Film: [Apocalypse Now]
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, Robert Duval, Frederick Forrest, Sam Burtons, Harrison Ford
Release date: 15.8.1979
Archaeological Incident
On March 2, 1976, Coppola, assisted by the Philippine Army, began filming his ambitious work [Apocalypse Modern].
——The story behind it——
After completing the first two [The Godfathers], Coppola began planning to adapt Conrad's novel Dark Heart into a film. The original director was George Lucas, a newcomer promoted by Coppola at the time and the future "star boss".
However, Lucas's debut film [five hundred years later] did not do well at the box office, leaving Coppola and his "Diorama" company in deep financial trouble.
▲ Investor Warner did not want "rookie" Lucas to mess up this big case, so Coppola decided to take it upon himself again and venture to the location of the Philippines
Because the film's script seemed "anti-military," U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld refused to lend the crew helicopters and other military equipment.
Of the $35 million in production funding, except for a small amount raised by the issuers, the rest was advanced by Coppola itself.
▲ [Apocalypse Now] The shooting of the first phase alone lasted 238 days, while the subsequent production took more than 700 days
Like the dilemma of all directors, time, place, people, Coppola did not stick to anything, and the release plan originally scheduled for 1977 was not launched until 1979.
Hurricanes in the Philippines have destroyed the entire scene; Marlon Brando's overweight body and Martin Sheen's heart attack; and even Coppola's marriage has been in a hurry.
Coppola once lamented: "In the year and four months of staying in the Philippines, we are like an expeditionary force. ”
▲ The filming process of [Apocalypse Now] may be regarded as the most chaotic and laborious in the history of cinema
Works of influence
Such a "long march" shooting, coupled with constant spending money to "eliminate disasters", [Modern Apocalypse] is destined to be a money-burning project, but fortunately, this movie did not lose money in the end.
The film's estimated cost was more than 30 million, but in the year of its release, it generated nearly 80 million at the local box office. It was also at this time that Coppola reached the culmination of her personal prestige.
In May 1979, Coppola (left) took the film to the Cannes Film Festival, and the film won the Palme d'Or that year along with the Tin Drum
▲ In 2001, a re-release under the name of "Return of the Modern Apocalypse" was once again premiered at the Cannes Film Festival
Throw bricks and lead jade
In his work, Coppola pertinently shows the depravity, brutality, and madness brought about by the Vietnam War, and keenly expresses the American sentiments about the war. This is also the root of the success of the film in the 1970s.
Today, [the book of modern revelation] has long gone beyond the meaning of "anti-war" and is more like a modern fable — the torture of human nature and the reflection on environmental crises are the greatest "revelations" to the world.
(This article was originally published on the WeChat public account "Watch Movie Magazine")