One of the classic movies of the 70’s was Apocalypse Now, a movie that I watched in the last few years and liked, but wasn’t blown away by. It’s a very well made movie, but it had a dreamy quality to it and it was almost spiritual/mystical. But the shooting involved was not less spiritual for the filmmakers. That’s what this documentary captured.
Shot and narrated by Coppola’s wife, this is unlike other documentaries I’ve seen before. It was more about the director than the film itself, though Coppola’s journey to get this film made was an interesting and hard one.
Watching this documentary I really understood what Coppola went through, the frustrations and problems he encountered each day were enough to scare anybody away. But he stuck through it, putting his own money and reputation at risk. That’s a real artist. I was amazed at certain scenes of Coppola talking on the phone dealing with another obstacle in the shooting. Those scenes were real and showed his deepest emotions.
But there’s more than managing the logistics of the shooting. We also get to see the artistic side of creating this story. It’s interesting that Coppola didn’t really have an ending until they were shooting it with Brando and Sheen. On one hand it felt like a very organic and artistic way of doing things, just like a painter starts painting without a clear vision of what the paint is gonna be. On the other, I usually don’t like a story that starts without at least knowing what the ending is gonna be. However this method does suit this type of story, where the journey is more important than the ending.
Another very interesting aspect of this documentary is Martin Sheen’s journey. I won’t pretend to understand what he was going through, but I could at least see what happened on set while they were shooting that very personal scene in the hotel room.
Also I was surprised at how candid people were about Marlon Brando. He doesn’t get a flattering image in this documentary, though nobody insulted him or anything like that. However I felt like he was the talented superstar who wanted to do whatever he wanted to do as an artist. Not to mention he almost didn’t even shoot anything while still taking the money.
Luckily all these problems were solved in the end, and the movie was a success.
Rating: 4 Stars