Saddened to hear of the passing of Roger Corman (Early Coppola Mentor) and Fred Roos (Apocalypse Now Producer) between the last episode and this one. Many of the great Chas Gerretsen pics are from the fantastic doc: Dutch Angle: Chas Gerretsen & Apocalypse Now (2019 dir. Baris Azman) - you can watch it on the Final Cut Blu-ray! *Also, I stupidly misspelled Chas Gerretsen as 'Garretsen.' I feel like an idiot.
I saw the Dennis Hopper Interview with Orsen Welles a month ago, and in this he says some of the same things he improvises in the scene where he tries to explain Kurtz. Just a hint if you are interested. And thank you so much for these great Videos of yours! Very sad to hear about Corman and Roos
My favorite Dennis Hopper story is when his son asked, "Dad, why did you act in Super Mario Brothers?" Hopper got a little misty eyed, put his hand on his son's shoulder and said, "I did it so you could have shoes." His son replied, "Dad, I don't need shoes that badly."
An actual true story about his dad is kinda interesting. Throughout his life Dennis would tell people or journalists that his father was a farmer but at the end of his life in a semi death bed confessing he admitted that his father was in the CIA.
@@acetate909 his dad had been in the OSS, the precursor to the CIA, during WW2, but it wasnt a secret and later the family moved to San Diego where his dad managed a post office.
Dennis was my neighbor in Venice for a couple of years on Indiana Ave. I called him "The walking encyclopedia". He had some of the greatest stories, he was such a sweet man. He worked out at Gold's gym almost to the day he died. Miss him. He told me the reason that he was able to work again, was because at the time he was married to the daughter of the head of the studio.
The scene of Dennis Hopper telling Martin Sheen that Marlon Brando goes to far and is the first to admit it, is one of the best scenes in the movie. The fear and sadness in Hopper's eye, like an abused spouse is haunting. Finding out that wasn't the best take is mind blowing
Indeed. That is one cameo that overshadowed another great cameo from Christopher Walken, who usually manages to steal the show in less than ten minutes. Hopper knows very well what Walken is going to do with him. At first he refuses the last cigarette, but realises that he has to insult the Sicilian mobster to get him to kill him before they extract the whereabouts of his son by "other methods". Of course, in the moment, he forgets that he has his son's contact details right there on the fridge, but it's still a very calculated effort to get a murderous reaction from the Sicilians
True Romance is the tip of the iceberg. He'll live forever if only for every single line of his in Blue Velvet: What kind of beer do you like? Heineken? Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!
But regrettably they cut the best scene which was the sailing junk taken over by monkeys drifting down the river up which they were making their way to Colonel Kurtz’s temple of doom.
Having worked on the production, ok post-production on AN, all I can say is wow. WOW! you have dug up so much and been able to distill and condense so much of the complex and nuanced richness that AN is. For all that can find this channel... SUPPORT!
Having worked on crews at various levels, including some pretty nuts low budget shows with difficult actors, all I can say is “Thank you for your service.” 😅
Thanks so much! It's been tricky trying to piece together all the information out there (especially when some is conflicting). I really appreciate the kind words. If you have any interesting stories from working on the the post-production, I'd love to hear them!
I was on the crew for camera and lighting in Speed. Hopper could not have been more professional. He reported on time. He knew his lines and fought Keanu Reeves in the sequence ending the film. He had been clean and sober for many years. He was a professional grade photographer doing many photo gallery showings of his own work. We had many political conversations at his makeup table on a sound stage at 20th. Honored...
I actually think the photo-journalist is an amalgamation of all three of them, Flynn, Page, AND Herr himself. Listening to Herr speak, like in that 'First Kill' documentary, is like hearing the photo-journalist after the comedown, after he somehow gets dragged back to the world kicking and screaming. He's a composite character, Flynn's his justification for being where he is, Page is his physical look and mannerisms, and then when he opens his mouth and is too manic to make a cogent point, it's all Herr.
I don’t know if you’re literally correct, but that sounds about right. I take it you’ve read Dispatches, and probably more than once. A lot of people read Heart of Darkness after seeing AN, but they should also read Dispatches. Such a great piece of journalistic memoir.
Page is the guy who when offered a book deal with the working title of Through With War he declined Time-Life and said “through with war? War is fun! Where else do you get flaming helicopter falling out of the sky”?
When Willard meets Colby, there is something red on Colby’s right hand. I’m convinced Coppola added that detail on the fly to mimic Martin Sheen inadvertently cutting his hand in the hotel room scene, so there would be a subtext of connection between the two characters.
Colby gently stroking the gun barrel while staring suspiciously & apprehensively at Willard (because he knows what he is there to do) is one of my favourite shots in the whole movie
This channel is probably the single most important thing on RUclips for aspiring filmmakers and film students. It combines theory with practice and is so inspiring, it's unbelievable.
There was a story of Dennis Hopper giving an acting clinic about sense-memory ( a method acting technique used to recall specific physical memories to lead to some emotional state ). Someone asked him to elaborate on the sense memory he used to create his character in Apocalypse Now. He smiled at him and said "That wasn't sense-memory." The crowd erupted in laughter.
I love Hopper. His roll in The American Friend is amazing. And in Apocalypse Now he brings this extra notch of delirium tremens that I can't really grasp. Once again, amazing work CimenaTyler!
Ah, a Wim Wenders fan. One of my faves is State of Things, for the cameos if nothing else. Sam Fuller as the crusty old DP and Rodger Corman as the entertainment lawyer. 🤌🧑🍳 😘 I wish they’d release it on Blu-ray. It’s such a rarity and when you can find a DVD it’s insanely priced.
That's a pretty sad story for the inspiration of Hopper's character. Sean Flynn seems to have been commendable in his efforts. But upon finding the car of two missing journalists blocking the road, he decides to interview some nearby Cambodian soldiers to see what they might have to say about it? I know hindsight is 20/20, but how could he not sense the danger?
The young can have a feeling that they're 'bullet proof' only by God's grace when and if they do reach a good age is when they realise how blessed they were to have lived through their ignorance
but i suppose that they did know that those were Khmer Rouge soldiers at the checkpoint.. that they were already in a volatile, dangerous country should've been reason enough to be more careful The Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot make the NVA and the Viet Cong look positively mild mannered. It's just that Cambodia had a much smaller population base if it weren't so it would've been even more horrific @@blazinchalice
Dennis Hopper’s take on the mad Russian Kurtz-groupie character in “Heart of Darkness” has always been one of the more gonzo aspects of APOCALYPSE NOW, and one of my personal favorites. I always speculated that his comic turn is at least partly there to deflate the portentousness of the film’s third act, which is largely two guys sitting in a cave, one muttering poetry and rambling bullshit to the other. Given the response of critics, I’m not sure it was entirely successful in that regard. Hopper himself brought energy and charisma to everything he did, but apparently mostly by instinct and without a lot of reflection. It was no great surprise to me when he traded-in his hippy Birkenstocks for a fascination with Newt Gingrich in the latter years of his life.
Intriguingly, much of Hopper's improvised dialogue (an unconscious mental cut-up loop of quotes, paraphrases etc. of TS Eliot) had clearly been circuiting in his brain for nearly ten years, if not longer. In Hopper/Welles, which Welles shot in late 1970 while Hopper was still editing The Last Movie, Hopper can be heard reciting much of the very same words, almost verbatim. It is uncanny to experience, as if you're watching his Apocalypse Now monologues long in advance of the film. He lived with and embodied those words, which seemed to explode from his unconscious in that moment, operating to serve a new creative tapestry.
If there ever is another re-release of Apocalypse Now, this whole series needs to be there as a feature. You do such an amazing work with this (as well as Alien series and all the shorter previous ones you did). Truly awesome work!
You did The Death Of Stalin a disservice with that description. You’ll make people think it is a comedy fantasy satire, rather than letting them know that the more weird or insane a scene appears to be, the more accurate it is. Every scene is based on accurate historical facts (condensed for movie timing) and the more outlandish the scenes are, the more closely the facts are being adhered to.
My sunglasses have fallen off my head a few times and the lenses are a little scratched. Every time I look at them I think to myself: “every crack, represents a life that I’ve saved”.
I've seen Apocalypse Now 3 or 4 times over the years but this is the first I realized that Colby was played by Scott Glenn. He just doesn't look like the Scott Glenn that would become semi-famous in the 80's. My favorite role of his is The Right Stuff.
So Dennis Hoppers' character is basically talking about Francis? The way Hopper shows nervous deference to Francis in interviews is very similar to how the journalist talks about Kurtz.
This movie is a masterpiece and it only gets better with time like wine. I watch it every year for 27 years and its always different. I found VHS at an age of 10 and I still feel like there is a lot more to learn. You pick your character from the movie and you make him grow inside of you and sometimes dark side overcomes what Lincoln called better angels of our nature. Good is not always trying but life is confusing messing up good and evil. Thank you and I split now.
"and watch out those monkeys bite" is from the book as well. Another thing, my only complaint with the film is that we dont really see/learn enough about the "renegade" American soldiers still with Kurtz except for a few background shots. Since I was young, I was always mesmerized with how those guys looked. Those extra talking scenes with Colby were interesting, but Im glad they left the death scene out.
I hope that one day you might take a look at David Lynch's "Dune." The film is such a brilliant, over-the-top, uneven misfire. I would love to see Lynch relent and give us an "Apocalypse Now: Redux" version of the film. I'd hate to see Lynch go in and try to "fix" the film, but if he could give us another 30 to 45 minutes of weirdness, I think it would be truly memorable.
Hopper was a counter-culture hero. And then he made Ford, Nike, Geico, and Ameriprise Financial commercials. We learned that his acting was so good people actually thought he was a counter-culture, anti-establishment, hippie.
Bro originally the script, and the movie, was going to have him huffing fucking helium, from that take, and having the voice change lol. Could you imagine
I used to live in Wilmington, NC, where a lot of Blue Velvet was filmed. The diner from the movie was about 3 blocks from where I lived. Sitting in the same booth for breakfast was always kinda surreal with a still on the wall from the movie of Hopper in the booth
David Lynch recounted suggesting how to act out a scene with a really hard drug. Hoffman asked Lynch if he had ever used that drug, to which he replied, no. Hoffman said he had, and to just leave it to him. Lynch was shocked, and agreed to let Hopper do his thing. 😂
Once again, outstanding video. You've added so much to this film for me, and I'm grateful. Dennis Hopper was a true original. A true insane person and artist. He's eternally missed.
One through nine, no maybes, no supposes, no fractions. You can't travel in space, you can't go out into space, you know, without, like, you know, uh, with fractions - what are you going to land on - one-quarter, three-eighths? What are you going to do when you go from here to Venus or something? That's dialectic physics.
@@kamuelalee Right? Philosophy, poetry, physics and a fair measure of attitude. Yes… I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across floors of silent seas… Stay in the boat, indeed.
@CinemaTyler yet another brilliant documentary of Apocalypse Now. How you dig up the material & present it, is absolutely fantastic! I hope a major streaming service will show this brilliant documentary. Many thanks from Australia.
Great video. I really enjoy this series. Scott Glenn was not a Vietnam veteran. He served in the Marine Corps from 1960 - 1963 prior to Vietnam. Harvey Keitel, the original choice for Willard until fired, was also a Marine around the same time (a couple of years earlier) and participated in an intervention in Lebanon in 1958.
Hoppers' character as a photographer was absolutely brilliant , a man pushed to his limits under the influence of a circus of drugs on the threshold of insanity and death just holding on to what could be his last breath day in day out , only to find a moments of creativity and inspiration from a mad man. I just loved his role.
The death of Stalin is so damn good. The dark humor comes from the fact that everything they portrayed in the movie actually happened. The absurdity is great 😂❤
Hopper was a Trip. I worked in a hotel once in San Francisco in probably 1978 around there. I did a Room service, and he was a bit shy and halting when I asked him if he was Him. He ordered a 5 oz. steak for HIS DOG! I remembered him from "EASY RIDER" and asked him for his autograph and he signed it "Thanks for remembering me." None of this "I"M A STAR!" persona, he would have been a Kick at a party and hanging out I thought. I never at the time did a "HEY GUESS who I MET?" I kept it Cool the way he probably would have wanted it. Very good Actor.
The madness of trying to make sense of this world - amazing. My favorite line from Hopper was - (he's quoting Kurtz) "Do you know what if is the middle word in life?" He goes on - "I'm a little man, he's a great man..." So amazing - a man losing his mind trying the rationalize and explain madness.
I met a contractor once who spoke and sounded and laughed and acted exactly like Hopper. He didn't look like him at all, but when he was doing one of these 0:03, somehow he looked just like him We've all met tons of people who reminded us of tons of people. I've never seen anything as fckin uncanny in my life.
There is a B&W drama containing a scene with Groucho Marx and a young Hopper sitting across from each other talking quietly and seriously. It is so surreal
The photojournalist provides a very important element of the plot. When we get to Kutz's compound, we see the horror it represents. But the film needs a "spokesperson" that explains -- or tries to -- why these people essentially worship Kurtz regardless or perhaps even because of the horror. That paradoxical concept is very bizarre, so it makes sense that it would be articulated by a bizarre character. Yes, he is comic relief, but he provides exposition on the the way Kurtz is viewed and why that is important to the plot development as well.
Everyone talking about the Sicilian scene or the Heineken line in Blue Velvet, but this guy is talking about River's Edge. You have good taste, fucker.
Scott Glenn is a Marine Corps veteran but he was not in Vietnam, at the time the first Marine's were being sent to Vietnam he was already out of the Marine's and was working as a news and sports reporter in Kenosha Wisconsin, which is about as far away from Vietnam as you can get.
45 years after seeing this in the theater, I have never seen anyone move their hands like Hopper did in this film. One one hand, it is most likely Dennis being Dennis, on the other, it sure worked in the film and added a real manic authenticity to the character.
Yes, Hopper is acting a role. If you watch a video where he tells the story of accidentally pissing off Brando, you see the real Hopper. He just did an exceptional job of making it seem real.
Coppola really took the Herzog/Kinski Route for _Apocalypse Now:_ Take a bunch of actors, drop them in the jungle, let them go mad and pray to whatever gods may be that someone remains lucid enough to keep the cameras running.
There is one cut of AN in which both characters killed by Kurtz, chef and Hopper's severed heads are seen together in the tiger cage scene.. but blink and you'll miss it.
I never had a problem with that. I would argue he acted quite well with *The Searchers,* which was a bit out of character for him. His usual characters were grizzled but good natured. *The Searchers* though? He was a few steps away from going full Frank Castle.
Always love these videos. So much thought and effort and craziness in the making of this film, it's so enriching to hear the behind the scenes. (i also always get a kick out of the clips you add for flavour, like the simpsons, heh)
Had the pleasure of meeting Tim Page a few years ago . He was exhibiting his work in a small gallery in Dubrovnik. He is a master photographer and an incredible story teller. Def check him out.
Lines lilke these: "One through nine, no maybes, no supposes, no fractions. You can't travel in space, you can't go out into space, you know, without, like, you know, uh, with fractions - what are you going to land on - one-quarter, three-eighths? What are you going to do when you go from here to Venus or something? That's dialectic physics."
the same concept is with music and other arts. you must learn the rules or basic framework if you want to innovate and subvert those expectations, instead of just completely coming from an isolated alien place with no reference.
I always think of him in the movie My Science Project . I was watching that movie back in the day and my mom said when she saw him ."That's Dennis Hopper." And for some reason that has stuck in my mind for the last 39 years .
Love Dennis. I grew up knowing him as the hippie rebel without a cause. No one can make hippie sound next level like Dennis. I've been following him since the 80s. I still get excited when I'm watching a movie and he pops up unexpectedly. Lol. Absolutely brilliant actor. He was just being himself at first... he started honing his acting skills after apocalypse. Which just made his hippie stoner mastermind character... that much better. He does a movie with keifer Southerland that's hilarious and the epitome of his hippie stoner mastermind work. His work on the movie speed showed him transform that same energy into a psychopath mass murderer. It completely worked for him. I can't see anyone else pulling that type of character off so well. It's a lost art now. People don't have emotions today, much less tap into them like the hippies did. Even with recreational help 😉. Smh RIP legend. 😢
The same reason why David Lynch cast him as Frank Booth in Blue Velvet, to quote Dennis' personal appeal to Lynch: "You have to let me play Frank! Because I am Frank!"
Dennis’s character was based on my friend Tim Page. He was wounded 5 times from 65-69 and also photographed Jim Morrison when he was arrested and also spent a night in jail with him. Even the Marines thought he was crazy.
The photojournalist is such a masterpiece of a character in that movie! How could you script his dialog? To make it look and feel best, it had to be improvised by the right person. Good call Francis!
Colby's character always stuck with me ever since i first seen him on screen, such a small role but it carries so much weight considering what he was originally sent to do, i could babble about him for hours
Saddened to hear of the passing of Roger Corman (Early Coppola Mentor) and Fred Roos (Apocalypse Now Producer) between the last episode and this one.
Many of the great Chas Gerretsen pics are from the fantastic doc: Dutch Angle: Chas Gerretsen & Apocalypse Now (2019 dir. Baris Azman) - you can watch it on the Final Cut Blu-ray!
*Also, I stupidly misspelled Chas Gerretsen as 'Garretsen.' I feel like an idiot.
R.I.P Roger Corman! 🙏
I saw the Dennis Hopper Interview with Orsen Welles a month ago, and in this he says some of the same things he improvises in the scene where he tries to explain Kurtz. Just a hint if you are interested. And thank you so much for these great Videos of yours! Very sad to hear about Corman and Roos
Thanks for the kind words! My father (Roger) loved everything film and would have really appreciated your insights. Keep up the great work!
Woah Corman passed? What a bummer. He was great.
I hadn't heard of Corman's passing. So sorry to hear it. His films are classics.
My favorite Dennis Hopper story is when his son asked, "Dad, why did you act in Super Mario Brothers?"
Hopper got a little misty eyed, put his hand on his son's shoulder and said, "I did it so you could have shoes."
His son replied, "Dad, I don't need shoes that badly."
Hahaha. Bloody freakin' brilliant, mate,
An actual true story about his dad is kinda interesting. Throughout his life Dennis would tell people or journalists that his father was a farmer but at the end of his life in a semi death bed confessing he admitted that his father was in the CIA.
@@acetate909 Now we know where Dennis got his acid from..lol
@@acetate909 his dad had been in the OSS, the precursor to the CIA, during WW2, but it wasnt a secret and later the family moved to San Diego where his dad managed a post office.
That was Bob Hoskins actually.
Dennis was my neighbor in Venice for a couple of years on Indiana Ave. I called him "The walking encyclopedia". He had some of the greatest stories, he was such a sweet man. He worked out at Gold's gym almost to the day he died. Miss him. He told me the reason that he was able to work again, was because at the time he was married to the daughter of the head of the studio.
Cool!
Dennis... the Menace... in Venice? I'd watch that.
I played Keno in Reno with Dino. For real. His middle name was Dino.
Life is Good 🙆♀️
Rad. West side for real
Indiana??? I moved from there to OC in 76. 979 Indiana.
Crazy.
The scene of Dennis Hopper telling Martin Sheen that Marlon Brando goes to far and is the first to admit it, is one of the best scenes in the movie. The fear and sadness in Hopper's eye, like an abused spouse is haunting. Finding out that wasn't the best take is mind blowing
Yea I thought that was perfect myself
bad acting is just bad acting when you are toasted
Marlon was a bisexuali creep
The guy's an OG space cadet legend, and will live forever if only just for that Sicilians monologue in True Romance, one of the best in all of cinema.
Indeed.
That is one cameo that overshadowed another great cameo from Christopher Walken, who usually manages to steal the show in less than ten minutes.
Hopper knows very well what Walken is going to do with him. At first he refuses the last cigarette, but realises that he has to insult the Sicilian mobster to get him to kill him before they extract the whereabouts of his son by "other methods".
Of course, in the moment, he forgets that he has his son's contact details right there on the fridge, but it's still a very calculated effort to get a murderous reaction from the Sicilians
I'm 1/2 Sicilian.
Dad would never let emotion interfere with his assignment.
While it was a good line, it wouldn't work with Bonanno's.
I think the algo sent me here because I just watched that scene again. It's so fn good.
He fucking had Tony Soprano STEAMING XD
True Romance is the tip of the iceberg. He'll live forever if only for every single line of his in Blue Velvet: What kind of beer do you like? Heineken? Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!
Every time I see one of these videos, I marvel more and more that the film was ever finished-let alone being a masterpiece.
But regrettably they cut the best scene which was the sailing junk taken over by monkeys drifting down the river up which they were making their way to Colonel Kurtz’s temple of doom.
Having worked on the production, ok post-production on AN, all I can say is wow. WOW! you have dug up so much and been able to distill and condense so much of the complex and nuanced richness that AN is.
For all that can find this channel... SUPPORT!
Damn you must have stories.
Having worked on crews at various levels, including some pretty nuts low budget shows with difficult actors, all I can say is “Thank you for your service.” 😅
Are you in the credits? Damn, you must be proud.
Thanks so much! It's been tricky trying to piece together all the information out there (especially when some is conflicting). I really appreciate the kind words. If you have any interesting stories from working on the the post-production, I'd love to hear them!
Hell yeah. Best series on RUclips. Been watching for years. Unreal shit.
Dennis Hopper is the prototype for Nicholas Cage but society isn’t ready for that conversation.
We live in a society
A B C D E F G
This is the end of the internet. You have arrived.
Mad when you consider Nicholas Cage was there
You're a goddamned genius.
I was on the crew for camera and lighting in Speed. Hopper could not have been more professional. He reported on time. He knew his lines and fought Keanu Reeves in the sequence ending the film. He had been clean and sober for many years. He was a professional grade photographer doing many photo gallery showings of his own work. We had many political conversations at his makeup table on a sound stage at 20th. Honored...
WOW .. I'm in awe
That's incredible.
This is one of my favourite films
"Recoil. I feel the recoil from the shotgun."
Pretty good line.
Yes but it's an old military line that soldiers have been saying for decades. Still good, though.
I actually think the photo-journalist is an amalgamation of all three of them, Flynn, Page, AND Herr himself. Listening to Herr speak, like in that 'First Kill' documentary, is like hearing the photo-journalist after the comedown, after he somehow gets dragged back to the world kicking and screaming.
He's a composite character, Flynn's his justification for being where he is, Page is his physical look and mannerisms, and then when he opens his mouth and is too manic to make a cogent point, it's all Herr.
I don’t know if you’re literally correct, but that sounds about right. I take it you’ve read Dispatches, and probably more than once.
A lot of people read Heart of Darkness after seeing AN, but they should also read Dispatches. Such a great piece of journalistic memoir.
First and foremost the photo-journalist is the corresponding character in Heart of Darkness, which Conrad had there as a substantial character..
Page is the guy who when offered a book deal with the working title of Through With War he declined Time-Life and said “through with war? War is fun! Where else do you get flaming helicopter falling out of the sky”?
Thanks for the tip on 'First Kill'. This might be good for some upcoming episodes.
When Willard meets Colby, there is something red on Colby’s right hand. I’m convinced Coppola added that detail on the fly to mimic Martin Sheen inadvertently cutting his hand in the hotel room scene, so there would be a subtext of connection between the two characters.
Interesting observation.
Colby gently stroking the gun barrel while staring suspiciously & apprehensively at Willard (because he knows what he is there to do) is one of my favourite shots in the whole movie
Yes ... Willard was looking at Colby as if he was looking at himself in a mirror.
His spontaniety was brilliant in Blue Velvet as well. A unique artist.
This channel is probably the single most important thing on RUclips for aspiring filmmakers and film students. It combines theory with practice and is so inspiring, it's unbelievable.
Thanks so much!
There was a story of Dennis Hopper giving an acting clinic about sense-memory ( a method acting technique used to recall specific physical memories to lead to some emotional state ). Someone asked him to elaborate on the sense memory he used to create his character in Apocalypse Now.
He smiled at him and said "That wasn't sense-memory." The crowd erupted in laughter.
I love Hopper. His roll in The American Friend is amazing. And in Apocalypse Now he brings this extra notch of delirium tremens that I can't really grasp.
Once again, amazing work CimenaTyler!
Ah, a Wim Wenders fan. One of my faves is State of Things, for the cameos if nothing else. Sam Fuller as the crusty old DP and Rodger Corman as the entertainment lawyer. 🤌🧑🍳 😘
I wish they’d release it on Blu-ray. It’s such a rarity and when you can find a DVD it’s insanely priced.
That's a pretty sad story for the inspiration of Hopper's character. Sean Flynn seems to have been commendable in his efforts. But upon finding the car of two missing journalists blocking the road, he decides to interview some nearby Cambodian soldiers to see what they might have to say about it? I know hindsight is 20/20, but how could he not sense the danger?
The young can have a feeling that they're 'bullet proof' only by God's grace when and if they do reach a good age is when they realise how blessed they were to have lived through their ignorance
@@benjaminguilatcoiv I can only suspect that they didn't know that the car was of the missing journalists.
but i suppose that they did know that those were Khmer Rouge soldiers at the checkpoint.. that they were already in a volatile, dangerous country should've been reason enough to be more careful
The Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot make the NVA and the Viet Cong look positively mild mannered. It's just that Cambodia had a much smaller population base if it weren't so it would've been even more horrific @@blazinchalice
When you're on mind-altering substances, you can make the oddest calls ever.
Dennis Hopper’s take on the mad Russian Kurtz-groupie character in “Heart of Darkness” has always been one of the more gonzo aspects of APOCALYPSE NOW, and one of my personal favorites. I always speculated that his comic turn is at least partly there to deflate the portentousness of the film’s third act, which is largely two guys sitting in a cave, one muttering poetry and rambling bullshit to the other. Given the response of critics, I’m not sure it was entirely successful in that regard.
Hopper himself brought energy and charisma to everything he did, but apparently mostly by instinct and without a lot of reflection. It was no great surprise to me when he traded-in his hippy Birkenstocks for a fascination with Newt Gingrich in the latter years of his life.
Intriguingly, much of Hopper's improvised dialogue (an unconscious mental cut-up loop of quotes, paraphrases etc. of TS Eliot) had clearly been circuiting in his brain for nearly ten years, if not longer.
In Hopper/Welles, which Welles shot in late 1970 while Hopper was still editing The Last Movie, Hopper can be heard reciting much of the very same words, almost verbatim. It is uncanny to experience, as if you're watching his Apocalypse Now monologues long in advance of the film. He lived with and embodied those words, which seemed to explode from his unconscious in that moment, operating to serve a new creative tapestry.
If there ever is another re-release of Apocalypse Now, this whole series needs to be there as a feature. You do such an amazing work with this (as well as Alien series and all the shorter previous ones you did). Truly awesome work!
Thank you!
You did The Death Of Stalin a disservice with that description. You’ll make people think it is a comedy fantasy satire, rather than letting them know that the more weird or insane a scene appears to be, the more accurate it is. Every scene is based on accurate historical facts (condensed for movie timing) and the more outlandish the scenes are, the more closely the facts are being adhered to.
My sunglasses have fallen off my head a few times and the lenses are a little scratched.
Every time I look at them I think to myself: “every crack, represents a life that I’ve saved”.
I've seen Apocalypse Now 3 or 4 times over the years but this is the first I realized that Colby was played by Scott Glenn. He just doesn't look like the Scott Glenn that would become semi-famous in the 80's. My favorite role of his is The Right Stuff.
Dennis Hopper was pretty intimidating in Blue Velvet
Hey you wanna go for a ride?
No thanks.
No thanks? What does that mean?
I don't wanna go.
Go where?
For a ride.
A ride! Now that's a good idea!
You can't land on a fraction, Man!
That's dialectic physics.
Dialectic logic is - there is only love and hate, you either love somebody or you hate them!
I like that the deleted scene finally answers what happened to Colby since he just disappears from the movie after his introduction.
So Dennis Hoppers' character is basically talking about Francis? The way Hopper shows nervous deference to Francis in interviews is very similar to how the journalist talks about Kurtz.
This movie is a masterpiece and it only gets better with time like wine. I watch it every year for 27 years and its always different. I found VHS at an age of 10 and I still feel like there is a lot more to learn. You pick your character from the movie and you make him grow inside of you and sometimes dark side overcomes what Lincoln called better angels of our nature. Good is not always trying but life is confusing messing up good and evil.
Thank you and I split now.
19:50
I think that scene turned out great, I just love that line and chefs rebuttle "... And you were gonna call him crazy?!"
"Fuckin' Aye."
"and watch out those monkeys bite" is from the book as well.
Another thing, my only complaint with the film is that we dont really see/learn enough about the "renegade" American soldiers still with Kurtz except for a few background shots. Since I was young, I was always mesmerized with how those guys looked. Those extra talking scenes with Colby were interesting, but Im glad they left the death scene out.
I hope that one day you might take a look at David Lynch's "Dune." The film is such a brilliant, over-the-top, uneven misfire. I would love to see Lynch relent and give us an "Apocalypse Now: Redux" version of the film. I'd hate to see Lynch go in and try to "fix" the film, but if he could give us another 30 to 45 minutes of weirdness, I think it would be truly memorable.
Dune was a classic.
Hopper was a counter-culture hero. And then he made Ford, Nike, Geico, and Ameriprise Financial commercials. We learned that his acting was so good people actually thought he was a counter-culture, anti-establishment, hippie.
William Colby was the name of the head of the CIA in Vietnam.
He oversaw the Phoenix Program,....which, of course, included targeted assassination.
Dennis Hopper was an absolute necessity for Apocalypse Now 🚁🔥💀🙌
Mr. Hopper's turn as Frank Booth in Blue Velvet will remain my all time favorite performance from any actor. The man was a genius, RIP
Don't you fucking look at me!
Yeah, it was like, finally, a director let him play himself.
Bro originally the script, and the movie, was going to have him huffing fucking helium, from that take, and having the voice change lol. Could you imagine
I used to live in Wilmington, NC, where a lot of Blue Velvet was filmed. The diner from the movie was about 3 blocks from where I lived. Sitting in the same booth for breakfast was always kinda surreal with a still on the wall from the movie of Hopper in the booth
David Lynch recounted suggesting how to act out a scene with a really hard drug. Hoffman asked Lynch if he had ever used that drug, to which he replied, no. Hoffman said he had, and to just leave it to him. Lynch was shocked, and agreed to let Hopper do his thing. 😂
Once again, outstanding video. You've added so much to this film for me, and I'm grateful. Dennis Hopper was a true original. A true insane person and artist. He's eternally missed.
I was today old when I discovered that Mac from Night Court was in Apocalypse Now
When I hear "on the next episode..." it's like finding a €20 note in a pair of trousers I haven't worn in a while.
Dennis Hopper is one of the all time greats and I hate to use Underrated because it get's throwed around to often, but he certainly was! R.I.P. DH..
Hopper’s ‘lines’ were some of the best in the film as was his character. It was sort of his story, His story, history, man. Ha ha!
One through nine, no maybes, no supposes, no fractions. You can't travel in space, you can't go out into space, you know, without, like, you know, uh, with fractions - what are you going to land on - one-quarter, three-eighths? What are you going to do when you go from here to Venus or something? That's dialectic physics.
@@kamuelalee Right? Philosophy, poetry, physics and a fair measure of attitude. Yes… I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across floors of silent seas… Stay in the boat, indeed.
"What are they going to say about him? What? Are they going to say he was a kind man? He was a wise man? He had plans? He had wisdom? Bullshit, man!"
This is absolutely one of the best series on RUclips, ever.
So good, in fact, I'm going to go back to ep1 and rewatch it right now.
Would’ve been surreal if they’d filmed the heads feeding Hopper’s lines to him
@CinemaTyler yet another brilliant documentary of Apocalypse Now. How you dig up the material & present it, is absolutely fantastic! I hope a major streaming service will show this brilliant documentary. Many thanks from Australia.
Hopper plays my favorite villain of all time in Waterworld. The whole performance is so camp and on point. "Never too young to start"
Great video. I really enjoy this series.
Scott Glenn was not a Vietnam veteran. He served in the Marine Corps from 1960 - 1963 prior to Vietnam. Harvey Keitel, the original choice for Willard until fired, was also a Marine around the same time (a couple of years earlier) and participated in an intervention in Lebanon in 1958.
Hoppers' character as a photographer was absolutely brilliant , a man pushed to his limits under the influence of a circus of drugs on the threshold of insanity and death just holding on to what could be his last breath day in day out , only to find a moments of creativity and inspiration from a mad man. I just loved his role.
The death of Stalin is so damn good. The dark humor comes from the fact that everything they portrayed in the movie actually happened. The absurdity is great 😂❤
Plus the dark humor feels very true to Russians and Russian culture despite its British embodiment.
@@George_M_ yeah totally. It’s a great movie. The casting choices puzzled me when I first heard about the movie but once I saw it I understood why 😝
I was just going to comment how much I liked that movie when I saw this one. It wasnt 100 percent accurate but it's great. I absolutely recommend it.
Hopper was a Trip. I worked in a hotel once in San Francisco in probably 1978 around there. I did a Room service, and he was a bit shy and halting when I asked him if he was Him. He ordered a 5 oz. steak for HIS DOG! I remembered him from "EASY RIDER" and asked him for his autograph and he signed it "Thanks for remembering me." None of this "I"M A STAR!" persona, he would have been a Kick at a party and hanging out I thought. I never at the time did a "HEY GUESS who I MET?" I kept it Cool the way he probably would have wanted it. Very good Actor.
Such a cool story! I would've loved to have met him. One of my favorite actors ever. Thanks for sharing.
Very nice, served as a peacetime navy photographer, naval school of photography 79, always get a kick out of the real deal.
The madness of trying to make sense of this world - amazing. My favorite line from Hopper was - (he's quoting Kurtz) "Do you know what if is the middle word in life?" He goes on - "I'm a little man, he's a great man..." So amazing - a man losing his mind trying the rationalize and explain madness.
Actually, Hopper was being straight forward truthful. As Marlon Brando called him a hollow stuffed straw man, a mutt/mongrel, who does what he's told.
I met a contractor once who spoke and sounded and laughed and acted exactly like Hopper. He didn't look like him at all, but when he was doing one of these 0:03, somehow he looked just like him
We've all met tons of people who reminded us of tons of people. I've never seen anything as fckin uncanny in my life.
There is a B&W drama containing a scene with Groucho Marx and a young Hopper sitting across from each other talking quietly and seriously. It is so surreal
Absolutly brilliat as always. Thank you for the video.
Hopper was brilliant. A riveting actor to watch.
The photojournalist provides a very important element of the plot. When we get to Kutz's compound, we see the horror it represents. But the film needs a "spokesperson" that explains -- or tries to -- why these people essentially worship Kurtz regardless or perhaps even because of the horror. That paradoxical concept is very bizarre, so it makes sense that it would be articulated by a bizarre character. Yes, he is comic relief, but he provides exposition on the the way Kurtz is viewed and why that is important to the plot development as well.
One of the best Film history channels anywhere.
You should see his character “Feck” in River’s Edge!
Agreed. That film was well acted and rarely is spoken of.
Cats have claws!!!
Great movie nobody talks about
Everyone talking about the Sicilian scene or the Heineken line in Blue Velvet, but this guy is talking about River's Edge. You have good taste, fucker.
Hey man....CATS HAVE CLAWS!!
Thank you SO much for these fascinating essays , they’re absolutely fantastic and riveting.
Honestly, these are Heart of Darkness part deux.
Dennis Hopper was a hugely memorable character in this film. I love him in everything. He's unique and a great actor, writer, photographer.
Great work as usual I’ll be sad when this series is over.
Dennis Hopper is buried in NM ,His son was in the same class as my son in LA and I met him a few times and he seemed very friendly to our family .
Scott Glenn is a Marine Corps veteran but he was not in Vietnam, at the time the first Marine's were being sent to Vietnam he was already out of the Marine's and was working as a news and sports reporter in Kenosha Wisconsin, which is about as far away from Vietnam as you can get.
45 years after seeing this in the theater, I have never seen anyone move their hands like Hopper did in this film. One one hand, it is most likely Dennis being Dennis, on the other, it sure worked in the film and added a real manic authenticity to the character.
lol Hopper was predicting A.I. creating films
nope
Yes, Hopper is acting a role. If you watch a video where he tells the story of accidentally pissing off Brando, you see the real Hopper. He just did an exceptional job of making it seem real.
Excellent work. You're making me love Apocalypse Now all the more
Coppola really took the Herzog/Kinski Route for _Apocalypse Now:_ Take a bunch of actors, drop them in the jungle, let them go mad and pray to whatever gods may be that someone remains lucid enough to keep the cameras running.
Hopper and Kinski together in a movie :) Bet Kinski survives ...
then, again, Hopper messing with Kinski's mind ?
OUT OF THE BLUE,INTO THE BLACK
Hopper is priceless, I always loved the character of the photo journalist surrounded by little kids wearing bandoliers.
There is one cut of AN in which both characters killed by Kurtz, chef and Hopper's severed heads are seen together in the tiger cage scene.. but blink and you'll miss it.
I'm guessing you're speaking of the tight bamboo cage Martin Sheen is pinned in?
True Grit was when John Wayne actually became an actor, briefly though it was. All of his other films he just played himself.
Wayne is still pretty campy and artificial in True Grit.
The Coen Bros Interpretation is a far superior movie on every level.
I never had a problem with that. I would argue he acted quite well with *The Searchers,* which was a bit out of character for him. His usual characters were grizzled but good natured. *The Searchers* though? He was a few steps away from going full Frank Castle.
Excellent, thorough, primary-sourced… Great stuff. IMO Hopper is the best part and this video had me laughing out loud in the best way.
Always love these videos. So much thought and effort and craziness in the making of this film, it's so enriching to hear the behind the scenes. (i also always get a kick out of the clips you add for flavour, like the simpsons, heh)
Brilliant! Another mind-blowing episode. The work that goes into this series is awesome-inspiring!
Had the pleasure of meeting Tim Page a few years ago . He was exhibiting his work in a small gallery in Dubrovnik. He is a master photographer and an incredible story teller. Def check him out.
His autobiography is great I think it’s called Page After Page.
The American Friend is extremely underseen! Him and Wim is magic
Drink 🍺 everytime Dennis Hopper says “Man!”
I’ve always said that Dennis Hopper plays one character, Dennis Hopper
Sean Flynn's dissappears (8:50) sounds a lot like the Jesse Plemons scene in Civil War.
Also sounds like the Rockefeller son who disappeared and is presumed dead in North Sentinel Island.
@@Demonico-j7x just went down a whole Wikipedia rabbit whole based on this. Thank you
"If you know your lines, then you can forget them."
Lines lilke these: "One through nine, no maybes, no supposes, no fractions. You can't travel in space, you can't go out into space, you know, without, like, you know, uh, with fractions - what are you going to land on - one-quarter, three-eighths? What are you going to do when you go from here to Venus or something? That's dialectic physics."
the same concept is with music and other arts. you must learn the rules or basic framework if you want to innovate and subvert those expectations, instead of just completely coming from an isolated alien place with no reference.
I always think of him in the movie My Science Project . I was watching that movie back in the day and my mom said when she saw him ."That's Dennis Hopper." And for some reason that has stuck in my mind for the last 39 years .
Love Dennis. I grew up knowing him as the hippie rebel without a cause. No one can make hippie sound next level like Dennis. I've been following him since the 80s. I still get excited when I'm watching a movie and he pops up unexpectedly. Lol.
Absolutely brilliant actor. He was just being himself at first... he started honing his acting skills after apocalypse. Which just made his hippie stoner mastermind character... that much better.
He does a movie with keifer Southerland that's hilarious and the epitome of his hippie stoner mastermind work. His work on the movie speed showed him transform that same energy into a psychopath mass murderer. It completely worked for him. I can't see anyone else pulling that type of character off so well. It's a lost art now. People don't have emotions today, much less tap into them like the hippies did. Even with recreational help 😉. Smh
RIP legend. 😢
Can't wait to see the Brando story you mentioned. This is GREAT!
Isn't this just more evidence that Dennis essentially played the same role in ALL his movies?
Excellent episode 👍
Great work, CinemaTyler. Damn, I love this movie. I'm enjoying your videos about it. Thank you.
The same reason why David Lynch cast him as Frank Booth in Blue Velvet, to quote Dennis' personal appeal to Lynch: "You have to let me play Frank! Because I am Frank!"
Sad Hopper has been gone for several years now. I always liked the roles he played.
What a magical time in film making
Great job again, Tyler.
A true mad cap was Hopper, brilliantly captured here. Well done in Hearts of Darkness as well.
Chef survived the whole film to become the pawn store owner in falling down, Coppola confirmed this in an interview
🤣
was his silent partner Spiro Agnew?
I just learned that DH was an actual photographer, and a good one.
Thank you!
I was into photography in my younger years.
Props.
☮️
Dennis’s character was based on my friend Tim Page. He was wounded 5 times from 65-69 and also photographed Jim Morrison when he was arrested and also spent a night in jail with him. Even the Marines thought he was crazy.
His performance in Hoosiers still makes me tear up a little, I'll admit.
Man it's been 3 years since I delved into apocalypse now and following your channel from 1 year, you the best, keep it up ✨🚁 🌴🔥
The photojournalist is such a masterpiece of a character in that movie! How could you script his dialog? To make it look and feel best, it had to be improvised by the right person. Good call Francis!
Colby's character always stuck with me ever since i first seen him on screen, such a small role but it carries so much weight considering what he was originally sent to do, i could babble about him for hours
I never realized ‘Colby’ was Scott Glenn 😅
There’s always details to this masterpiece film , you never get the first few times you watch it.