CORRECTION: Sheen didn’t have his heart attack directly after filming in the bamboo cage. The source for the heart attack happening directly after shooting the scene in the bamboo cage and being dragged through the mud was the Peter Cowie book. "It's not surprising that Sheen succumbed, given the ordeals to which he had been subjected in the days prior to the incident - lying in mud in the cage where Kurtz holds him prisoner, covered with snakes, being spat upon, and dragged upside-down through a fetid mire" (Cowie 94). After a timeline question from a patron, I realized that I misread “in the days prior to the incident” as just “days prior to the incident.” It is clear to me now that he meant that those scenes likely contributed to the stress on Sheen’s heart and not that these happened right before the heart attack. Unless there were some pickup shots, the bamboo cage scene was shot Sept/Oct ‘76 and Sheen’s heart attack happened on March 5th ‘77, so quite a long time between the two. I’m not exactly sure what was being shot when Sheen had his heart attack. If you have a source on that, please let me know. Sorry about the confusion.
Four years and twenty episodes is five episodes a year. If there's enough content out there to make it, which there obviously is, is that really something to envy? 😂 Pretty sure there's plenty of things that we spend a month or two on and then put it down only to pick it up for a similar amount of time year after year (like New Year resolutions). ❤
And OP is still finding new stories to tell about this production! I never get bored of movie making documentaries and I think there is still even more to tell about the making of "apocalypse". I have read and watched everything I could find about the making of Apocalypse over the years (even the ridiculously over-priced book by Jerry Ziesmer - which is ok, but only has one short chapter on the making of Apocalypse, and is surely NOT worth $70) and as interested as ever in all the details, and I'm impressed he (Tyler) is still making posts about the movie.
This is a phenomenal examination of one of the greatest films of all time. From Veterans I've heard that this isn't at all representative of the Vietnam War, but that it captures the FEEL of that war better than Platoon or We Were Soldiers - the insanity of it all (including the production). This series continues to be one of the best long-form series available on RU-vid.
I have watched interviews with vets. One guy was speaking about the first man he killed on the battle field. This fella had been with his platoon, but mist fell and he was seperated from his buddies. As he described it, a shape came out of the fog...a Viet Cong soldier and lunged at him. Of course, the GI took this Viet Cong 'shape' out. It was a kill or be killed situation and the American did what he had to do. The surreal nature of the event..the mist, the soldier who appears as nothing more than a shape, a phantom...it all reminds me of the other worldliness of Apocalypse Now.
@@dragonmartijn The American was speaking of killing a Vietnamese soldier. He was telling the story very matter of factly, very stoically. It was not an interview with a warrior or a guy with the stomach for battle. it was an interview with a regular guy who found himself in that position. I'm sure he is glad he walked away, but he certainly isn't proud of what he did.
The more I learn about this movie, the more amazed I am that it got made at all. Absolute madness but it produced one of the greatest movies of all time.
I saw this when it opened in 1979 when there were like 10 people in the theater, then saw it two years later in 1981 when I was in college at the packed student theater, as the movie had already become a cult classic, then saw it on cable and home video in all the years since. Thank you Francis and the crew for sticking it out and making this life-long classic, and for Cinema Tyler for your tenacious grindset for giving us the definitive encyclopedic analysis.
You've really hit your stride with this one Tyler, just when I think you've excelled in research, behind-the-scenes, quotations and archive footage, you come up with this 30-minute deep-dive. Absolutely terrific piece of work, keep up the momentum you've laboured so diligently to achieve. This series and your dedication to making it utterly definitive, is one of the absolute high points of RU-vid. Well done!
"Finally you say fuck it!" A great quote I looked up again recently when I saw a comment online about being pretentious, deep wisdom about creating art, and very revealing about the production. But if you're ever going to make art this bold and iconic, you're going to have to face these fears and smash through the vulnerability as a creator. There are so many lessons from this movie and the production and documentation of it. Lessons on how to live life also even for people without an artistic career.
In Wall Street there is a scene where Bud (Charlie Sheen) rushes to the hospital due to his dad (Martin Sheen) having a heart attack and Charlie has said that brought back memories of him rushing to the Philippines after his father had his heart attack
Apocalypse Now is a masterfully epic film and one of my favorites, along with A Clockwork Orange and Blade Runner. I had the brief pleasure of meeting Martin Sheen while working Security on The Departed film set in Boston some years ago. He was very candid and gracious with me as I praised his Capt. Willard performance by saying that he deserved an Oscar for Apocalypse Now and that I loved the movie. He thanked me and clasped his right hand over his heart and smiled as I courtesy escorted him to his trailer.
My partner and i are film makers. She's producing/directing her first feature film (it's 2d animated) and it's an uphill battle right from the start. She's a normal person who wasn't handed any industry connections on a platter and lives in a country where the industry is very small. At times between funding rounds, she is just hand-drawing the film by herself. Any advantage has been earned through a lot of hard work. In our conversations i am often referring to the craziness on the set of Apocalypse and how FFC still managed to pull it out of the fire to bring home one of the greatest movies ever made. It motivates her to keep going even when she feels overwhelmed by the daunting journey ahead.
What you're describing in immense detail is the monumental stress that no human being could survive. It's amazing Coppola did. That and that film are miracles.
What's awesome about the 70s film industry is all you needed was a handful of contacts in your phone book, Coppola, Walter Murch, Millius...and you knew all the people you needed to know to make a great movie!
Only found out about this series a few days ago and now there’s already a new one. Talk about hype! Still can’t wait for Tyler to eventually get to the Kurtz scenes
And I only recently learned of an amusing thing to come from his heart attack. During filming for The Breakfast Club actor John Kapelos told the young actors not to work so hard on set and how it almost killed Martin Sheen. An apologetic Kapelos did not realize the rather upset Emilio was Martin's son and felt terrible. Many years later Kapelos worked with Martin and told him this story, which Sheen found hilarious. Maybe that's common knowledge but I found it amusing.
Cinema Tyler, thanks for another fascinating documentary about one of my favorite films of all time. The most impressive thing about the making of Apocalypse is that it ever got made - and didn't ultimately turn into another "Heaven's Gate"! Because despite the massive production problems, cost overruns, and incredible extravagance, Francis Not-Ford Coppola STILL managed to carve a timeless masterpiece of a film out of this semi-chaos.
Tyler, your channel is the absolute best for movie history. I am such a huge fan of these videos and your commentary! You can tell you care about putting out a quality product with QUALITY information!!! Even puts corrections in his own comments. Really really enjoy what you do, Thank you very much💚
I just watched the theatrical edition of Apocalypse Now. What a crazy movie. An odyssey through madness, straight into the heart of darkness. Time to watch your videos on making of it now. I see I have 20 eps to catch up on lol.
The original cut is by far the best. "Redux" does not add much to the film's narrative and only slows down the story while it takes everything down a rabbit hole for half an hour.
@@robertmaybeth3434 Yeah, the film has this even pace of episodic insane things happening, so that when he reaches Kurtz, he has already seen the worst of the worst. But as I can see, the redux adds an entire scene of them taking it easy at a plantation, before resuming the journey. I can't see it fitting the pace.
Loving your dedication to this film, man - it's my favorite film of all time; it's the greatest horror/action movie of all time in my eyes. No film captures the absurdity, madness, and lust for pointless violence that human beings have hard-wired into them.
Saw it in the fall of '79. In the year before its release, I remember seeing odd updates on the progress of the filming on programs like the Today show. There was a clip of the Ride of the Valkyries scene, and I assumed it was going to be kind of dark humorous romp, Like Catch 22. I was one of the few people in the theater and from the very beginning, with the sounds of the chopper blades and the first strains of The End, you knew something momentous was about to happen. My girlfriend's dad had died in a POW camp during the war. I told her not to watch the flick.
I saw three guys who were obviously just back from boot camp watch Apocalypse Now in the same theatre I was in just until the air cavalry assault on the VC village. They were all cheering and then got up as soon as it was over and left. They were off to Panama or Grenada or some stupid war and I thought to my self, you poor deluded fools.
During the confusion of the boat arrows scene the golden retriever puppy is lost and Lance's ideals of innocence are influenced for good and bad. Specifically I always found it poignant using an American Golden Retriever for the symbolism of the dog. Not exactly a breed found in this region due to heat issues. But the messaging is there, it grabs at your heart strings that the young animal disappears without a reason or a trace and leaves us wondering.
Not many of us will ever manage an army of hundreds of artisans, hobnob with Robert Duvall and Marlon Brando, or dine on fresh pasta flown in from Italy after a day in the sweltering Philippine jungle, all while gambling our reputation, financial assets, and even sanity on the outcome of it all. Still, I think we can all relate to Coppola’s epiphany at 23:55 when he comes to understand that, hey, what’s the worst that can happen? Succeed or fail, life will go on. Sometimes that’s all it takes to move forward.
I know I've seen the destruction of Kurtz's compound, and I believe it was in a French language broadcast of the film in Canada, and that would be over 30 years ago now. It was during the closing credits. Everywhere else the closing credits are just crawling over black? I need to watch this film again soon.
Long story short: the original 70mm roadshow screenings had no end credits at all; audiences were given a printed program. (I used to own one of those, and wish I still did.) The regular theatrical prints had the end credits play over infrared footage of the compound being destroyed, which is what you remember seeing, and were also included on the original video releases. But over the years Coppola came to feel that audiences were mistakenly assuming the sequence was making the story point that Willard had called in the air strike, which was incorrect, so he substituted the white-on-black credits instead. Personally, I’ve always thought that was a mistake. Vietnam was the rock and roll war, and Mickey Hart’s throbbing percussion combined with the wailing electric guitar and Vitttorio Storaro’s cinematography are like an acid rock concert from the depths of Hell - a perfect coda to Coppola’s masterpiece.
@@michaelhall2709 Thank you! I still have the program from seeing the original release (in Toronto). It is so long ago that I don't remember a lack of end credits.
Tyler your series is amazing . Apocalypse and jaws are my 2 favorite movies . One scene in apocalypse I never understood was what the banner is about when the boat goes down the river and lance pops the purple haze . What is the banner about ?
I bought it on RU-vid. Only $2 and has the classic David Bowie/Klaus Nomi performances - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rt_jNDdgCgk.htmlsi=ASNTcilmrBljhdii
@@HT-io1eg Like the making of of Jaws or the original Star Wars making movies were difficult. Today it is a pampered crew, with a director looking at a monitor sipping coffee. So many movies from the 1970s have great stories behind them, like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Dawn of the Dead. Is anyone inspired by movie making today?
I hate the concept that states that movies need to be a certain time length for "pacing" reasons. I think "Redux" is the best version because you're shown the whole messy story, rather than someone's trimmed, sleek version. Live is never like this. That is why the "Dune" remake is so weak; it does no justice to the story and has to cut too much out of the plot...pacing, again. Legendary Jazz Pianist Cecil Taylor stated that as he prepared for a performance..."the audience ought to prepare too". Go piss on your own time. Sit down, shut up, and enjoy the ride.