In the July 1975 issue of Playboy Magazine,
Francis Ford Coppola gave an interview on The Godfather Part II and The Conversation,
in which Coppola had this to say about the enormous impact The Godfather films have had:
“Let me make a statement about power: From now on, I’m determined to give tremendous
thought to the impact any project I undertake will have on the public. It may sound wordy,
it may sound obvious, but very few filmmakers ever really do that” (Directors Interviews
92). The Godfather films play with the theme of
power and influence in a world of laws and structure, but what happens when there is
no structure? Who’s in charge here? Charge? I don’t know, man. I’m just the
night man. Doing what I’m told. When asked about what would be his next film,
Coppola had this to say, "My next project is going to be delicate in that context. It’s
going to be a film about Vietnam, although it won’t necessarily be political— it
will be about war and the human soul. But it’s dangerous, because I’ll be venturing
into an area that is laden with so many implications that if I select some aspects and ignore others,
I may be doing something irresponsible. So I’ll be thinking hard about it” (Directors
Interviews 93). Hello cinephile, Tyler here. You are watching
Part One of a series where I uncover the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.
Like my 2001: A Space Odyssey series, I will take you through the film from beginning to
end telling you the stories behind the story, but this time, we will be making some pit
stops along the way to talk specifically about the development, script, casting, editing,
reception, and... something I’ll tell you about a little bit later. These are the main resources that will carry
us through the film. You may have seen the incredible documentary filmed by Eleanor Coppola
on the making of Apocalypse Now titled Hearts of Darkness, with the help of these and many
other resources will give us a more complete picture of what these artists went through
and what Apocalypse Now means to filmmaking and film history. So, why Apocalypse Now? The story of the making
of Apocalypse Now is one of doubt and struggle, but perhaps more important considering what’s
going on with the industry today, Apocalypse Now is about risk. Apocalypse Now is a very
special case-study in film history— a large budget epic art film done independently without
studio interference on Coppola’s vision— something that was only possible because of an
unprecedented period in Hollywood lining up with Coppola’s unique circumstances after
The Godfather Parts 1 and 2 and The Conversation. Click the CC button if you’d like to see
the transcript with citations and smaller quotes. Also, I’m just one guy doing this, so I
will probably make some mistakes along the way. Nicely point them out with sources and
I will pin the corrections to the top of the comments. Let’s get started! Apocalypse Now is loosely based on Joseph
Conrad’s 1902 novella, Heart of Darkness following a boat journeying up the Congo River—
there, a man tells the story of his obsession with an ivory trader named Kurtz (Wiki). The story was based on Conrad’s actual experiences
working for a company that brought goods back from the jungle for trade (Travers 83). The setting of Apocalypse Now changes the
backdrop of the Heart of Darkness story to center around the Vietnam War in which the
communist North Vietnam, with the support of communist allies like the Soviet Union
and China, fought the anti-communist South Vietnam, supported by anti-communist allies
like the Philippines, Australia, and the United States (Wiki). The war happened during the United States’
Cold War with the Soviet Union and it is considered to be a “proxy war” in which the United
States and the Soviet Union could fight without having to actually go to war with each other
(Wiki). The idea to recontextualize the Heart of Darkness
story around the Vietnam War was thought of by John Milius and George Lucas (Martin 209).
Many had tried to adapt Heart of Darkness for the screen and failed. The most notable
of these failures would have to be the adaptation that, if it had been made, would have been
Orson Welles’ first film… instead of Citizen Kane (Hearts of Darkness). Welles performed the story with others in 1938 as part of his radio series “The Mercury Theater on the
Air” (Travers 83). The offing was barred by a black bank of
clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed
sombre under an overcast sky—seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness. They did screen-tests and designed sets, but
[quote] “the studio backed away fearing that Welles elaborate film would go over-budget”
(Hearts of Darkness). We’ll talk about this more in a later episode.
The production of Apocalypse Now has become legendary for its many difficulties ranging
from casting issues, health issues, a typhoon, and even military coups (Martin 209). Francis
Ford Coppola himself kind of went on this downward spiral of doubt and frustration and
nearly lost his mind. Apocalypse Now was released near the end of
the New Hollywood movement— also known as the Hollywood Renaissance— in which Hollywood
studios took more risks and gave more leeway to the directors’ vision (Wiki). One of the main traits of New Hollywood movies
is taking a “revisionist” approach to filmmaking— shedding the [quote/unquote]
“traditional” approach that was prevalent in the 1950s (Martin 209). Here, we see a surreal depiction of the Vietnam
War by people who never served. But even here, the war is more of a symbolic backdrop than
something trying to be historically accurate or contain a realistic view of the events.
Still, with the drug use by soldiers and the bizarre nature of the war itself, Apocalypse
Now seems almost like a good historical account of the mentality of the war and how insane
it was that the United States were even involved-- Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be
thy name… —as well as the effect it had on the soldiers,
on American culture, and on our view of human nature. It’s important to understand Francis Ford
Coppola’s life leading up to Apocalypse Now. Before Apocalypse Now, people only knew
Francis Ford Coppola for being so good at filmmaking, that he won a Best Picture Oscar
against himself for a sequel to a movie that also won the Best Picture Oscar— not to
mention winning a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for both. The Godfather Part II— Francis Ford Coppola,
Gray Frederickson, and Fred Roos. But let’s go further back and look at the
parts of his life that specifically relate to what we’ll talk about in the rest of
the series. Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939 to Italia
and Carmine Coppola. Carmine was a composer and flutist, not a flautist I asked him once, of course, what’s the
difference between a flutist and a flautist and he said, ‘fifty dollars a week.' Carmine would go on to compose and perform
original music for his son’s films: The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Apocalypse
Now, The Outsiders, and The Godfather Part III (Wiki). When Francis was young, he was diagnosed with
polio and like fellow iconic director Martin Scorsese, he spent a decent chunk of his childhood
bedridden, which likely fostered his love of storytelling because he would pass the
time by putting on little theater productions with his homemade puppets (Wiki). And his grandfather Pennino gave him a 16mm film projector (Travers 15). Coppola said, “there was about a year and
a half when I stayed at home. I was paralyzed for a while. And so I basically watched television,
and listened to the radio, and played with a tape recorder, and puppets, and my day was
made up of those kinds of things (achievement.org). So, I guess if you want to make a legendary
film director, just confine them to a bed during childhood. Coppola majored in theater arts at Hofstra
College, but changed his focus to filmmaking after seeing Sergei Eisenstein’s October:
Ten Days That Shook the World — reportedly, he was very taken with the film’s editing
(Wiki). After getting his degree from Hofstra, he
went to UCLA Film School where he directed a couple of shorts and then he made a soft-core
comedy movie called Tonight For Sure, or did he just edit it? Either way this got him a
job recutting a German film and adding in nude scenes for an American drive-in audience
(Wiki). Coppola: “They were made out of different
films and the director was in Germany and I didn’t honestly every believe— and I
say this sincerely— that I was ever going to see my name on the screen because it seemed
like it was so magical to see, ‘directed by someone,’ so I just put ‘directed by
Francis Coppola’ and I put ‘music by Carmine Coppola’ because I wanted to see my father
get a credit. No one was there to argue, but I’ve had to live that down ever since. I was like the third editor.” He was then hired by “The Pope of Pop Cinema”
himself Roger Corman, to recut and completely dub over a Russian sci-fi movie called Battle
Beyond the Sun where Coppola wrote new dialogue to change the story and remove all the anti-American
propaganda (Wiki). Coppola even directed some footage of “space
monsters fighting” to be put into the film (Wiki). After seeing his work, Corman hired
him for various creative jobs on some movies he was directing (Wiki). Coppola was recommended
to Corman by Dorothy Arzner, a legendary film director who got her start in the late silent
era and taught at UCLA while Coppola was a student (Travers 20). Roger Corman had a unique way of doing things.
The “Corman Model” was to make super cheap movies with sex or violence “every ten minutes”
and promote the movie like an event (FlavorWire). If people thought the movie sucked, no matter,
by the time word got around, the next movie would be coming out. The new “Film School
Generation” was in full swing and Corman would hire these kids fresh out of University
for cheap. Corman might as well be a cinematic saint
at this point— not as much for his own films as his impact on the industry. He pretty much
gave us Jonathan Demme, Peter Bogdanovich, Ron Howard (as a director), John Sayles, James
Cameron, Martin Scorsese, and Francis Ford Coppola who all got their start (or break)
with Corman — not to mention actors like Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, and Dennis Hopper
(Wired). I’m an American! Corman was kind of an incubator for budding
filmmakers. Corman once told Ron Howard, “If you do a good job on this film, you’ll never
have to work for me again” (Wiki). Corman was actually honored with some cameos in his
proteges’ films including Coppola’s The Godfather Part II, Jonathan Demme’s The
Silence of the Lambs, and Ron Howard’s Apollo 13 (Wiki). Corman’s philosophy of letting inexperienced
filmmakers run with their creativity was one of the main seeds that would blossom into
the Hollywood Renaissance of the 1970s where many of America’s greatest movies were made. Instead of hiring people to make a [quote/unquote] “traditional movie,” he hired people who
didn’t necessarily know the expected way of doing things. The same thing happened with
Kubrick on 2001: A Space Odyssey with Kubrick hiring some young and less-experienced artists
to help work on the special effects. They didn’t know the “right” or “wrong”
ways of doing things and didn’t have any preconceived notion of whether something was
possible or not. Corman's model also gave rise to the blockbuster,
which is, in essence, Corman’s story structure and promotion formula… but with money (Wired).
It is very likely that Jaws and Star Wars were influenced by Corman’s formula and we all know what happened after those movies came out… (Wired). I actually made a little video about Corman’s
impact on American movies for No Film School if you’d like to know more. One of Coppola’s turning points happened
when Corman had some money left over from a film he was directing with Coppola doing
sound—at this point, Coppola was Corman’s guy-- doing anything and everything from being
a script doctor, to second-unit directing, to, in this case, running sound (Martin 202). Roger Corman: “He was the sound-man, the
second assistant director, and shot second unit all on one picture. Very versatile.” Conan: “Okay, and did you know then, this
kid’s going places?” Corman: “Actually, I knew he was good. I
had no idea that he was going to go to the heights he did.” Coppola said, “About three-quarters through
that film, which was called The Young Racers, Roger was called back home to direct The Raven with
Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff. I knew he couldn’t pass up a bargain to make another film while
we were in Europe. So I said, 'Roger, you know, I have a script that could be made.
It’s kind of like Psycho.’ He always wanted a film that was like some hit film.
Hitchcock’s Psycho was a big deal at the time. I said, ‘I have this script…' and
he said, ‘Show me some of it.’ I showed him the three pages I wrote that
night, which was of course the most garish kind of action scene I could come up with.
And he said, “Okay.” And I went off. He gave me a check for $20,000. He sent me with
a young woman who had worked on the production who was going to be the co-signer — and
I went to Ireland. When I was in Ireland, I met another producer, and I said I was making
a film for Roger, and this guy offered to buy the English rights for another $20,000.
So I had now $40,000. Roger, of course, expected to get his $20,000 back, still make the movie
for the 20 with the English rights, and get the film for free. But I sort of just duped
him. I took both checks and I put it in the bank. And I had this young woman sign the
check, and I just kind of made the amount to the whole amount, so she basically was
out of the check signing. Then I made the movie for $40,000, which was this little black-and-white
horror film called Dementia 13, which we made in about nine days” (achievement.org). One who walks with silent tread and strikes
with ruthless force… It was on the set of Dementia 13 that Coppola
met Eleanor Neil and, in 1963, they would be married (Wiki). And look who it is! Patrick
Magee from Barry Lyndon and A Clockwork Orange! Shortly after Dementia 13, Coppola won the
Samuel Goldwyn Writing award for a screenplay that would never be produced, but it got Coppola
writing jobs for an up-and-coming studio called Seven Arts (Martin 202). Let’s jump ahead a bit to 1969 when Coppola
founded his own studio with a friend named George Lucas called American Zoetrope as a
way to make movies outside of the Hollywood studio system’s control (Wiki). He had made an independent personal film called
The Rain People and leased the warehouse they had used as a soundstage to be the makeshift
headquarters of American Zoetrope (Martin 204). Making The Rain People proved to Coppola
that he could make a film on the cheap without relying on the studio system (Martin 204). At the same time, three other Corman proteges:
Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson, and Peter Fonda had just come out with a super cheap indie
movie that became a big success— Easy Rider. George Lucas said, "Francis saw Zoetrope
as a sort of alternative Easy Rider studio where he could do the same thing: get a lot
of young talent for nothing, make these movies, hope that one of them would be a hit, and
eventually build a studio that way” (Martin 204). Coppola was a little older than many of the
other “greats” of the film school generation and he was the first of them to work in Hollywood.
While working at Warner Bros., he would steal film stock from the supply room for Zoetrope
and had promised to bring his friends up with him when he finally “made it” (Travers
88). Patton came out in 1970, which Coppola co-wrote
the screenplay for. 20th Century Fox thought it was a little bizarre— Coppola said, “the script was very controversial
when I wrote it, because they thought it was so stylized. It was supposed to be like, sort
of, you know, The Longest Day… I was sort of interested in the reincarnation. And I
had this very bizarre opening where he stands up in front of an American flag and gives
this speech. That's why Americans have never lost and will never lose a war. Ultimately, I wasn’t fired, but I was fired, meaning that when the script was done, they said, “Okay, thank you very much,” and they went and hired another writer and that script was forgotten. And I remember very vividly this long, kind of being raked
over the coals for this opening scene” (achievement.org). George C. Scott, who played Patton in the
movie, said that he would only do it if they used Coppola’s script and so they did (Wiki).
The speech is now iconic and Coppola won an Academy Award for the screenplay (Wiki). I know that Mr. Coppola would join me in thanking
you very much for this award. This Oscar, made possible by George C. Scott’s
decision, in effect thrusted Coppola’s into the mainstream. By the way, Scott won best actor and refused
the award for a interesting reason— he was the first one who did that and he said that
he wouldn’t accept the award because he [quote] “believed that every dramatic performance
was unique and could not be compared to others” (Wiki). A couple years later, Marlon Brando
would also decline the award, but he declined the award because of the “poor treatment
of Native Americans in the film industry” (Wiki). It’s interesting how both of those Best Act or refusals were for movies that Coppola co-wrote. Warner Bothers made a deal with Coppola to
finance several of Zoetrope’s scripts (Travers 4). The first slate of Zoetrope projects included
The Conversation and Apocalypse Now, but before those would be George Lucas’ first feature,
based on a student film he made, titled THX-1138 (Martin 205). They took the film to Seven
Arts who financed the project. At this point they had merged with Warner Brothers and became
Warner-Seven Arts. Warner-Seven Arts [quote] "hated Lucas’s film so much that they cited
a clause in Coppola’s contract: if they deemed a film to be unsuitable for release,
he had to buy back the picture from them” (Martin 205). They suddenly called the financing “a loan”
and wanted it repaid (Travers 65). So one day, everything is going great with a slate
of scripts ready to go and the next day, everything is put on hold and Coppola is “about $300,000”
in debt (Travers 65). He would have to repay the money or buy back all of their scripts
(Travers 65). To put this in perspective, Lucas was quoted saying “There probably
was only a handful of professional athletes in America making as much as $100,000 per
year in 1970 (Travers 66). Coppola thought that the contract he had with Warner-Seven
Arts was [quote] “a solid multi-picture deal,” but who knows how much he was aware
of this 'turn-all-of-your-funding-into-a-loan' clause (Travers 65). Coppola said, "My enthusiasm and my imagination
far outpaced any kind of financial logic… I wasn’t associated with anyone who was
the businessman of the group. It was all me, and I was forging ahead without looking back
and seeing whether we could afford this or that” (Travers 66). The only thing keeping
Coppola from completely going under was the success of Patton that was a hit in theaters
during 1970, however, the money being made by Coppola wasn’t going to be enough to
save Zoetrope (Travers 66). The stage was now set for one of those cinematic
miracles— Paramount was looking for someone of Italian decent to direct a little mafia
adaptation called The Godfather (Martin 205). Robert Evans, the head of Paramount, knew
that mafia movies usually do poorly when they are directed by non-Italians— that’s why
he first offered the job to Sergio Leone, but he was busy making his own mafia movie:
Once Upon a Time in America (Wiki). Besides, most of the mafia movies being made became
“flops” and the big directors didn’t want to touch them (SiriusXM). Evans said
that he wanted to [quote] “smell the spaghetti” (Wiki). And you fry some garlic, then you throw in
some tomatoes, some tomato paste, you fry it, you make sure it doesn’t stick… Robert Evans: “I didn’t particularly want
Francis until I met with him. And he’s brilliant and he’s operatic and really what makes
the picture work is the opera of it.” Coppola originally didn’t want to make a
mafia movie for fear of disparaging his Italian heritage and because he wanted to do “art
films.” He had written The Conversation at this point and was really trying to get
that made, but with Lucas reminding him that they were out of money and Coppola’s realization
that he could make the story more about American capitalism, he agreed (Wiki). I’m tellin’
ya, most of the best movies combine artistic expression and commercial appeal. Lucas said, “For him, it wasn’t really,
Should I do this movie?… It was, Can I really accept the fact that the dream of Zoetrope,
of this alternative studio, all this stuff we’d been talking about for the last two
years—failed? Because at that point, Zoetrope fell apart. Francis was very disappointed
when the whole thing collapsed, but he had to pay his debt back"(Travers 68). Evans would attempt to fire Coppola from The
Godfather in 1971, but before he could, Coppola won the Oscar for writing Patton and Evans
couldn’t fire an Oscar winner (Travers 4). The story of making The Godfather deserves
a whole series of videos, so I’m only going to talk about the stuff that will be relevant
later in this series. Coppola really wanted Marlon Brando for the role of Vito Corleone
but Paramount wanted Ernest Borgnine (Wiki). Even though he won an Academy Award for screenwriting, Coppola didn’t have much clout in Hollywood. He went on and on about wanting Brando, but
the Evans wouldn’t hear of it. Coppola: “I was told by the president of
Paramount Pictures, ‘Francis, Marlon Brando will not appear in this movie and I forbid
you, as president of Paramount, to bring his name up again’ and at which time, I fell
on the floor in a faint — I did it deliberately— and he said, ‘what!?’ And I said, “Well,
if I can’t even talk about it, then what kind of a director am I?” And he said, “Okay,
you can talk about it.” Evans finally relented under the conditions
that Brando do the movie for free, do a screen test, and put up a one million dollar bond
in case anything goes wrong (92nd Street Y). He went to Brando’s house and filmed
him trying out some characterizations for the [quote/unquote] ’screen test’ and
went over Evan’s head to the president of Gulf and Western, which had acquired Paramount
Pictures, and Coppola turned on the video of Brando’s screen test. Coppola: “And Charlie Bluhdorn said, ‘No,
no, absolutely n… that’s incredible!’” And that’s how Brando got hired (92nd Street
Y). They didn’t make him put up the bond, but they only paid him something like $120,000 (92nd
Street Y). So Coppola built his career on taking risks—
sometimes failing, but sometimes… Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola for The
Godfather! Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo! The winner is Francis Ford Coppola for The
Godfather Part II! The Godfather won every award and made every
dollar and now tops every list and Francis Ford Coppola is a household name. Coppola: “Firstly, I’d like to thank Peter
Bart who was responsible for getting me this job in the first place, which sort of rescued
me from my wonderful romantic financial adventure in San Francisco, which still lives.” A couple years later, Coppola found himself
directing two films— The Conversation and The Godfather Part II and this lead to him
being nominated against himself for Best Picture at the Academy Awards— winning for The Godfather
Part II— and also winning Best Adapted Screenplay. Godfather Part II— Francis Ford Coppola,
Gray Frederickson, and Fred Roos. By the way, let’s look at that clip of Coppola
winning against himself again. Look, he also won against his old nemesis Robert Evans who
produced Chinatown that year. The stage was now set for a low-budget Vietnam
war movie called Apocalypse Now. The director? George Lucas. If you’d like to support this series, I
made some digital extras so that you can donate and get something in return. Or you can join CinemaTyler on Patreon and get access to everything for $5. Thanks for watching!
