Tag: reviews

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

Nifty Package

This was an essay I wrote that was published in the online journal “The Daily Drunk”:

Ultimately, it was a missed opportunity. 

In 1989, Manuel Noriega, the leader of Panama, to avoid capture or death during the US invasion of Panama, sought sanctuary and papal protection at The Apostolic Nunciature. As a result, The United States began “Operation Nifty Package”; Psychological warfare to initiate his surrender.

After a period of failed negotiation, The US military played “I fought the law” by The Clash, “You Shook Me All Night Long” by AC/DC, “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses, and “Too Old to Rock and Roll: Too Young to Die” by Jethro Tull at deafening volumes.

Would it have been too on the nose to play “Panama” by Van Halen? Also, why not play Metallica? The song “One” seems like it would have made sense. “Darkness imprisoning me, all that I see, absolute horror.” Or, how about “Raining Blood” by Slayer? “Trapped in Purgatory, a lifeless object, alive. Awaiting reprisal; death will be acquiescence.”

Again, would that have been too on the nose? In psychological warfare, does irony play a more important role? In that case, they could have played “Push The Little Daisies,” by Ween.

It is interesting to note this is the second time Jethro Tull was selected instead of Metallica. That same year, Jethro Tull won the inaugural Grammy award for “Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance” for their album “Crest of a Knave.” This beat “…And Justice for All” by Metallica, “Nothing’s Shocking” by Jane’s Addiction, “Blow up Your Video” by AC/DC, and “Cold Metal” by Iggy Pop. I wonder if this would have been a great marketing opportunity for Jethro Tull, or any of the other bands to suggest that their music was excellent in the use of psychological warfare? They did manage to cash in, however, as Tull’s record label took out a full-page ad in Billboard magazine of a flute (Jethro Tull’s lead singer Ian Anderson played the flute in the majority of their songs) in a pile of rebar with the tag “The flute IS a heavy metal instrument.” Metallica also included a sticker on subsequent releases of “…And Justice For All,” which read Grammy Award LOSERS.

Concerning Noriega, ultimately, it was The Archbishop who convinced him to surrender to the United States.

In the end, perhaps it was better for most of these bands to simply use the warning advisory sticker provided by The Parents Music Resource Center.