Looking at the modern classics, a question I frequently ask myself is “what day would I want to be on Set?” Occasionally I come up against a Masterpiece where the question is, “would I want to work this?” The biggest benefit is that after surviving I could say I worked on Apocalypse Now, but to do that I would have to work on Apocalypse Now.
Even as a kid, I was aware this film was a rough shoot that created a flawed but ambitious movie. I didn’t even know what that meant, but I could look at the results and notice scenes that seemed difficult to create. There’s a barely controlled chaos, so when Coppola himself shows up directing a camera team, I wondered if this was as close as movies got to ripping the fabric that separates fiction from documentary. (It’s not, and I will highlight a few more examples for this project.)
Ten years later would be the release of Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, which details a lot of the chaos, though it mostly centers on Coppola and looks at the big picture. I think an equally fascinating documentary could be made about Assistant Director Jerry Ziesmer, who not only had to plan the shoot but appears in the film. That’s him in the image I chose.
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