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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Apocalypse Now (Carmine Coppola/David Shire/Various)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... on the earliest, longest album presentations if your
interest in the film's music is casual, as it represents the closest
match to what you hear in context.
Avoid it... on either of the dedicated albums for Carmine Coppola and David Shire's distinctly unpleasant but intellectually fascinating scores if you expect any semblance of narrative development or readily accessible synthetic applications.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Apocalypse Now: (Carmine Coppola/David
Shire/Various) Over the course of several years in the later 1970's, the
production of Francis Ford Coppola's grandiose Vietnam War picture
Apocalypse Now became known for its colossal failures and poor
luck. Countless actors refused to commit, had to be replaced, or were
ill, injured and, in the case of Marlon Brando, too overweight once they
showed up. A hurricane wiped out tens of millions of dollars of sets,
and the script continued development so long that Coppola was never
satisfied with the end result, leading to two subsequent cuts released
many years later. What was a financial disaster at the time, however,
turned out to yield one of the top war films of all time. Many critics
place Apocalypse Now among the best movies of any genre, a grim
but gripping look at how the war affected American service members,
albeit in a flamboyantly dramatized way. The ease with which American
commanders manipulate and kill native populations is brutally conveyed,
though many of the flawed protagonists fail to survive as well. Despite
its difficulty attracting Coppola's choices for actors, the ensemble
cast was fantastic, and the endlessly rewritten script still managed to
generate some magnificent one-liners. It's a spectacle for gruesome
violence, including the actual killing of a water buffalo in native
ceremonies that evaded animal cruelty laws at the time. As successfully
controversial as the film has always been, its soundtrack has also been
a source of polarization. Coppola was extremely specific in his desires
for the film's music, requiring some combination of vintage rock songs
and electronic underscore to generate an intentionally dissonant
atmosphere. While it became increasingly apparent that the insertion of
the original quantity of songs in the film diminished its resonance,
Coppola still managed to fit a generous number of them in the final mix,
including entries by The Rolling Stones, Flash Cadillac, and the Beach
Boys, but all of them were overshadowed by the prominent use of "The
End" by "The Doors" at the start and finish of the tale.
Also mandatory for Coppola in Apocalypse Now was the use of Richard Wagner's "The Ride of the Valkyries" for its most impactful scene of American helicopters attacking a beachside village. The music is vitally integral to the scene, blasted out of loudspeakers on the helicopters to motivate the Americans and mess with the minds of the villagers. Its use in that scene forever changed the public's perception of the piece in cinema, and it became a source of parodies for years to come. Interestingly, Coppola originally did not want to use the classically performed orchestral and vocal version of "The Ride of the Valkyries" but instead wished for it to be played in an eerie, mechanically synthetic manner to enhance the inhumane horror of the scene. The director had been highly impressed by Japanese composer Isao Tomita's electronic interpretations of "The Planets" by Gustav Holst and sought his services for such adaptations in Apocalypse Now, even flying him to the filming locations. But that partnership ultimately did not come to fruition, and the reasons for the parting differ. Some reports indicate that Tomita could not be involved because of licensing issues with his music, while others claim that the composer's extremely slow, deliberate method of working was not deemed suitable for the pace of Coppola's production, a significant irony given that it took many years for Apocalypse Now to be completed anyway. The director then turned to his brother-in-law, David Shire, who had provided highly effective music for his thriller The Conversation a few years prior. While no orchestra was intended, Coppola made it clear to Shire that expense wasn't an issue, and the composer was free to hire a group of top synthesists and obtain whatever emerging synthesizer technology was available at the time to achieve unique sounds for this project. After auditions from a variety of electronic specialists, Shire brought Daniel Wyman and Peter Bergren onto the team, with a few additional performers rounding out the crew later. They secured access to top-of-the-line equipment for the era and set forth to create a hybrid sound effect and music score per Coppola's instructions. For many years, the truth about Shire's score for Apocalypse Now wasn't recognized; in fact, few people realized that the music existed at all. Shire's team recorded nearly a full score for the picture but ran out of time because of Coppola's ever-shifting post-production schedule. Their music was an impressively broad and experimental exploration of synthesizer capability for the late 1970's, with much of the work's running time occupied with the use of the machines to recreate the sounds of helicopters and nature. The results of this toil are so realistic at times that it may be challenging to the listener to determine if the sounds are completely synthetic or simply manipulated versions of the real things. Blended with this material is Shire's actual musical content, which follows basic structural norms in some cues but also veers off into atmospheric haze as well. There are no recurring themes in the grating work, Shire intent upon creating motifs for individual tracks and situations. Undoubtedly, Coppola would then rearrange those ideas in the film as he saw fit. There is basic emulation of brass and strings in the intent, and in a few instances, especially in the faux brass in early cues, there is a masculinity that matches the story quite well. In the end, though, Shire's tough recordings are intriguing because of their adherence to Coppola's original instructions as an alienating extension of sound design and aren't as readily appreciable as standalone music. When Coppola's continuing shoots and edits of Apocalypse Now ran years over schedule, Shire became unavailable to continue his work; he was committed to scoring the acclaimed drama Norma Rae, which won him an Academy Award for its song. Reports suggest that friction developed between Shire and Coppola despite (or perhaps because of) their familial relations, though the men eventually reconciled. To finish his picture, Coppola pivoted to his most trusty collaborator for music: his father. Carmine Coppola was classically trained and not experienced in the realm of synthetics, but he was given a hefty music budget to hire a supporting staff. By then, over $100,000 had already been spent on the soundtrack with little to show for it, though a strong argument could be made that Shire's music would have serviced the finished cut of the film just as well, if not better than, the replacement score by Coppola's new team. The crew for Carmine Coppola's replacement score for Apocalypse Now included five synthesists and once again called for the top electronic equipment available at the time. Shirley Walker was tasked with taking Coppola's sketches from paper and matching them to the film, allowing the synthesists to then examine the basic instrumental guidance and translate that into a variety of keyboarded synthesizers, electric guitar, and electronic wind instruments. Fascinatingly, the director's goal of utilizing a completely electronic soundscape was set aside as his father ultimately introduced several organic elements into the mix as well. Foremost among these were various percussive elements provided by Mickey Hart with inventive techniques (though wretched in the surfboard scene), and dramatic moments were supplied with Carmine Coppola's own flute performances. A choir was also employed. There are sound effects at play in the finished score as well, though they seem to more closely match the monoaural-originating effects heard in the film itself. In short, the replacement score is far less inventive from a synthesizer perspective even though it is highly revered by historians in the field. (Again, it's possible, if not likely, that these enthusiasts don't even know about Shire's rejected score.) Common to both works, however, is the limitation on the keyboards and EWI's employed; they could not yield polyphonic sounds in one performance, so without the ability to create chords like on a piano, several tracks had to be overlaid in order to achieve that sound. Shire's score used more tape tracks than Coppola's, but the limitations are inherent in the sound either way. Carmine Coppola did diverge from Shire in the handling of themes, supplying two recurring ideas in the replacement score. The primary one is built upon ascending figures in "The Delta," "Orange Light," and "The Nung River" while a secondary, descending mystery figure in "Pre-Tiger," "Dossier #II," and "Chef's Head" is less obvious. Aside from these applications, the final score for Apocalypse Now followed a similar stream of consciousness approach that Shire had adhered to, yielding disparate experiences cue to cue. The use of sound effects in the film, along with the dialing out or down of some sequences, makes it truly difficult to appreciate what Coppola's music was attempting to accomplish. The most popular album release for the film emulates this blend, compounding the problem for mainstream listeners. Generally speaking, Coppola's approach to Apocalypse Now is more traditionally tonal and melodic, playing less like a true horror score despite adhering to that genre's norms at times. The disagreements between the arrangers and synthesists for the replacement score were reportedly heated at times, the process of translating the composer's intentions via Walker not always yielding easy answers artistically given the technological options. And yet the end result is less unconventional than Shire's, playing the film more safely. Representing Coppola's work, two very different album releases illuminate distinctions in each cue. The content of a particular cue can remain the same on both albums or be completely disparate. The weaving of these various alternatives into the movie is ambiguous due to the director's methods of editing of the soundtrack. This review will first cover the standard, longer album arrangement that included sound effects and dialogue in excess and will then address the same cues as distinct on the subsequent albums that isolated only the music. On the primary presentation, "The Delta" has elements that foreshadow the techniques of Vangelis but with electric guitar, applying the same sound effects of helicopters as Shire had though with greater harmonic connections to the underlying musical structures. The choral aspect debuts in "Orange Light" with deep resonance while the start of "Pre-Tiger" applies trumpet and other brass-like effects. Both "Dossier #II" and "Letters From Home" use meandering woodwinds for solitary drama. "The Nung River" bursts with the main theme in more traditional fake brass tones while "Do Lung Bridge" shifts to growling bass tones and occasional wild guitar. Oddly flamboyant is "Clean's Death," a massively synthetic rendering utilizing an operatic closure with voices and organ. Less obvious is "Chief's Death/Strange Voyage," which offers more melodic keyboarded grace but is still solemnly grim. Rhythmic thumping by electric bass dominates the separate "Strange Voyage" before the organ continues in agony during "Willard's Capture." Metallic clanging rhythms with traditional suspense stinger techniques punctuate "Chef's Head," and "The Hollow Men" presents a return of vaguely light choral ambience for closure. There is really no narrative arc to any of this music, even with the existence of the two recurring motifs from Coppola. It's no surprise that the music was long appreciated on album amongst prominent quotes from the characters on screen. An alternate, shorter presentation was released simultaneously on LP in 1979 and also on CD in 1988, and it featured about 30 minutes of the work without all the dialogue and sound effects, often illuminating entirely different versions of the same cues. Here, the horror elements are greatly increased, emulating John Carpenter techniques in some places. This version of "The Delta" provides pure horror ambience with fake strings and some slight ethnicity, and "Orange Light" extends that horror ambience with choral effects. Obnoxious pitch wavering effects are more prominent against staccato rhythms in "Nung River," dissolving to meandering and anonymous keyboarding in "Letters From Home." The unpleasant "Voyage" has more layers of dissonance exposed with additional lines of droning, a more low-key version of the same ambience carrying over in "Kurtz Chorale" as well. A completely different version of "Clean's Death" follows without vocals and wildly manic brass effects. The horror ambience builds to a somewhat tragic and tonal string emulation in "Finale," which didn't make the prior album in any form. Not as much percussion is featured on this second album, which is a shame given that it foreshadowed some of the same ideas that Georges Delerue applied to his stalking jungle material that survived in Platoon. The director resurrected the film twice for director's cuts, and accompanying the 2001 release is a "Redux" album that took the shorter presentation and added two previously unreleased cues amounting to six minutes in length. Both are really out of place in this score and feature more accessible harmonics than the remainder of the work. The romantic melody of "Love Theme" on a lush bed of synths is an especially awkward diversion, and "Clean's Funeral" supplies more stoic ambience with military trumpet solos on top. In the end, Coppola's score for Apocalypse Now is well regarded but doesn't exude the same innovation that comes from Shire's more challenging take using the same technology. For most average viewers, the use of Wagner and The Doors will prevail in the memory anyway. On album, the long-standing 2-CD set is more a souvenir of extensive dialogue and monaural sound effects from the movie than an actual musical soundtrack. Very little of the score can be heard there, but it is provided in the mix from the film. The score-only albums, whether from 1988 or 2001, are more satisfying but expose strategic flaws in the music's narrative. The rejected Shire score was released on a limited album in 2017 and is an intellectual treat but largely impossible to enjoy as music. Neither score is particularly attractive outside of context, leaving the music in the film itself as your best option. **
TRACK LISTINGS:
Elektra Regular Edition:
Total Time: 42:14
Elektra Expanded/Club/Definitive Editions: Total Time: 95:48
Nonesuch Redux Edition: Total Time: 48:17
* previously unreleased La-La Land (Shire) Album: Total Time: 59:39
* composed by Richard Wagner
NOTES & QUOTES:
The inserts of the albums featuring the Carmine Coppola score
include minimal extra information about the score or film, the packaging
of the 1988 albums particularly sparse. The insert of the 2017 La-La
Land Records album with the David Shire score provides extensive detail
about the film and rejected score.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Apocalypse Now are Copyright © 1988, 2001, 2017, Elektra Records (Four Editions), Nonesuch Records, La-La Land Records (Shire Score) and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 12/9/23 (and not updated significantly since). |
