4. Little by Little, We Went Insane | Do We Get to Win This Time?

Apocalypse Now and the movies it eclipsedhow Coppola's Vietnam epic got made, and what it buried

Apocalypse Now 1979

Coppola's Vietnam epic, adapted from Conrad's Heart of Darkness through a John Milius / George Lucas script Coppola bought for $25,000. 238 days shooting in the Philippines through a typhoon, Martin Sheen's heart attack, and a Brando who arrived overweight and hadn't read the novel; Coppola put up his house and his Godfather earnings as collateral. Eight Oscar nominations, wins for sound and cinematography, about $100 million worldwide. His line at Cannes, 'little by little we went insane,' gives the episode its title.

The Deer Hunter 1978

Cimino's film reached theaters first, claiming the distinction Coppola wanted: Hollywood's first big-budget Vietnam drama. Coppola concedes as much in the hotel-room anecdote that opens the episode ('You beat me, baby').

Who'll Stop the Rain 1978

Action-romance with Nick Nolte as a Vietnam vet smuggling heroin back to the US, one of the smaller films that reached screens while Apocalypse stalled.

The Boys in Company C 1978

A combat-and-hangout film following an oddball group of Marines from basic training to the battlefield.

Go Tell the Spartans 1978

Ted Post's 1964-set drama, seven years in the making, with Burt Lancaster as an aging WWII vet ordered to hold a doomed outpost. Shot for under $1 million in the California hills behind an amusement park, with South Vietnamese refugees as extras paid $35 a day. Dumped on release, revived by Siskel and Ebert in the '80s.

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse 1991

The making-of documentary built from Eleanor Coppola's 60 hours of set footage, co-directed with Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper. Its subject is Coppola himself, coming apart on camera. He tried to block its Cannes premiere and joked it should have been called 'Watch Francis Suffer.'

Jarhead 2005

Viet Thanh Nguyen shows students the scene where Gulf War Marines pump themselves up watching Apocalypse Now, his example of Hollywood spectacle overwhelming a war film's anti-war message.

Milius 2013

The documentary on screenwriter John Milius, source for his account of writing the Apocalypse script and once planning to die young in combat.

Also mentioned raised along the way

In passing PattonThe GodfatherThe Godfather Part IIThe ConversationStar WarsJawsSupermanComing HomeTaxi DriverRolling ThunderThe Green BeretsSeven SamuraiRambo: First Blood Part IIBig Wednesday

Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads

Books Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)Notes (Eleanor Coppola)The Sympathizer (Viet Thanh Nguyen)

TV / radio M*A*S*HHeart of Darkness (Orson Welles radio, 1938)

Podcasts Icons ClubThis Blew UpGamblers

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