10 Cursed Movie Productions

So much went wrong in the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam war masterpiece that Eleanor Coppola (Francis’ wife) was able to assemble an almost-equally entertaining documentary out of footage of the chaos. If it could go wrong, it very much did.

Typhoons ravaged the shooting location in the Philippines from the off. Filming was delayed as soon as it had begun, and the director, fresh off a great and profitable run of films, was rendered near-bankrupt.

The cast proved difficult to wrangle. Notoriously, Marlon Brando showed up drunk, significantly overweight, and without having learned line one. Not to be beaten, Martin Sheen had a heart attack on set, and was replaced by his twin brother for much of the shoot.

Coupled with the rampant drug use and increasingly wild mindset of the director, Apocalypse Now was not a happy set. The chaos actually serves to improve the film: the descent into madness depicted onscreen was very much occurring behind, and all around, the camera.

Apocalypse Now endures as a masterpiece. Until recently, Coppola continued to tinker with the final edit - that he’s even willing to revisit the experience is quite remarkable.