Francis Ford Copolla

Last night, Don Copolla himself sponsored an event at the DGA whereby he presented film students a copy of his new Apocalypse Now, the complete dossier, filled with more extra features from the gargantuan project he made in during the late 1970s. Don Copolla also spoke to said film students about filmmaking, his family, growing up, winemaking and the war in Iraq, amoung other things. I will try to summarize the highlights of the question and answer section, with the questions, his actual answers, and my imaginary good answers.

1. Q: You shot a over a million feet of film and yet, even in the complete dossier, we only get to see mere thousands. Where is the rest of the film?

A: Do you mean physically?

IGA: Do you mean physically?

Q: Well, what I mean, is there anything else interesting to see?

A: In the complete dossier there is 5 plus hours of extra features and Walter Murch and I went painstakingly through everything to include what we thought would be interesting. I'm sure you and I could sit together, go through the negative, and find something else that might be interesting, but one thing that lay people don't quite understand about filmmaking is that in any given movie you are seeing only a very small percentage of the film that was shot.

IGA: Are you suggesting releasing a DVD series of all 1 million feet of Apocolypse Now? If so, please get a life.

2. Q: What kind of drugs were you on while making the film?

A: I smoked some cigarettes and some weed. It was the first time I smoked weed and it made me depressed.

IGA: You have a chance to talk to me about filmmaking and that is the question you ask?

3. Q: Did you ever lose confidence in yourself as a director on set?

A: The question should be, did I ever NOT lose confidence in myself as a director on set. From the moment the shooting began, I was in a state of panic.

IGA: No. And if you do, you should quit trying to make films.

4. Q: You have a point of view on the Vietnam War in the film, do you have an opinion on the war going on right now:

A: I won't go all the way into it, but he had a super long answer about how he was always taught the USA was the good guys and that maybe it hasn't been the case everywhere, especially during the Cold War, etc. He kept saying rather childish things about world peace and the middle east and was met by a few scattered applause, but nothing really serious. It was quite embarassing.

IGA: Are you asking me the question because you want a serious answer or because you want me to validate your own opinion?

IR: I want a serious answer and I want you to validate my own opinion.

IGA: What should I think about the Iraq war?

IR: It is bad. Bush is bad.

IGA: Fuck yeah.