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The world was supposed to end last weekend, which is handy as it means we can enjoy our Apocalypse Now as the greatest (and craziest) war movie ever made comes to Blu-Ray. Chris Sullivan talks to stars Martin Sheen and Robert Duvall...
Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now is seen by many as the best war film ever made while the behind-the-scenes stories, as described in the documentary Hearts Of Darkness, are almost as crazy as the war the film itself depicts.
The film’s stars Martin Sheen (Captain Willard - whose mission is to assassinate Marlon Brando’s renegade Colonel Kurtz) and Robert "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" Duvall who plays Air Cavalry Colonel Kilgore tell us about their time on the movie.
Your scene in the hotel room at the start of the movie, to the tune of The End by The Doors, is memorable in the extreme…
Martin Sheen: That is a psychotic episode, it’s personal pain gone public. I’d done that before on occasion and it’s very scary. It’s a cry for help. This time, when it started, Francis tried to stop it. I said: ‘No, I want to do this one on camera; I want to see what this looks like.’ And in some way it was a good thing, though it was very difficult.
Colonel Kilgore was originally written for Gene Hackman, right?
Robert Duvall: I think Hackman was going to play the part, and when he didn’t, I asked Coppola for it, saying ‘Just this one time, please,’ and he gave it to me. Also, as I’m sure you know, they had Harvey Keitel for Martin’s part, but they fired him.
Martin, In the aftermath of your work in the Philippines, you kicked the booze and found faith in God, so the experience was a boon really, right?
MS: I was able to see very clearly that I could no longer hide from the trouble I was in. It was now a public fact. And my drinking had contributed to this madness, but I was able to heal that brokenness. I was able to unite the will of the spirit to the work of the flesh, and to become a balanced human being. And I realised that I was loved, and that I think is the beginning of happy life: that you don’t have to anything more than be aware of your humanity, your brokenness, your problems. All those things that make you human are the reason that you’re loved.
RD: I did the Charlie Rose Show one time, and I bumped into Sean Penn afterwards. He said he’d been watching the show with Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando, and when Charlie had asked me about working with Brando I’d said, ‘He was so talented, but he was so fat and so lazy…’ And Brando sat there saying: ‘What’s he saying about me? Bastard! Ahh, he’s right!’ What an experience that film was, though. We were always fooling around with Francis in particular. I used to go to him on Apocalypse Now, ‘Why don’t you treat your wife right?’ Because he was flirting with all these girls - he was crazy, Coppola - but he was a talented man.
Did you used to rib Marlon on set?
RD: Back then, not so much! But I remember on The Godfather, big Lenny Montana (Luca Brasi), he was professional wrestler and he was really connected to the Mob. Well, he did that scene with Brando, saying that he hoped he had a beautiful son and so forth, and when
they first did it, after he’s done he sticks his tongue out at Brando and written on it are the word, ‘Fuck you!’ Brando laughed and ruined the take. We did keep the set loose that way. On The Godfather II, though, Jimmy Caan wasn’t around, so it wasn’t as much as fun.
RD: Dennis Hooper was so hopped up on dope; he did 50 takes in one day. Or 48 at least. And Francis was going nuts, screaming, ‘Will you do it my way!’ And, I remember this: Hopper said to Coppola, really. ‘Listen, motherf***er, I’ve directed, acted and played Gabby Hayes all in one movie, and what have you done?’ That’s what he’d say! Honestly! It was a mess. It was nightmare, but fortunately no one was killed and it kind of worked out.
Do memories of the production fill you with unusual feelings?
MS: Many years later, after I’d sobered up and got my life back together, they were about to release Hearts of Darkness. Then they sent around a tape and I invited over a friend who didn’t know me back when I was shooting Apocalypse. We watched it together and when it ended this person was very quiet. I said: ‘How do you feel?’ And they said, ‘I don’t want to offend you, but it’s very scary, and you look like you’re in trouble.’ I said, ‘That’s not me, that’s who I was.’ So, for me, it’s good to see things like that, to remind myself that I’ve moved away from that. It’s discomforting and embarrassing, but watching that documentary, it’s another guy. It’s not me.
Then you had cast and crew succumbing to tropical diseases, and then a typhoon wrecked the set…
RD: There were so many things that happened. For me, I worked for six weeks, then I left for six months and then came back for three weeks to do the first half of my part; it was that broken up. They had the typhoon, which ruined the sets and led to a 10-month hiatus. It was interesting though as we were getting just one shot a day, that was it. The cinematographer would insist on waiting for the sun. We had these little bamboo hooches for us, made by these women with machetes. It was nice for us a lot of the time, this kind of primitive life. We’d break for day, maybe do a shot, come back in the jeep, do a little body surfing, because it was good surf there. Then we’d have dinner, and then maybe play basketball. We had crap food though. All the Italians would bring their own lovely food, but we had to eat this shit!
You went straight from one war film to another after you finished Apocalypse Now. Were you a glutton for punishment?
RD: Yeah. It was funny because I had to go to England to do The Eagle Has Landed as soon as I had finished on Apocalypse. When I was leaving the set, I got in the helicopter and as it was going up I dropped my drawers and mooned them! That seemed a fitting tribute.
Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now is seen by many as the best war film ever made while the behind-the-scenes stories, as described in the documentary Hearts Of Darkness, are almost as crazy as the war the film itself depicts.
The film’s stars Martin Sheen (Captain Willard - whose mission is to assassinate Marlon Brando’s renegade Colonel Kurtz) and Robert "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" Duvall who plays Air Cavalry Colonel Kilgore tell us about their time on the movie.
Martin Sheen: That is a psychotic episode, it’s personal pain gone public. I’d done that before on occasion and it’s very scary. It’s a cry for help. This time, when it started, Francis tried to stop it. I said: ‘No, I want to do this one on camera; I want to see what this looks like.’ And in some way it was a good thing, though it was very difficult.
Colonel Kilgore was originally written for Gene Hackman, right?
Robert Duvall: I think Hackman was going to play the part, and when he didn’t, I asked Coppola for it, saying ‘Just this one time, please,’ and he gave it to me. Also, as I’m sure you know, they had Harvey Keitel for Martin’s part, but they fired him.
Martin, In the aftermath of your work in the Philippines, you kicked the booze and found faith in God, so the experience was a boon really, right?
MS: I was able to see very clearly that I could no longer hide from the trouble I was in. It was now a public fact. And my drinking had contributed to this madness, but I was able to heal that brokenness. I was able to unite the will of the spirit to the work of the flesh, and to become a balanced human being. And I realised that I was loved, and that I think is the beginning of happy life: that you don’t have to anything more than be aware of your humanity, your brokenness, your problems. All those things that make you human are the reason that you’re loved.
"He was so talented, but he was so fat and so lazy..."You knew Marlon Brando already from The Godfather, Robert. What are you memories of him on this shoot?
RD: I did the Charlie Rose Show one time, and I bumped into Sean Penn afterwards. He said he’d been watching the show with Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando, and when Charlie had asked me about working with Brando I’d said, ‘He was so talented, but he was so fat and so lazy…’ And Brando sat there saying: ‘What’s he saying about me? Bastard! Ahh, he’s right!’ What an experience that film was, though. We were always fooling around with Francis in particular. I used to go to him on Apocalypse Now, ‘Why don’t you treat your wife right?’ Because he was flirting with all these girls - he was crazy, Coppola - but he was a talented man.
Did you used to rib Marlon on set?
RD: Back then, not so much! But I remember on The Godfather, big Lenny Montana (Luca Brasi), he was professional wrestler and he was really connected to the Mob. Well, he did that scene with Brando, saying that he hoped he had a beautiful son and so forth, and when
they first did it, after he’s done he sticks his tongue out at Brando and written on it are the word, ‘Fuck you!’ Brando laughed and ruined the take. We did keep the set loose that way. On The Godfather II, though, Jimmy Caan wasn’t around, so it wasn’t as much as fun.
"Dennis Hooper was so hopped up on dope; he did 50 takes in one day."The Apocalypse set was famous for some of the narcotic substances, with Dennis Hopper, in particular, indulging…
RD: Dennis Hooper was so hopped up on dope; he did 50 takes in one day. Or 48 at least. And Francis was going nuts, screaming, ‘Will you do it my way!’ And, I remember this: Hopper said to Coppola, really. ‘Listen, motherf***er, I’ve directed, acted and played Gabby Hayes all in one movie, and what have you done?’ That’s what he’d say! Honestly! It was a mess. It was nightmare, but fortunately no one was killed and it kind of worked out.
Do memories of the production fill you with unusual feelings?
MS: Many years later, after I’d sobered up and got my life back together, they were about to release Hearts of Darkness. Then they sent around a tape and I invited over a friend who didn’t know me back when I was shooting Apocalypse. We watched it together and when it ended this person was very quiet. I said: ‘How do you feel?’ And they said, ‘I don’t want to offend you, but it’s very scary, and you look like you’re in trouble.’ I said, ‘That’s not me, that’s who I was.’ So, for me, it’s good to see things like that, to remind myself that I’ve moved away from that. It’s discomforting and embarrassing, but watching that documentary, it’s another guy. It’s not me.
Then you had cast and crew succumbing to tropical diseases, and then a typhoon wrecked the set…
RD: There were so many things that happened. For me, I worked for six weeks, then I left for six months and then came back for three weeks to do the first half of my part; it was that broken up. They had the typhoon, which ruined the sets and led to a 10-month hiatus. It was interesting though as we were getting just one shot a day, that was it. The cinematographer would insist on waiting for the sun. We had these little bamboo hooches for us, made by these women with machetes. It was nice for us a lot of the time, this kind of primitive life. We’d break for day, maybe do a shot, come back in the jeep, do a little body surfing, because it was good surf there. Then we’d have dinner, and then maybe play basketball. We had crap food though. All the Italians would bring their own lovely food, but we had to eat this shit!
You went straight from one war film to another after you finished Apocalypse Now. Were you a glutton for punishment?
RD: Yeah. It was funny because I had to go to England to do The Eagle Has Landed as soon as I had finished on Apocalypse. When I was leaving the set, I got in the helicopter and as it was going up I dropped my drawers and mooned them! That seemed a fitting tribute.
