Cinema: The Making of a Quagmire

APOCALYPSE NOW Directed by Francis Coppola Written by John Milius and Francis Coppola

Now that the movie is in the theaters, audiences are at last going to learn just why it took Francis Coppola $30 million and almost four years to finish Apocalypse Now. The answer, it turns out, is not nearly so mysterious as one might suppose. Coppola delayed the completion of his Viet Nam film for the simple reason that he could not bring off the grand work he so badly wanted to make. He tinkered right to the end—long after a...