Was Marlon Brando showing up to the set of Apocalypse Now massively overweight for the role actually a good thing in...

Was Marlon Brando showing up to the set of Apocalypse Now massively overweight for the role actually a good thing in the end? The imagery of Colonel Kurtz constantly half-enveloped in shadow is pretty iconic. From what I remember reading, the original planned ending was going to be more action oriented and conventional, which would've been the weaker route if you ask me.

>so fucking fat they can only show half your shadowed face
>paid millions
how did he keep on getting away with it?

who gives a fuck about this confirmed rapist

I just always think about how perfect he would've been as The Judge in a Blood Meridian adaptation.

When you're the best actor in Hollywood, you can get away with all kinds of shit

>Brando literally said jews control Hollywood live on national TV to Larry King himself

Didn't he suck a BBC in real life?

How the fuck do you show up to the set massively overweight anyway?

You're telling me Coppola cast him and he was normal, and then a couple months later he's suddenly ballooned up 100 lbs? I mean, I know he did, but it doesn't make any goddamn sense.

there's a pic floating around of him doing that

>the original planned ending was going to be more action oriented and conventional

I think that was earlier in development. It was in Milius' script and Coppola changed it.

Why did Kurtz kill Chef?

Maybe Chef was eating some of Kurtz's food

I loved it the way it was. The fact that you can never see him properly only increases the tension and mistery of the character. It's like everything that went wrong with this film wound up being for the best later on, and working itself out in the end. Coppola probably sold his soul to the devil during production in order to produce such a fine work of art. Also explains why his career took a nosedive afterwards.

He was already too overweight for the part but Brando apparently promised that he'd be able to lose the weight.

Willard gave chef the go ahead to go back to the boat and radio for the airstrike iirc.
He was intercepted tortured and killed.

Chef was trying to call in an airstrike.

>The fact that you can never see him properly only increases the tension and mistery of the character

There's a scene iirc where you get a decent look at him. I haven't seen the movie in years so I might be wrong.

Only in the Redux. And while the scene itself if fine, it really felt out of place to show Kurtz in perfect sunlight. They should've shot that scene again in darkness.

“Chef was wound too tight for Vietnam; probably wound too tight for New Orleans.

Yes.

To be completely honest, the main reason this film is so well known is all the bullshit that happened during production. Also, Brando is pretty much a mythological creature that makes any of his films watchable by simple association.

Lance and Willard were the only ones to make it out alive.

But the real mystery is where's the fuckin' dog?

I know that scene, it's on Redux, alright. Tottaly forgot about it.
>They should've shot that scene again in darkness.
Wouldn't work, he was reading a newspaper to Willard.

Guys, are there any books about Brando worth reading?

What was the purpose of Willard sitting at Kurtz's desk and seeing the "DROP THE BOMB! EXTERMINATE THEM ALL!" scrawling in the book? To illustrate that despite how charismatic the man may have sounded, in the end he was just a madman in the jungle? I like to believe that up until seeing that, Willard does consider taking Kurtz's place.

>the main reason this film is so well known is all the bullshit that happened during production
This.
Watch the documentary Heart of Darkness to see.

I believe it's to get rid of the savagery of the jungle that he became so atached to, he couldn't bring himself to destroy. It's also a refference to the source material, Heart Of Darkness, where Kurtz leaves a note asking to kill them all or something like that. Kurtz knows what he has created is dark, unholy and must be destroyed, no matter how well it's worked during wartime.

Yes. It's the same thing with the shark from Jaws being a broken piece of shit most of the time. Less can be more.

>ywn get access to the unscripted monologues he did

apparently there are hours worth of brando just talking

Correct. Conrad's Kurtz wrote some scholarly article about being brutal to the African tribes and exterminating them.

He didn't, his career had been dead for years before the Godfather and didn't last much longer than Superman

This. He also sent a native American to the Oscars.

"Hollywood is run by Jews; it is owned by Jews, and they should have a greater sensitivity about the issue of—of people who are suffering. Because they've exploited—we have seen the—we have seen the nigger and greaseball, we've seen the chink, we've seen the slit-eyed dangerous Jap, we have seen the wily Filipino, we've seen everything, but we never saw the kike. Because they knew perfectly well, that that is where you draw the wagons around."

I liked it because it seemed to show that he was kinda falling apart. Like he's a soldier so you'd expect him to be buff and shit but he's gone nutty so he's just letting himself go, healthwise.

Or something to that effect. Either way I think it made him more menacing.