The following article contains descriptions of animal cruelty. It could be triggering for some readers.The production of Francis Ford Coppola’s seminal war film Apocalypse Now was infamously difficult, if not borderline disastrous. Although it resulted in an all-time classic movie, it’s also a clear example of an auteur’s vision pushed to dangerous extremes. According to Charlie Sheen, the son of the film’s lead, Martin Sheen, he attended the movie set when he was just 10 years old, and witnessed the chaos in person — including an event that marked him forever.
As reported by Entertainment Weekly, a portion of Sheen’s new memoir, The Book of Sheen, finds him reflecting on joining his father, along with the rest of their family, on set in the Philippines during the production of Apocalypse Now. In the film, Sheen’s father played Captain Willard, the Vietnam War soldier commissioned with hunting down Colonel Walter E. Kurtz and stopping the cult-like rebellion he’s started in Cambodia.
In the book, Sheen recalls one memory he wishes he could forget, saying he snuck out one night and witnessed an event at “KurComm” (Kurtz’s compound) where an animal was violently killed right in front of him. Although it was part of a local cultural ritual, Sheen remains scarred by the sight:
“A scene where I was front row had me wishing I was still asleep at the Do Lung Bridge. In a night scene at KurComm, I watched as a water buffalo got its head chopped off.
“The bovine was sacrificed by the group portraying Kurtz’s Montagnard army. In reality, they were Ifugao, an ancient tribe known for the Banaue rice terraces. The offering is a ritual they’ve performed for centuries, and Francis decided to symbolically weave the graphic images into the termination of Kurtz’s command.”
The actor says he was fascinated with the special effects of the film, created by Fred Blau. He even lent a hand when playing with the fake blood and applying it to extras on the set of Coppola’s masterpiece. However, the water buffalo incident subjected the young Sheen to real-life horror:
“It was brutal. This wasn’t a Brando joke, or a fake body hanging from a palm tree—it was a real kill that required nothing from Mr. Blau to enhance the impact. Later that same night, the Ifugao did wind up eating that buffalo at a grand feast. I guess that’s one way to process it.”
The ‘Apocalypse Now’ Shoot Was So Infamously Chaotic, It Inspired a Documentary
The water buffalo scene is one of many controversial parts of the movie. Coppola has addressed it in the past, and the incident of animal cruelty is yet another item on a list that makes the production of Apocalypse Now one of the most difficult in cinema history. Most of these were shown in the behind-the-scenes documentary Hearts of Darkness, which chronicles the ways in which the film almost killed its director. Martin Sheen has been frank about his own issues with alcoholism during the production, as well as the heart attack he suffered while making the movie.
