Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse Page #9

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that way.

I mean, clearly, he had just,

kind of, left me in a tough spot.

The clock was ticking on this deal

he had.

We had to finish him

within three weeks,

or we'd go into

a very expensive overage.

So the whole company was sitting up

on the set, around the camera,

the crew all poised to go and shoot,

and Francis and Marlon

would be talking about the character.

And whole days would go by.

And this is at Marlon's urging,

and yet, he's getting paid for it.

One of the things

Francis said to Marlon in the beginning,

"Read Heart of Darkness.

This is what we're going for. "

And Marlon really worked hours

with Francis,

trying to develop the dialogue

and develop what it was that

he said in these circumstances.

And, of course, after Francis

had some dialogs with him,

he realized that Marlon

had never read Heart of Darkness,

and it was a complete shock.

Marlon's basic notes,

as I understood them,

as I just glanced at them,

were all motivation things.

In other words, it's like getting in

to saying, "Why is he going on a boat?"

And I can't answer them,

because it's too late for me

to change the structure.

So what I really need from him

are the facts about who he is.

And in a way, I don't even care.

Is he a fat guy who's got his shirt off

and starting to wear necklaces?

Or is he bulging,

is his uniform bulging at the buttons?

But I know that this guy's

a f***ing traitor...

You don't let me talk to you.

See, my problem is not only

I have to come up with a scene,

but it's gotta have the right shape

to fit in the jigsaw puzzle.

Maybe I ought to get Dennis Hopper

in this scene,

so it's just not with two characters.

- You know.

- No, I don't know, Francis.

You know, I don't. Nobody's told me.

I mean, I have been afraid

to even put Dennis Hopper

and Marlon together

'cause, Christ, I haven't figured out

what Marty's going to do with Marlon.

What happens if I got crazy

Dennis Hopper in there?

- I know nothing.

- I'll tell you.

- But you don't let me tell you.

- Oh, I see.

Kurtz found out that he was an assassin

who was sent to kill him.

- I know that. I have that information.

- Yeah.

Okay, that's what I'm saying.

Okay, just do what I ask.

When I say you just explain the poem

and the reason you're explaining is...

But, you see, I need to know reasons.

I'm telling you the reason.

I can't ever talk more

than a f***ing sentence!

The reason that you're

explaining the poem to him

is because you want to indicate

to this guy

that he does not understand Kurtz,

that Kurtz is a strange man.

What you're trying to express

is that he's, kind of, in the twilight zone,

that his twilight zone

is our twilight zone.

It's America's twilight zone.

So that he will not judge him.

So that he will accept him

as a great man and help him.

Okay, man.

There's no good, right, wrong, bad.

One through nine and back to one.

No fractions, no maybes, no supposes.

You can't travel in space.

You can't go out into space, you know,

without like... With fractions.

What are you gonna land on?

One-quarter? Three-eighths?

What are you gonna do when you go

from here to Venus or something?

That's dialectic physics, okay?

Dialectic logic is,

"There's only love and hate."

You either love somebody

or you hate them.

Mutt!

You mutt.

So what I should do...

What I should do is just shoot for

the next three weeks irrationally.

In other words,

if I did an improvisation every day

between Marlon Brando

and Marty Sheen,

would I, at that time, have more magical

and, in a way, telling moments

than if I just closed down

for three weeks

and write a structure that then they act?

And the answer would be

I'm much better off

to do an improvisation everyday.

Two-sixty, take 3.

What is the blood lust?

The blood lust...

The blood lust,

they say,

all the men that I've read about,

they say that the human animal

is the only one that has blood lust.

Killing without purpose.

Killing for pleasure.

You can see light through this.

You take the ones

that are made for garbage detail.

You take the others who are

made to think, but who can't act.

You take...

I swallowed a bug.

It's irresistible

when a bee discovers honey.

He's irresistibly driven...

My... My friend laughs.

He's my critic.

My only critic perhaps,

outside of myself.

I mean, in a way, I'm like on a room

with all the floors covered with Vaseline

and all these new elements

are coming at me.

And I'm trying to go ahead,

but now I've got Marlon Brando

as an incredible joker to play.

And he's like a force of his own

'cause he don't give a sh*t.

I want a character

of a monumental nature

who is struggling

with the extremities of his soul

and is struggling with them

on such a level

that you're in awe of it

and is destroyed by them.

It takes bravery.

The deepest bullets

are not to be feared.

Phosphorous, napalm

are nothing to be feared,

but to look inward, to see that twisted

mind that lies beneath

the surface of all humans

and to say, "Yes, I accept you.

"I even love you

because you're a part of me.

"You're an extension of me."

- What?

- Can you walk now?

Why are we in Vietnam?

It's our time to grab

this moment in history.

It's our time to...

- To teach.

- Microphone.

I can't think of anymore dialogue to say.

And I am feeling like an idiot

having set in motion stuff

that doesn't make any sense,

that doesn't match,

and yet I am doing it.

And the reason I'm doing it

is out of desperation,

'cause I have no rational way to do it.

What I have to admit is

that I don't know what I'm doing.

Well, how do you account

for the discrepancy

between what you feel about it

and what everybody else

who see it feels?

Because they see the magic

of what has happened before.

I'm saying, "Hey, it's not gonna happen!

I don't have any performances.

"The script doesn't make sense.

I have no ending. "

I'm like a voice crying out, saying,

"Please, it's not working!

Somebody get me off this."

And nobody listens to me!

Everyone says, "Yes, well,

Francis works best in a crisis."

I'm saying, "This is one crisis

I'm not gonna pull myself out of!"

I'm making a bad movie.

So why should I go ahead? I'd rather...

I'm gonna be bankrupt anyway.

Why can't I just have the courage

to say, "It's no good"?

There's almost anything I'd do

to get out of it.

I'm already thinking about

what kind of sickness I can get.

I'm in the rain on the platform

thinking if I just moved a little,

I'd just fall 30 feet.

It might kill me,

but it might paralyze me or something.

It'd be a graceful way out.

Did you ever fear for his sanity?

Well, he did, at one point,

he fainted, kind of...

He had a collapse.

And he told me

that he could see himself

going down a dark tunnel,

and he didn't know

if he was dying or leaving this reality

or what was happening to him.

But he'd gone to the threshold,

maybe, of his sanity or something.

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