were in the hot sun

with smoke blowing on them.

Between takes,
they were covered with umbrellas.

lt's nice because this is
the moment when Chief dies,

that he looks up
and sees this harlequin figure

waνing all the people away.

He sees, essentially, Dennis Hopper.
Know what l mean?

PHOTOJOURNALIST:
Zap them with your siren, man.

COPPOLA: I have Dennis Hopper
playing a spaced-out photojournalist

with 1 2 cameras who's here
because he's gonna get the truth,

and it's all, "Man!" You know?

And he's a wonderful apparition.

l'm an American! Yeah!
An American civilian. Hi, Yanks.

Hi, American.

HOPPER: I didn't know till two weeks
before l came in

I was even going to be
in the picture,

much less
play the photojournalist guy

in tatters and rags,
taking photographs,

trying to explain

what this was all about
and how it's blowing his mind away.

l was not in the greatest of shape,
you know,

as far as, like,
my career was concerned,

and it was delightful to hear

that I was gonna go
do anything anywhere.

And l really appreciate
Francis' writing,

even though he does
drop it on you sometimes,

and it does take an idiot like me
a whole day to learn it.

Why didn't you say that
to him in the scene?

-Who?
-Something clever like that.

When he says, "Who are you?"
Why didn't you say, "Who are you?"

Because I haven't learned
my lines yet.

l know.
You've had them for five days!

The other thing
I'd like to say is that.. .

Those glasses. ..

These glasses,
l can't see anything through them.

But, like, every crack
represents a life I've saved.

You know what I mean?
They represent a life I've saved.

Say all that in the scene.

I do, but you see,
the director says,

"You don't know your lines."

Well, if you know your lines,

then you can forget them.
You can know, more or less. ..

Oh, I see,
but that's what l'm trying to do.

Forget those lines.

No, but it's not fair to forget them
if you never knew them.

l'm not gonna help you.
You're gonna help him, man.

You're gonna help him.

What are they gonna say,
when he's gone?

'Cause he dies when it dies, man.
When it dies, he dies.

What are they gonna say about him?

"He was a kind man.
He was a wise man.

"He had plans. He had wisdom."
Bullshit, man!

Am l gonna be the one
that's gonna set them straight?

Look at me. Wrong!

You.

ELEANOR: Foryears,
Francis has dreamed

of a group of poets,
filmmakers and writers

who would come together
to form American Zoetrope.

This morning I realized
that this was it,

right here
in the heart of the jungle.

When you stop looking for something,
you see it right in front of you.

WELLES: I'm not disclosing
any trade secrets,

but I want you to understand

that Mr. Kurtz had taken a high seat
amongst the devils of the land.

I mean, literally.

A group of natives appeared
bearing a stretcher.

I looked down on the long,
gaunt figure of Kurtz,

the hollow cage of his ribs,

a bald skeleton head,
like an ivory ball.

INTERVlEWER: What did you do
with Marlon Brando when he arrived?

COPPOLA: Well, he was already
heavy when I'd hired him,

and he promised me
that he was gonna get in shape.

And l imagined if he were heavy,
I could use that.

Βut he was so fat,
he was very, very shy about it.

When l saw him, I said,
"I'll write this as a man

"who really, you know, had indulged
every aspect of himself."

So he was fat, and he had
two or three tribal girls with him

and was eating mangoes
and kind of go the other way.

And he was very, very adamant

that he didn't wanna portray himself
that way.

I mean, clearly, he had just,
kind of, left me in a tough spot.

ROOS: The clock was ticking
on this deal he had.

We had to finish him
within three weeks,

or we'd go into
a very expensive overage.

So the whole company was sitting up
on the set, around the camera,

the crew all poised to go and shoot,

and Francis and Marlon would be
talking about the character.

And whole days would go by.

And this is at Marlon's urging,

and yet, he's getting paid for it.

ELEANOR: One of the things
Francis said to Marlon,

"Read Heart of Darkness.
This is what we're going for."

And Marlon worked hours
with Francis,

trying to develop the dialogue

and develop what it was that
he said in these circumstances.

And, of course, after Francis
had some dialogs with him,

he realized that Marlon
had never read Heart of Darkness,

and it was a complete shock.

COPPOLA: Marlon's basic notes,
as I understood them,

as I just glanced at them,
were all motivation things.

It's like getting in to saying,
"Why is he going on a boat?"

And I can't answer them,

because it's too late for me
to change the structure.

So what I really need from him
are the facts about who he is.

And in a way, I don't even care.

Is he a fat guy

who's got his shirt off
and starting to wear necklaces?

Or is he bulging, is his uniform
bulging at the buttons?

But I know that this guy's
a fucking traitor.. .

You don't let me talk to you.

COPPOLA: See, my problem is not only
I have to come up with a scene,

but it's gotta have the right shape
to fit in the jigsaw puzzle.

Maybe I ought to get Dennis Hopper
in this scene,

so it's just not
with two characters.

-You know.
-HOPPER: No, l don't know.

You know, l don't. Nobody's told me.

COPPOLA: I mean, I have been afraid

to even put Dennis Hopper
and Marlon together

'cause, I haven't figured out what
Marty's going to do with Marlon.

What happens if I got crazy
Dennis Hopper in there?

-HOPPER: I know nothing.
-I'll tell you.

-But you don't let me tell you.
-HOPPER: Oh, I see.

Kurtz found out
that he was an assassin

who was sent to kill him.

HOPPER: l know that.
I have that information.

-Yeah.
-HOPPER: That's what l'm saying.

Okay, just do what I ask.

You just explain the poem.
The reason you're explaining is.. .

HOPPER: I need to know reasons.

I'm telling you the reason.

I can't ever talk more
than a fucking sentence!

You're explaining the poem to him

to indicate to this guy

that he does not understand Kurtz,
that Kurtz is a strange man.

What you're trying to express
is that he's in the twilight zone,

that his twilight zone
is our twilight zone.

It's America's twilight zone.

So that he will not judge him.

So that he will accept him
as a great man and help him.

Okay, man.

There's no good, right, wrong, bad.

One through nine and back to one.

No fractions, no maybes,
no supposes.

You can't travel in space.

You can't go out into space,
without like.. . With fractions.

What are you gonna land on?
One-quarter? Three-eighths?

What are you gonna do when you go
from here to Venus or something?

That's dialectic physics, okay?

Dialectic logic is,
"There's only love and hate."

You either love somebody
or you hate them.

Mutt!

(DlSDAlNFULLY) You mutt.

COPPOLA: So what l should do...

What I should do is just shoot for
the next three weeks irrationally.

ln other words,
if I did an improvisation every day

between Marlon Brando
and Marty Sheen,

would l, at that time,
have more magical

and, in a way, telling moments

than if I just closed down
for three weeks

and write a structure
that then they act?

And the answer would be

I'm much better off
to do an improvisation everyday.

MAN: Two-sixty, take 3.

COPPOLA: What is the blood lust?

The blood lust. ..

The blood lust,

they say,

all the men that l've read about,

they say that the human animal
is the only one that has blood lust.

Killing without purpose.

Killing for pleasure.

You can see light through this.

You take the ones
that are made for garbage detail.

You take the others who are
made to think, but who can't act.

You take.. .

I swallowed a bug.

lt's irresistible
when a bee discovers honey.

He's irresistibly driven.. .

My.. . My friend laughs.

He's my critic.

My only critic perhaps,
outside of myself.

COPPOLA: I mean, in a way,
l'm like on a room

with all the floors
covered with Vaseline

and all these new elements
are coming at me.

And I'm trying to go ahead,

but now I've got Marlon Brando
as an incredible joker to play.

And he's like a force of his own
'cause he don't give a shit.

I want a character
of a monumental nature

who is struggling
with the extremities of his soul

and is struggling with them
on such a level

that you're in awe of it
and is destroyed by them.

lt takes bravery.

The deepest bullets
are not to be feared.

Phosphorous, napalm
are nothing to be feared,

but to look inward,
to see that twisted

mind that lies beneath
the surface of all humans

and to say, "Yes, l accept you.

"l even love you
because you're a part of me.

"You're an extension of me."

(COPPOLA MUTTERlNG)

-What?
-COPPOLA: Can you walk now?

COPPOLA: Why are we in Vietnam?

It's our time to grab
this moment in history.

It's our time to.. .

-To teach.
-COPPOLA: Microphone.

Huh?

I can't think
of anymore dialogue to say.

COPPOLA:
And I am feeling like an idiot

having set in motion stuff
that doesn't make any sense,

that doesn't match,
and yet I am doing it.

And the reason I'm doing it
is out of desperation,

'cause I have no rational way
to do it.

What I have to admit is
that I don't know what I'm doing.

ELEANOR: Well, how do you account
for the discrepancy

between what you feel about it

and what everybody else
who see it feels?

Because they see the magic
of what has happened before.

I'm saying,
"Hey, it's not gonna happen!

"I don't have any performances.

"The script doesn't make sense.
I have no ending."

I'm like a voice crying out, saying,

"Please, it's not working!
Somebody get me off this."

And nobody listens to me!

Everyone says, "Yes, well,
Francis works best in a crisis."

I'm saying, "This is one crisis
I'm not gonna pull myself out of!"

I'm making a bad movie.
So why should I go ahead?

I'm gonna be bankrupt anyway.

Why can't I just have the courage
to say, "It's no good"?

There's almost anything I'd do
to get out of it.

I'm already thinking about
what kind of sickness I can get.

I'm in the rain on the platform
thinking if I just moved a little,

I'd just fall 30 feet.

It might kill me,
it might paralyze me or something.

It'd be a graceful way out.

lNTERVIEWER:
Did you ever fear for his sanity?

ELEANOR: Well, he did, at one point,

he fainted, kind of.. .
He had a collapse.

And he told me

that he could see himself
going down a dark tunnel,

and he didn't know if he was dying
or leaving this reality

or what was happening to him.

But he'd gone to the threshold,

maybe, of his sanity or something.

It was scary,

but also
kind of exhilarating or thrilling

that he would take such risks
with himself

in his experience to go that far.

And l think this film
was all about risking,

risking your money,

risking your sanity,

risking how far you could
press your family members.. .

I mean, everything that he did,

he went to the extremes
to test those fringe regions

and then come back.

Nothing is so terrible
as a pretentious movie.

l mean, a movie that aspires
for something really terrific

and doesn't pull it off is shit,
it's scum,

and everyone will walk on it
as such.

And that's what poor filmmakers,
that's their greatest horror,

is to be pretentious.

So here you are, on one hand,

trying to aspire
to really do something,

on the other hand, you're not
allowed to be pretentious.

And finally you say,
"Fuck it!

"I don't care if I'm pretentious
or not pretentious,

"or if l've done it
or I haven't done it."

All l know is that
l am going to see this movie,

and that, for me,
it has to have some answers.

And by "answers",
I don't mean just a punch line.

Answers on about
47 different levels.

It's very hard

to talk about these things
without being very corny.

You use a word like
self-purgation or epiphany,

they think
you're either a religious weirdo

or, you know,
an asshole college professor.

But those are the words
for the process, this transmutation,

this renaissance, this rebirth,

which is the basis of all life.

The one rule that all man,

from the time
they first were walking around,

looking up at the sun,

scratching around for food
and an animal to kill,

the first concept that,
l feel, got into their head

was the idea of life and death.

That the sun went down
and the sun went up.

That the crop, when they learned
how to make a crop, it died.

In the winter, everything died.

The first man, he must have thought,

"Oh, my God,
it's the end of the world!"

And then all of a sudden,
there was spring,

and everything came alive,
and it was better!

l mean, after all, look at Vietnam.

Look at my movie.
You'll see what l'm talking.

(THE END PLAYING)

(WHISPERING) The horror.

The horror.

(PEOPLE CHATTERlNG)

(PEOPLE APPLAUDlNG)

ORSON WELLES:
The river, sleepless,

crowded with memories
of men and ships,

hunters for gold
and pursuers of fame.

What greatness has not flowed
on the ebb of that river

into the mystery
of an unknown earth?

The dreams of men,
the seed of commonweaIths,

the germs of empires.

The river is black tonight,
my friends.

Look,
it seems to lead into the heart

of an immense darkness.

To me, the great hope

is that now these little
eight-millimeter video recorders

and stuff are coming out,

some people who normally
wouldn't make movies

are gonna be making them.

And, you know, suddenly, one day,

some little fat girl in Ohio
is gonna be the new Mozart

and make a beautiful film
with her little father's camcorder.

And, for once, the so-called
professionalism about movies

will be destroyed forever, and
it will really become an art form.

That's my opinion.