The origins of the epic and spectacle-filled Apocalypse Now (1979) date back to the late 1960s, when two students at film school in southern California discussed making a film about the war in Vietnam. John Milius had heard a lot of stories about excessive and bizarre behaviour by US soldiers in Vietnam, like going surfing while attacking a peasant village. Milius began work on a script. The other student was George Lucas.
The film never got made, and it was several years later, after US forces had withdrawn from Vietnam in 1973 (see MHM April/May 2023), that Oscar award-winning film-maker Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather) became excited about the project. By this time, George Lucas was immersed in making Star Wars and told Coppola that, if he was interested in the film, he should direct it.
Vietnam was still a very touchy subject in the US, and it was difficult at first for Coppola to attract interest in funding the movie. The only Vietnam film to date had been The Green Berets in 1968, a John Wayne whitewash. Wayne had been annoyed by anti-war protests and wanted to make a film that was pro-military-intervention and anti-communist.
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