Apocalypse Now, Apocalypse Forever Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola's magnum opus, was full of problems and difficulties before and after filming. These issues ranged from those having to do with the cast and crew, to those having to do with the circumstances surrounding the filming, to those having to do with the script, to those directly dealing with sanity of all the people involved. with Apocalypse Now. Despite the myriad of problems that contributed to the failure of this acclaimed film, Apocalypse Now still became a success in its own right, and a true classic by any filmmaker's standards. Joseph Conrad's 1902 novel Heart of Darkness is the extraordinary story of Captain Marlow, an English ship captain who is sent to Africa to track down and collect the debts of an ivory trader identified as Mister Kurtz, a man who could either minus having gone mad during his eventful journey (Conrad). In this novel Marlow must face the betrayal of the Company, hostile and friendly natives, and the imminent meeting with Kurtz himself. Marlow becomes obsessed with meeting Kurtz and communicating with him after reading the man's personal history and hearing all the amazing stories about Kurtz told by both Englishmen and Africans (Conrad). This fascinating story is what inspired original screenwriter John Milius to write the first drafts of Apocalypse Now in 1969 (Behr). Orson Welles originally planned to write, direct and star in his own version of Heart Of Darkness in 1939 (Behr). The problem arose when the Mercury film company withdrew from the project citing Welles' inability to keep the film within the limited budget (Virtanen). Welles decided to give up on the project and decide... middle of paper... all signs pointed to the certain failure of Apocalypse Now, that failure never came. Francis Ford Coppola not only didn't get the "F" he was guaranteed to get, he created a film that is uniquely his own and remains true to his many parents, but also reflects Coppola's inner self unlike any other mirror artist. CitedBehr, Fax (writer, director) and Hickenlooper, George (writer, director). 1992. Hearts of Darkness: A Director's Apocalypse [film]. Showtime/ Paramount.Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness and the Secret Sharer. 1986. Buccaneer Books, inc. Cutchogue, NY. Coppola, Francis Ford (director, co-author). 1979. Apocalypse Now [Film]. American Zoetrope/United Artists.Virtanen, Panu S. (1997). Apocalypse Now tribute page. Retrieved July 2, 1997, from the World Wide Web: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/9067/apocal.html.