George Lucas was initially determined to be the director of Apocalypse Now, and he got the script from John Millius. Lucas originally planned to make the film into a semi-documentary form, set in southern Vietnam where the war is still in full swing.
Francis Ford Coppola was originally the executive producer of the film. He tried to make a production plan business with Warner Bros. After the deal failed, he began to invest in the filming of "The Godfather" (1972).
In the fall of Saigon in 1977, Lucas was already busy shooting his "Star Wars", and Milius had no interest in the film. Lucas gave the coveted power to direct the film to Coppola.
Coppola believes that Marlon Brando must be familiar with Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", and that he is the best candidate for the film, and he is looking forward to the appearance of this legendary actor. Unexpectedly, Brando had never read "Heart of Darkness" or even knew its verses.
To make matters worse, Brando has become severely fat (Coates is repeatedly described in the novel as a tall, skinny man). Therefore, Coppola decided to take Brando's tall, cruel and savage adult appearance, and made sure that Brando's bulging general's belly would not appear in the lens.
In the scene where Willard gets drunk alone in his hotel room, Martin Sheen is indeed drunk. The drunken behavior of Xin that can be seen in the movie is his true reflection. When Xin broke the mirror, as shown in the movie, he did hurt his hand.
Coppola shot nearly 200 hours of motion picture film for the film. The original filming plan was six weeks, and the result lasted 16 months. In order to film the scene of the devastating typhoon, it was delayed for several months.
Francis Ford Coppola lost 100 pounds during filming.
Coppola spent nearly three years editing "Apocalypse Now", and when it was almost finished, he realized that Martin Sheen should add some narrative voice-overs to the film. However, Xin couldn't spare any time to dub at that time. Coppola asked his brother Joe Eastwoods to help.
When Sim suffered a heart attack during shooting in 1976, Eastwoods also acted as a stand-in for Sim. But Eastwoods did not leave a name on the credits because of his work.
In May 1979, the film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first unfinished film to win this award. Since the opinions of the Cannes jury could not be unified, they shared the best picture award with Schrondorf's "Tin Drum".
