HEART OF DARKNESS: APOCALYPSE NOW?

[Glenn Anders]

Tony/Larry have posted some interesting material from the scenario and screenplay for Welles' proposed first Mercury film, Heart of Darkness. They speculate that it may have inspired Francis Ford Coppola's APOCALYPSE NOW, just out in yet another new DVD version.

You may remember that his wife, Eleanor Neil Coppola, kept a journal of the production, which with the help of George Hickenlooper, she turned into a documentary, "Hearts of Darkness." It uses Welles' narration for his Mercury Theater on the Air Production of Conrad's story to establish a mood and theme. As Tony and Larry suggest, Welles adaptation(s) clearly influenced Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece.

And of course, in the interest of many of our discussions here, as it was for Eleanor Coppola, the Director/Narrator of Heart of Darkness was intended to resemble both Kurtz and Marlowe:

"KURTZ

"I was afraid. — Understand this much. — Everything I’ve done up here has been done according to the method of my Government. — Everything. There’s a man now in Europe trying to do what I’ve done in the jungle. He will fail. In his madness he thinks he can’t fail — but he will. A brute can rule only brutes. Remember the meek, the meek. — I’m a great man, Marlow — really great - greater than great men before me — I know the strength of the enemy — its terrible weakness. The meek — you and the rest of the millions — the poor in spirit. I hate you — but I know you for my betters — without knowing why you are except that yours is the Kingdom of Heaven, except that you shall inherit the earth. Don’t mistake me. I haven’t gone moral on my death bed. I’m above morality. No, I’ve climbed higher than other men and seen farther. I’m the first absolute dictator . . . . "

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We might reflect, too, that monomaniacal fantasy still remains the ambition of those who aspire to power, as we look up-river toward Washington this evening.

Glenn

[Tony]

Correction:
That's Larry doing the posting on Heart of Darkness/ Apocaqlypse Now.
:;):

[ToddBaesen]

Thanks for reminding me about the Welles radio shows. I'll have to listen to them again.

But come to think of it, what's really astonishing, is how precient Welles was in his choice of material. If Welles' 1939 script for Heart of Darkness came out today, I think it would be incredibly reflective of what in happening in the world, just as Welles intended it to be a statement on the rise of Nazi fascism in 1939.

Just change the river from somewhere in the Congo to the Tigris or the Euphrates in Irag, and make Kurtz into the current dictator of the unamed country in Welles script - which for today would be somehere in the America's - Possibly that fascist state near the Caribbean Sea, that is now ruled over by the brother of a dictator, who like Kurtz, is obviously a totally insane war monger...

[Tony]

Todd: I agree with your comments except I think the subjective camera would not have worked, esp. for a whole film.

It's amazing to think that Coppola was considering hiring Welles for Kurtz: but wasn't Welles too old for the part then? Past sixty, and also too overweight for the emaciated Kurtz; I remember how Coppola was upset about Brando's weight.

What annoys me, though, is now Redux has extras, but I bought it when it first came out on DVD and I was so dissapponted that there were no extras.

Now it does... :angry:

[Roger Ryan]

Regarding the casting of the proposed film version of "Heart Of Darkness": Welles intended to play both Marlowe and Kurtz, right? Or is Mr. French's "??" meant to suggest that Welles was uncertain about playing both characters at the time the project fell through?

There is the make-up test still showing Welles made up as Kurtz and, as Marlowe, Welles would mostly be a disembodied voice, so it's possible he could have played both parts. At the same time, the dual role (usually not attempted outside of comedies) could have come off as gimmicky as the subjective camera work probably would have. Welles' script for "...Darkness" is quite heady and I'm sure the resulting picture would have been viewed as shocking and esoteric as "Apocalypse Now" did in '79. Pitching the project as a "love story" is such an outrageous bluff that I imagine the rug would have been pulled out at some point even if the budget had been approved.

"Heart Of Darkness" would have been fun as Welles' first feature, but I'm glad the somewhat more reserved "Kane" took it's place.

[Glenn Anders]

:( Early this morning, I heard on NPR that the future of DVD sales is in releasing successive, multiple and alternate versions of past, present, and coming movies.

George Lucas was said to be fully on board, "tweaking his STAR WARS series."

[It seems to me, that screenplay of Welles' Heart of Darkness would have ended with a double exposure, perhaps reflected in the river by a lightning flash, of Welles as both Marlowe and Kurtz. It would have fit with the autobiographical theme that runs through all his work from first to last.]

Todd: Were you referring to Florida and Texas? Cuba wouldn't work. The rulers of that nation have been relatively responsible, at least in recent years!

Glenn

[ToddBaesen]

Glenn: I try to be covert rather than overt in posting anything of a political nature, but yes, what I had in mind was the state of Florida. Certainly not Cuba, since as you say, Mr. Castro has been quite responsible as a leader in regard to imperialism and war-mongering, in contrast to some of the other countries in the Western Hemisphere.

Roger: As for Welles playing both Kurtz and Marlow, here's what he had to say to Peter Bogdanovich:

WELLES: There was some thought that I'd play Kurtz as well, but I decided against that.

PB: Who would you have cast in the role?

WELLES: I hadn't cast it really--the decision not to play Kurtz was made right at the end, just before the picture fell through. I decided I was a little too obvious for Kurtz and it should be a more romantic kind of personality, less of a heavy man--even a young heavy man. I think it should have been a more surprising person as Kurtz than I would have been.

So Welles would have apparently gone with someone other than himself as Kurtz, and given his admiration and friendship with John Barrymore around that time, wouldn't it be great if he managed to talk him into playing the part back in 1939 if the picture ever got made.

[Tony]

How about Walter Huston?

[ToddBaesen]

Yes Walter Huston would have been a great Kurtz, and had already worked with Welles on the radio version of AMBERSONS...

Also, looking at the script excerpts that describe the camera moves, led me to check out Carringer's chapter on "Heart of Darkness" in his MAKING OF CITIZEN KANE, and it talks about how Welles wanted to do single takes longer than 10 minutes, so he planned something they called a "feather wipe" so the camera could cut on the reels breaks. Unlike Hitchcock in ROPE, this would not involved going up to a black surface, but actually freezing the shot at the end of the reel and then starting the camera at the same place when the shot resumed and presumably joining the film together in the optical printer to make an invisible cut.

But I agree that if the whole film were shot that way it might not have worked very well, but just to have been thinking about doing something that experimental for your very first film sort of boggles the mind...

[Glenn Anders]

Tony, Todd: You make a good match with Walter Huston.

Remember that the elder Huston had essentially played the part already in KONGO (a rip-off of Von Stroheim's aborted QUEEN KELLY), both on Broadway and in the movies. Remember, too, that he was at RKO right then, making THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER for William Dieterle.

Without having read what's left of the script for HEART OF DARKNESS, as you guys have, I think either he, Huston, or whomever he picked would have had a limited appearance. I believe Welles' dramatic sense, his growing movie savvy to one side, would have had him postpone the entrance of Kurtz, kept him a shadowy figure for a time longer, and revealed fully him only at the end.

Rather as Coppola did with Brando in APOCALYPSE NOW!

Glenn

[Roger Ryan]

Thanks Todd - I'd forgotten about the Bogdanovich interview although I faintly remembered that Welles intended to give up one of the roles. I agree that Walter Huston would have been a great choice as Kurtz.

I don't think Welles would have intended the entire film to appear as one take! His feather wipe effect was experimented with as a way to accomodate sophisticated camera movement within specific scenes I would think. Hitchcock's "Rope" conceit works because all the action takes place in one apartment in real time. The journey up the river in "Darkness" covers too much time and distance for a single take approach to be logical. The first-person perspective may or may not have worked for the entire film (other films that tried it tend to look too gimmicky), but the idea obviously appealed to Welles who would continue to use the approach in subtle ways throughout his career. Rewatching "Apocalypse Now" (I picked up the new DVD set as well), I was struck by how often Coppola would use the subjective camera to allow the audience to participate in the madness.

[ToddBaesen]

Just watched HEARTS OF DARKNESS, the Eleanor Coppola/George Hickenlooper documentary on the making of APOCALYPSE NOW, and had forgotten how interesting it was, especially because it includes liberal voice-overs of Orson Welles narration, taken from his Mercury Theater radio show, along with many of the sketches from his proposed 1939 movie version.

Of course, Coppola's problems making APOCALYPSE invariably remind one of how Welles was making THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND. His own way, with (mostly) his own money. It's just too bad Welles' never had a monster hit like THE GODFATHER that would allow him to finance a movie on his own to it's conclusion.

[colwood]

I haven't seen the Hearts of Darkness doc in a long time but it is a good movie for those who haven't seen it. BTW, the clips of Welles' radio show are not the Mercury version. They are from his production of Heart of Darkness for the This Is My Best radio show from 1945(?), in my opinion, a better version than the Mercury one.

(btw, not to go off topic, but in the trade forum, i'm still looking for a copy of the HoD screenplay, if anyone can help me. thanks)