Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam masterpiece Apocalypse Now has a greatly troubled history, but one that's well worth it for one of the most powerful and evocative war films in movie history. Martin Sheen's journey upriver into the heart of darkness very much echoes Coppola's own, who spent more than a year out in the jungle shooting the film amid rewrites, terrible weather conditions, nervous breakdowns and the occasional battle or two near the set. One of the more infamous stories from the movie's production is that Sheen was battling his alcoholism on-set and broke a mirror with his bare fist for real whilst out of his mind, but Coppola was the real wild card during the shoot. He more or less became Marlon Brando's Kurtz to his cast and crew, demanding they go above and beyond what they were being paid for in order meet his towering vision, often at the cost of their own well-being. By many accounts, Francis Ford Coppola truly went native on the set of Apocalypse Now and, according to his wife Eleanor, "he would tread on anyone he could" to get what he wanted. Like this article? Let us know in the comments section below.
