10 Real Reasons Movie Characters Seemed So Sinister
9. Marlon Brando Was Shot In Low Light To Disguise His Weight - Apocalypse Now
Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now practically makes a spectral figure out of rogue, insane Special Forces Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), hiding him in shadow for the majority of his brief appearance near the end of the film.
Though Brando does a great job selling the character's unnerving presence through his bald head, locked gaze, and eerie vocal tenor, Coppola and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro also decided to largely hide him in the shadows.
This was ultimately more a practical decision than a creative one, however - Brando came to set massively overweight for an actor supposed to be playing a fit Colonel living in the jungle, and so the filmmakers resorted to disguising his heft through lighting and dark clothing.
As much as it was primarily intended to hide the fact that Brando's physicality, it also served the fantastic purpose of giving Kurtz a ghoulish appearance which only enhanced the film's already suffocatingly thick atmosphere.
A happy accident, then, not that anyone should give Brando any credit for it at all.