Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse Page #2

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"And if everybody knows

I'm going to make it,

"it will fall into place.

"And if I don't go forward

as if I'm making it and start making it,

"nothing will happen. "

My attitude towards money has always

been, "I don't have very much of it,

"but if I use it in a very audacious way,

it multiplies it."

If you have $ 1,000, but you're willing

to use it, really not caring of risking,

you can make it feel like $ 10,000.

Marlon Brando has sent word

that he will do the part of Kurtz.

Brando has agreed to three weeks

of shooting at a million dollars a week.

Francis sent him a $1 million advance.

After auditioning dozens of actors,

Harvey Keitel has been cast

as Captain Willard.

For the four-man boat crew

who will take Willard upriver,

Sam Bottoms will play Lance.

Albert Hall, Chief.

Frederic Forrest, Chef,

and Larry Fishburne, age 14,

will play Mr. Clean.

The whole thing's really fun.

I mean, a war is fun. Sh*t.

You can do anything you want to.

That's why Vietnam must

have been so much fun

for the guys that were out there.

I mean, like, I know this one dude

who came back. Sh*t.

And he's nothing but a dope smoker,

and all he does is smoke dope.

He said, "Vietnam was the best thing

they could have done for my ass."

The Philippines has been chosen

as the location

because of its similarity

to the terrain in Vietnam.

Since the US Army

has refused to cooperate

with a movie about the Vietnam War,

Francis has made a deal with

Philippine President, Ferdinand Marcos.

The production will pay the military

thousands of dollars per day

as well as overtime

for the Philippine pilots.

In return, Francis can use

Marcos' entire fleet of helicopters

as long as they're not needed to fight

the communist insurgency in the south.

A band of rebels

has been waging a fierce war

for control of

the southern Philippine islands.

But the real phenomenon

of being in that situation,

being in the middle of that jungle

and dealing with all the unfriendly

elements that we were dealing with

was part of what the movie was about.

That was the first directorial decision

that put us all in a circumstance

that reflected, you know,

what the movie was about.

I gave him all the information

that we had developed

on shooting in the Philippines.

I said, "Francis,

it's one thing to go over there

"for three weeks with, like, five people

"and sort of scrounge a lot of footage

using the Philippine army.

"But if you go over there

as a big Hollywood production,

"they're gonna kill you, you know.

"The longer you stay,

the more in danger you are

"of getting sucked into the swamp. "

On March 1st, I came to the Philippines

with Francis and our three children,

Gio, 12, Roman, 10,

and Sofia, four.

Francis has asked me

to make a documentary film

for the United Artists

publicity department.

I don't know if he wants to avoid

the addition of a professional team

on an already-overloaded production

or if he's just trying to keep me busy.

The heat and humidity

are overwhelming.

It's the first time any of us

have seen water buffalo,

rice paddies and nipa huts.

Sofia said, "It looks like

the Disneyland jungle cruise. "

Today, I shot some footage

of the construction

at the main set, Kurtz's compound.

It is supposed to be

a decaying Cambodian temple

at the end of the river

where the character of Willard

will confront Kurtz.

Dean Tavoularis,

the production designer,

is orchestrating

the construction of the temple

out of dried adobe blocks,

each weighing 300 pounds.

There were 600 people

working on this thing.

In Hollywood or New York,

if you want another person,

it's quite a big deal.

With the fringes and their salary,

it's thousands of dollars.

So, for a dollar a day

or three dollars a day,

I hope we weren't taking advantage of

people, but that's what they were paid.

So, you could get not one person.

You could get 10 or 20 or 100.

Ever since I was a student in college,

we used to do a thing

before every production,

and since I've been making films,

we did it,

and it made those films have good luck.

And what it is...

Everyone kind of just grab someone

or touch someone

that's connected with everyone.

Gather round

so that everybody can see.

- Good luck.

- Good luck.

And then we say this word three times.

"Puwaba."

- What's the word?

- Puwaba.

Puwaba.

One, two, three.

Puwaba, puwaba, puwaba!

Hey!

It's the first day of shooting.

There's a current of excitement.

The location is a salt farm

next to a river.

In the scene, a helicopter brings Willard

to meet the patrol boat

that will take him on his mission.

Okay. Stand by!

Action!

On one level, the film

is an action-adventure story.

It's a story of a journey

into a strange and unknown area,

but it also will hopefully exist

on a philosophical and allegorical level,

so that, ultimately,

my desire is that it sheds some light

on the events that took place

and why they took place

and what it did

to the people involved in them.

Almost we are persuaded

that there is something after all,

something essential waiting for all of us

in the dark areas of the world,

aboriginally loathsome, immeasurable,

and certainly, nameless.

Last night, Francis watched the footage

from the first week's shooting.

They were the scenes

with Harvey Keitel, who plays Willard.

Afterward, he sat down on the couch

with the editors and said,

"Well, what do you think?"

I went upstairs to say

good night to the children,

and when I came down

15 minutes later,

Francis had made the decision

to replace his leading man.

We bit the bullet

and did a very, very unpleasant thing,

which is replace an actor

in mid-shooting.

Not only unpleasant, but expensive,

since we had to throw out

several weeks of work and start over.

Take one.

Action.

What do you think, Willard?

Terminate the Colonel.

Terminate with extreme prejudice.

Two days ago, Francis shaved off

his beard and flew to Los Angeles.

He met with Martin Sheen at the airport.

Marty agreed to take the role of Willard.

I had some personal concerns

about my own physical condition.

I was 36 at the time,

and I felt old and out of shape,

and I was smoking three packs a day,

not a healthy guy.

I wondered if I'd be able

to keep up a strenuous schedule.

At the time I hired on, I remember

it was only a 16-week shoot,

which didn't prove to be the case,

but who knew that at the time?

It is the fifth week of shooting.

It's getting hotter

as we move into summer.

Every day,

the project seems to get bigger.

Now, what I want is,

let's say, five helicopters, right?

Then you have a camera here,

a camera there.

I want two cameras at once.

We'll have a camera

with Enrico inside the Loach.

In the script,

a helicopter unit led by a brash

air cavalry colonel named Kilgore

leads an attack on a coastal village

in order to escort Willard's boat

into the river that will lead him to Kurtz.

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