Tag: books

Iron Butterfly Effect: Apocalypse Now with Harvey Keitel

There have been many stories told about the making of Apocalypse Now… Martin Sheen’s heart attack, the Typhoon, Brando showing up overweight without having read the script, Dennis Hopper high on everything, The helicopters being called away to fight insurgents in the middle of filming. However, I’m going to focus solely on what would have happened had Harvey Keitel remained as Captain Ben Willard.

The Setup

Fresh off of The Godfather Part 2 and The Conversation, Francis Ford Coppola attempts to make an adaptation of Heart of Darkness, set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War. He chooses to shoot in the Philippines and plans on a four-month shoot. After offering the lead role to Steve McQueen and Al Pacino, who both passed, Nicholson, Redford, and Caan were all offered parts of either Kurtz or Willard. When they passed, Coppola’s first choice for the role of Captain Willard is Martin Sheen (who’d originally auditioned for the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather) but he’d been attached to another project, so they cast Harvey Keitel in the role, based on his work in Mean Streets.

The Execution

Coppola shot for a few weeks with Keitel but didn’t like the way that Keitel was playing the part. He felt that Willard’s role should be more of a passive onlooker, and Keitel had not been playing it that way. (I believe on Inside the Actor’s Studio, Keitel mentioned that he and Coppola had friction over this point because Keitel had been in the Marine Corps and felt the part should be played a certain way). Differences in the film would have been the scene where Keitel steals Duvall’s surfboard and brains him with it. Also different, the scene where he bash’s Kurtz’s nose with the butt of his gun then begins cutting off his fingers starting with the little one. He was let go, and Sheen came aboard to take the part of Willard.

What Might Have Been

The change of one Willard to the next didn’t really do much, as the film itself is really the star. Sheen’s stock didn’t soar with the release of the film in terms of catapulting him to leading man status, and he continued to work throughout the years with memorable turns in the films The Dead Zone, Wall Street, and The American President, before putting in a performance as the President on The West Wing. In a twist, Keitel’s career is probably elevated by not continuing as Willard. Instead of having to spend a whole year shooting in the Philippines. (Filming started in March of ’76 and concluded in May of ’77, and wasn’t released to theaters until August of ’79) he is able to shoot and release: The Duellists, Blue Collar, and Fingers, all great films which help advance his career.

Like a Rhinestone Cowboy…

So, let’s say that Keitel doesn’t get fired. Instead, Stallone, deciding he doesn’t want to continue the Rocky franchise, branches out and gets the lead role in Fingers. This precludes him from writing, directing, and starring in Paradise Alley, and the world never gets to hear Terry Funk as Frankie the Thumper tells Lee Canalito: SHUT YOUR HOLE PUKE. That would have been a tragedy.


Also great is when Terry Funk tells Sam Elliott “Mind your own business dad.” In Roadhouse

The Balance

Every so often, I’ll check Amazon or Goodreads to see if anyone has left a review. This is an excerpt of the most recent which was about “Six Bullets: Less One,” the second installment in a Western series:

“Andrew Davie has sneakily become one of my favorite writers over the last few years. His McGill & Grouper 5 novella series is my favorite, almost on par with Hap and Leonard or Matt Scudder crime novels, but just about everything he’s written has been fun and affordable.”

Sometimes, it’s the opposite of that:

“I’m not one who likes to be the keyboard warrior..but, would comment that this novella was not one that I enjoyed. Gratuitous violence from start to finish, very two dimensional lead characters who were barely believable. The plot was not convincing and had it been any more than the 60 odd pages, I’d probably have abandoned it… My view obviously and I’m sure many might have other opinions, but at least it was only a couple of lost hours!”

The second review was for “Pavement.” Regardless of whether people enjoy my writing it’s one of the few times I have confirmation that people outside of my friends and family are reading what I’ve written. As you might imagine, it can be very seductive to check to see if there are new reviews.

Over time, I have tried to become more aware. I continue to check, but I focus more on enjoying the creation of these stories, and sharing them with my first reader. Once I send it to the publisher, that’s when it’s time to let it go. At the beginning, it was tempting to buy ads or spend time creating trailers to put on YouTube, but the more I can find enjoyment in the writing, editing, etc. the more satisfying it will be. I will continue to check for reviews, but I’ll be able to put it in perspective.

For example, it’s enjoyable to reminisce about the fact the lead character, Albert Binax, was named after Abbott Binax laboratories who manufacture COVID tests that my Uncle John would bring when he’d visit my mother after her ALS diagnosis.