A brief scene in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now referenced the acclaimed director’s first Hollywood link to the celebrated actor Marlon Brando. Although Coppola was known primarily for his masterful directorial efforts in The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, he was also a skilled screenwriter, getting some of his first career opportunities as a co-writer for notable films such as 1970’s Patton. As a recent film school graduate, Coppola took various filmmaking jobs in editing, producing, and even sound, which eventually landed him offers to write and direct.
Marlon Brando, who is still considered one of the most influential Hollywood actors of the 20th century, famously retired from acting one year after Apocalypse Now released, only to return nearly a decade later in 1989’s A Dry White Season. Before becoming immortalized by his remarkable portrayal as Don Vito Corleone in Coppola’s The Godfather, Brando was an integral part of American cinema during the 1950s, starring in 1951’s A Streetcar Named Desire, 1953’s The Wild One, 1954’s On the Waterfront. Brando’s career took a turn in the 1960s with the release of two box-office flops, 1961’s One-Eyed Jacks and 1962’s Mutiny on the Bounty.
Marlon Brando 1967 Movie Role Has A Cameo In Apocalypse Now
One of Brando’s films from the 1960s is briefly referenced in Coppola’s Apocalypse Now in a photograph of Col. Walter E. Kurtz in his dossier. The photo featured the actual Brando dressed in high-ranking military attire, which fit in perfectly with the plot of Apocalypse Now. The picture was not taken specifically for the movie, nor was it fabricated through photo editing. Instead, the photo seen in Apocalypse Now was taken from his character in the 1967 Brando film Reflections in a Golden Eye, in which he played Major Weldon Penderton. While the two movies and characters have nothing to do with each other, it’s an interesting Easter egg that even the most adamant Brando fans may not initially notice.
Francis Ford Coppola Worked On The Reflections In A Golden Eye Script
Francis Ford Coppola actually took part in the development of the screenplay for Reflections in a Golden Eye, which was directed by the notable John Huston. Although Coppola was not credited on the project as one of the official screenwriters, he did in fact accept a job working on the adaptation of the novel of the same name written by Carson McCullers. This was Coppola’s first major Hollywood screenwriting job as well as his first collaboration with Brando before The Godfather was released five years later. While Brando and Coppola are both highly regarded for their work on Apocalypse Now and The Godfather, their earliest shared project goes back further than one might expect.
