How old are you? Seventeen. In screenwriter John Milius' 1969 draft of
the script, we are introduced to the crew who would escort Captain Willard up the Núng
River, not on the boat, but on the dock. Milius writes, “Willard walks down the dock to the waiting
PBR (Patrol Boat, River) - a small light craft - very fast - heavily armed. Beside it stands a crew of FOUR” (‘69
Screenplay 16). The crew was made up of Chief Warrant Officer
R. "Chief" Phillips, Jay "Chef" Hicks, Lance B. Johnson, and Tyrone "Clean" Miller. Coppola filmed something similar to what we
see in Milius’ 1969 draft that was ultimately cut from the movie and replaced with voice-over
while already on the boat. Captain Willard? Quartermaster Chief Phillips, sir. Glad to have you aboard, sir. Captain, meet our crew. I imagine that some changes were made to this
section after Harvey Keitel was removed from the cast. In this episode, we will take a look at the
members of the PBR crew and the actors who played them, Coppola’s philosophy behind
directing actors, and the insane detail that went into creating the Kurtz dossier. All that and more on this episode of Making
Apocalypse Now... The part of Mr. Clean would be played by a
young Laurence Fishburne. How young? Well, he lied about his age, saying that he
was 18 when, in fact, he was only 14 years old at the time he was hired. Apocalypse Now producer Fred Roos–who also
served as the casting director–claims that the production didn’t find out until they
were already on-location in the Philippines (Casting). Fishburne attributes his getting the part
to a secretary who happened to walk into the room while he was meeting with Roos and Coppola. Fishburne: “A young woman who was working
in the office as a secretary got up and walked through. And as she was walking, Francis finally spoke
up and he just looked at her and said, ‘Excuse me, do you think this kid could be eighteen?’
and whoever this young woman was, she turned around and looked at me and said, ‘Yeah,
I guess so.’ And I think that’s how I really got over
on that.” Fishburne would later become a household name
with such varied roles as Furious Styles in Boyz n the Hood, Cowboy Curtis in PeeWee’s
Playhouse, and of course, Morpheus in The Matrix. Fishburne got involved with Apocalypse Now
because he had appeared in the TV movie ‘If You Give a Dance, You Gotta Pay the Band’
that was written by a friend of producer Fred Roos (Casting). Roos had kept Fishburne in mind for future
projects and, when the role of a young soldier from the Bronx came up for Apocalypse Now,
he thought of Fishburne (Casting). I wasn’t able to find a clip from that movie,
but here’s a movie Fishburne acted in shortly after, titled Cornbread, Earl and Me. That’s my cousin. Who? Can’t you see? Cornbread, that’s who! He is not! Is so! [music] He’s Cornbread! Cornbread! [music] Coppola wanted a very young-looking soldier
on the boat to depict the real 16 and 17-year-olds who found themselves involved in a war that
they were too young to really understand (Commentary). Fishburne would celebrate his 15th and 16th
birthdays during filming (Actors Talking). Fishburne: “And that’s, I think, what
my role is about. I mean, it’s about the kids that were over
there… who didn’t know anything about anything. They were just kind of snatched up and used
as cannon fodder for this war.” Fishburne would be chosen over some other
young up-and-comers like actor/director Kevin Hooks (Cowie 20). I heard the guys from Brooklyn are really
bad. Yeah, they bad enough. How bad are you? I don’t expect you want to know. The part of Chef would be played by Frederic
Forrest. Forrest had appeared in Coppola’s The Conversation
and they liked him enough to just give him the part without any screen-testing (Casting). He was hired on with [quote] “a seven-year
contract at $1000 a week for the first year and escalating thereafter” (Cowie 18). [“Provided you use my good side in the scene
where my head is cut off, with Marty”] Milius said, "Chef was one of my ideas. I thought this absurd a kind of trait, to
be a saucier, and he ends up in the Navy, and can’t stand it cause all the food is
ruined” (Travers 101). See, I come from New Orleans. I was raised to be a saucier--great saucier. Forrest ended up being the last of the PBR
actors to feel comfortable in his character. Coppola said that it can take a week or even
three weeks for an actor to feel comfortable playing their role (Commentary). When an actor has trouble finding their character,
Coppola will invite them to dinner (Commentary). He had dinner with Forrest who told him that
he felt like he wasn’t making the movie–that he was visualizing himself in Beverly Hills
(Commentary). Coppola told him to incorporate that into
the character. Forrest: “We felt like, after a while, that
we really weren’t there, it was like, you were in a dream or something, you know? We’d say to Francis, ‘I’m not here Francis,
I’m in Montana with Jack Nicholson.’” Eva can’t picture me in Vietnam. She pictures me at home having a beer, watching
TV. The surfer, Lance, would be played by 21-year-old
Sam Bottoms. Bottoms signed on-to a seven-year contract
at $500 a week for the first year (Cowie 20). Lance is described by Milius in the 1969 draft
as [quote] “a perfect image of the blonde California surfer, which he is” (‘69 Screenplay
16). Bottoms was actually from Santa Barbara, California,
and was still a teenager when he was first approached (Casting). Milius had a strong interest in the California
surfing culture, and between the production and release of Apocalypse Now, Milius would
write and direct a movie dedicated entirely to surfing titled Big Wednesday. There was a scene in the script that explained
that Lance had volunteered to go to Vietnam because he was rejected by a high-school classmate
and cheerleader he was infatuated with, but it was ultimately cut from the movie (Cowie
43). However, it does make an appearance in some
behind-the-scenes footage taken during the casting process. I didn’t know what I was doing with her. She was… man, she was my dream! Bottoms said, “Lance was just a surfer,
his family were all surfers... and he overcame his innocence throughout the whole thing”
(Travers 101). Chief would be played by Albert Hall. Milius describes Chief as “a tough but sloppy
looking man,” but he doesn’t seem sloppy-looking in the final film (‘69 Screenplay 16). Producer Fred Roos had seen Hall in a play
and liked him (Casting). Hall had appeared in plays and on TV, but
hadn’t had many movie roles before Apocalypse Now (Casting). They thought he was perfect for the role of
Chief–the no-nonsense captain of the PBR (Casting). Hall signed the same seven-year contract for
$500 a week for the first year (Cowie 20). Hall: “Francis was the first director I
ever met who kept asking for more. I had never had that challenge before and
I liked it.” Coppola: “And when you get into this anger,
Albert, don’t decide where you’re going to get to. Wherever you get to, as long as it is out
of you, it’s okay.” Following the crew’s introduction on the
dock in Milius’ 1969 draft are some other bits that didn’t make it into the final
film. Lance offers Chief some fish that he “fermented
and fried in motor oil” causing Willard to vomit over the side of the boat (‘69
Screenplay 18). Coppola wrote in the margins of Milius’
script, “OK, he gets sick. But I need more — something between Willard
and the river, the jungle, some observation, a feeling of something deeper, not just amusing”
(Cowie 38). Then Chief tells the crew a story about going
to a massage parlor. Like Lance’s cheerleader story, this was
ultimately cut from the movie, but we can see it performed in the casting featurette
on the blu-ray for The Final Cut. I said, ‘you’ve just been giving me a
hand-massage, now, what is this very special massage? She didn’t want to answer that. Just said I was a ‘very number ten GI.’ Coppola continues his notes, writing, “I
want to start getting into Willard's head here. By now we have got to be into him, interested
in him — and linked with him” (Cowie 38). Now, as you might have noticed, all of the
main actors were signed to these unorthodox seven-year contracts. Pretty much everything about Apocalypse Now
was unique–why should the actor contracts be an exception? According to Steven Travers, Coppola was upset
that he was abandoned by actors like Al Pacino and others from the Godfather movies–actors
who owed their position in the film industry to Coppola’s success and vision (Travers
102). Variety magazine wrote that Coppola’s [quote]
“incentive-laden back-end deals... were his way of getting some 'payback’ from an
industry he arrogantly felt never gave him his due” (Travers 102). Frederick Forrest expected that his seven-year
contract would be for “two or three films” instead of spending an undetermined amount
of time on-location in the Philippines (Travers 102). But now, the production was in full swing
and everyone was ready and willing to give themselves over to the vision of their leader. Sometimes the actors would get pages that
just said, “Scenes Unknown” and they would show up with no idea what they were going
to do that day (Hearts of Darkness). Producer Fred Roos said, “You want, each
day, to say, 'What will we do today?'...You want a real plan for each day, but Francis
is a writer and as the co-writer of the script, he could create things at the moment, and
if an idea came up, he'd sit there all night and write it” (Travers 130). And sometimes, Coppola would skip the writing
part and try an improvisation. Coppola had an interesting technique when
exploring and doing improvisations. Editor Walter Murch said, "Francis had the
notion that if you wanted an actor to investigate a certain part of a character in an improvisational
way, you turn film on it, even if you think the film will never be used, because it makes
the actor wake up -- after all, it could be used, resources are being expended. What you wind up with has a different feel
than if it were just an actor and a director alone in a room saying, "Let's investigate"
(although some of that is done, too)" (Salon). Coppola would usually write up a bunch of
little note cards of different ideas he had for the scene they were about to shoot (Hearts
of Darkness). And then I propose that we do four close-ups–Sam,
Chief, Martin, everyone–looking at the birds, so that I can use the sound of the birds and
maybe three birds going through and I can create the illusion of there being birds. Coppola’s excitement was infectious. John Milius being John Milius had this to
say about Coppola’s leadership, “You know, Francis can convince me of anything. Francis is still my fuhrer. And I use the term intentionally, because
in all my reading about Hitler, I'm convinced that Hilter has never been portrayed correctly. Because he had to be like Francis - he could
get anybody to do anything. So Francis can go to Cannes and hog all the
credit, and when I call him on it, he says, "Well, I got in front of the press and I couldn't
help myself." And I forgive him for it. Because Francis has greatness in him” (Neon
113). ...Montagnard army who worship the man, like
a god, and follow every order however ridiculous. Coppola didn’t want his actors to really
“act,” but instead build their character out of their own personality, saying, “I
don’t make the person play the part, I make the part play the person. People think that you only do that with non
actors. It works great with actors” (Coppola 157). Mister Co-pahla, I presume. Coppola. Don’t give me line readings! Coppola and Roos employed the same approach
they took when casting The Godfather–they saw hundreds of actors in both New York City
and Los Angeles, going in-depth with “weeks and weeks'' of interviews and then screen
tests (Casting). They rented a small commercial soundstage
and had all of the actors in the same room instead of auditioning one at a time while
the others waited outside (Casting). Roos said, “It was free flowing. Not formal. Everyone was around and switching parts”
(Casting). I’d like, Tommy, you read Willard. Freddy’s gonna read Chef. And Sam, you read Lance. And Albert, you read Chief. The PBR crew had been cast already and Coppola
brought in other actors to audition with them, improvise scenes together, and bounce ideas
off of each other (Actors Talking). The point was for everyone to get to know
each other and to have an opportunity to experiment and be creative (Casting). This way, not only do the PBR actors build
a rapport, but they create memories that can be used later. You guys are fresh, you want to get your boat
from here to there, these guys are beginning to get weird. How fat can they get? Let me ask you a question, how much [?] you
got on those strikes? Coppola would have the actors improvise scenes
that weren’t in the script and experiment in a setting where you don’t have to be
afraid of looking foolish. And these sessions were great for building
backstory that could be used during the production. Coppola: “If you’ve got a couple who’s
supposed to have been married for thirty years, imagine a real thirty year old couple, the
memories that they’ve built up. First time they argued, first time they broke
up, first time someone was cheating, if they were, first time this, first time that.” Rodriguez: “So, it might not even be in
the script. It’s not’ just do it’ so you have the
memory of it, and the character--” Coppola: “It’s ‘just do it’ so that,
when you are playing a scene, all of a sudden something happens and there’s just a flicker
in the eye and you know one person is remembering something that--” Rodriguez: “An improvisation.” So, when Sam Bottoms told Lance’s story
about the cheerleader or Albert Hall told Chief’s story about the massage parlor,
they could incorporate those memories into their performance and the other actors can
incorporate it into their performances in how their character views Lance or Chief. That’s when the rockets hit the place. They hit it three times. I think she got zapped. My orders say I’m not supposed to know where
I’m taking this boat, so I don’t. But one look at you and I know it’s gonna
be hot. Wherever it is. But above all, each actor knew that they were
writing their performance and that they and their character were intertwined. Fishburne: “Francis had come to us and said,
‘You guys got the characters down. Don’t act.’” Forrest: “We weren’t acting. We were just living. We had those characters down.” Sheen: “He’d tell me constantly, ‘Willard
is you, whoever you at this time in this place.” And it wasn’t just the actors who were living
their part, Coppola was as well. In a diary entry by Eleanor Coppola from April
28th, 1976–shortly after Martin Sheen replaced Harvey Keitel–Eleanor wrote, “Francis had two readings with the cast
this week. The actors were very enthusiastic, but Francis
is really in a state of anxiety and fear that the script has some good supporting characters
and some good scenes, but Willard and Kurtz are not resolved and here he is in the middle
of this giant production. I remember the anxiety he felt and the struggle
he had with the script of Godfather II, and it seems, in retrospect, at that time he was
himself dealing with the same themes in his own life— money, power, and family. Now he is struggling with the themes of Willard’s
journey into self and Kurtz’s truths that are in a way themes he has not resolved within
himself, so he is really going through the most intense struggle to write his way to
the end of the script and understand himself on the way” (Coppola 43). I took the mission. What the hell else was I going to do? But I really didn’t know what I’d do when
I found him. Meanwhile, Willard opens the Kurtz dossier
and starts to learn about the man he is on a mission to kill. The research process for Apocalypse Now took
from “early spring of 1975 until about June of 1977” and was completed entirely by Deborah
Fine in Los Angeles (Cowie 21). Fine was tasked with researching [quote] “Montagnards;
the NVA (North Vietnamese Army); Cambodian ruins; rubber plantations; combat bunkers;
ARVN operations; US Forces’ wardrobe; China Beach; PBRs (Patrol Boat, River); weaponry;
and USO shows” (Cowie 21). On February 8th, 1976, Coppola sent Fine a
telex about the dossier reading, “Essentially the various envelopes and files in Willard's
pouch contain the main narrative thread of the story. When he was briefed by the General ... he
only really focused on the fact that there was some big assignment, and he was being
sent on it. He does not digest (nor the audience) any
of the details on Green Berets, Col. Kurtz (called Leighley in shot scene must be dubbed
to Kurtz), the Rheault-like murder charge, the phasing out of the Green Berets, the so-called
war-within-the- war between the regular army and the Special Forces, etc. All we show at the beginning of the picture
is that he kills on special assignments, that there's a guy named Kurtz who's out there,
insane - and that he must be killed. · · · Each scene begins with the withdrawal
of a sealed classified document - Willard breaking the seal, and an examination of the
information, pictures, clippings, letters, etc” (Cowie 22). Coppola separated the dossier story into “seven
seals” –each time Willard opens a new piece and reveals more and more about Kurtz. These were: One, “up to Nu Mung Ba” that we see first. Two, takes place after Hau Phat. Three, involves Kurtz’ personal life. Four, goes into a [quote] “more frightening
area of insanity.” Five, is given to him at Do Lung and contains
info about Captain Colby. Six, is Colby’s military file with the letter
that says, “sell the kids.” And seven, contains the codes for the air-strike
(Cowie 22). The physical Dossier prop was incredibly detailed. Fine researched everything down to Kurtz’
“yearbook photo” and how the “letterhead and stamps” would appear on classified military
documents (Cowie 22). Fine even made “tax returns” for Kurtz
as well as “driver’s license” for his wife and tons of letters to his family (Cowie
21). Milius wrote letters that Dennis Jakob revised
(Cowie 21). Coppola filmed Willard reading one of the
letters from Kurtz to his wife, which was cut from the film. I hope no one sees this message, written in
the calm lonely far out languid afternoon with my total love. Readings and long monologues were later replaced
with a narration written by Michael Herr. Herr was a writer and war correspondent most
known for writing Dispatches–a memoir about his time as a correspondent during the Vietnam
War (Herr Wiki). Herr would go on to co-write Stanley Kubrick’s
Vietnam War film, Full Metal Jacket. We’ll talk a bit more about Herr in some
later episodes. The scene ends similarly to how it does in
Milius’ 1969 draft. He writes, “Suddenly there is a slow buffeting as if
the air around them is being sucked out and replaced quickly - The boat shakes slightly
- Willard gets up - there is a distant rolling NOISE like interrupted thunder…” Coppola wrote in the margins “At first it
seems something natural and unfathomable and it frightens [the crew]” (Cowie 38). Hey, what’s that? Arc light. B-52 strike. What’s that? Arc light. The arc light was an operation in which B-52F
bombers that had previously carried nuclear weapons, would instead drop conventional munitions
on enemy areas in Vietnam (Arc Light Wiki). The bombs would be very loud and Coppola intended
to use sensurround–a kind of surround-sound made for movies like 1974’s Earthquake (Sensurround
Wiki). They ended up mixing it in their own version
of sensurround and intentionally made the theater seats rumble with the sound of the
bombs going off in the distance (Commentary). Smoke! Secondary burn! Hueys over there. Lots of Hueys. Tune in next time when we’ll meet Colonel
Kilgore or is it Colonel Kharnage? Played by the legendary Robert Duvall. This episode's one-dollar companion PDF features
some more info on Laurence Fishburne's time in the Philippines, including his friendship
with Emilio Estevez and meeting Marlon Brando. It’s just one dollar and it really helps
the series. Or you can support me on Patreon at the $5
level for access to all of the Companion PDFs I’ve made. Thanks for watching!
