This is, the movie's opening in a few days. Francis Ford Coppola Yeah, of course, it's the. May I ask, is this the final cut that we saw last night? And if it is, do you have plans for a sequel with the remaining film? Dennis Hopper Okay, where's my cameras, man? Where's the ? I pointed it at the bald guy, where's this guy.? Coming in, we have Fred Forrest, who played the Chef, over there with the mustache. Francis Ford Coppola This is Larry Fishburne, who played the part of Mr. For those that would like to read along, I've offered my best transcription of the tape below, as well. You can listen in the audio player at the top of the page, or using the Soundcloud player below (for ease of scrolling). And through it all, Dennis Hopper, obviously somewhere on another planet, does his very best to convince the press how great "Apocalypse Now" is. There's an interesting question about the film's parallels with then current events, namely the Jonestown Massacre. There are questions for Coppola about possibly directing on Broadway, about working with Brando, and about the potential for "The Godfather Part III," something that wouldn’t see the light of day until 1990. In the audio, you’ll hear Francis Ford Coppola and the cast of “Apocalypse Now” speak about the film and its meaning. In 2021, I spent a few hours at his estate sale, where I bought several DVDs, soundtracks, and a bag of cassette tapes, all audio from his interviews and press conferences like this. San Antonio film critic Bob Polunsky, whose work appeared for many years in the San Antonio Express-News and on television station WOAI/KMOL, passed away in 2017. Just a quick note about how I obtained this audio. Speculation was rampant in the press about the film itself, what had gone down on set, and what the ending of the movie meant. In August, 1979, Coppola premiered “Apocalypse Now” in America in its completed form (that is, until “Redux” in 2001 and “The Final Cut” in 2019). “We were in the jungle, there were too many of us, we had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little we went insane.” At a press conference following the screening, Coppola famously summarized the filming bluntly: The stories are legendary-financed by Coppola himself, the film began shooting in the Philippines in 1976, finally closing shop over a year later, after a destructive typhoon, star Martin Sheen’s heart attack, Marlon Brando’s peculiar on-set methods, cast members on drugs, and an active insurgency in the Philippines that meant pieces of equipment, like helicopters rented from the Philippine government, were sometimes needed for actual combat.Ĭoppola spent the next few years sorting through miles of footage, and in May, 1979 “Apocalypse Now” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in an unfinished form. "Apocalypse Now" also went through a long, protracted, some might even say cursed production. The tape features audio of a press conference following what I believe is the Los Angeles premiere of “Apocalypse Now,” director Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam War epic that’s often named one of the best films of all time. In 2021, I came into possession of a cassette tape that as far as I know, has gone unheard since 1979.
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