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30 CINEMONTAGE / Q1 2016 progression here, because Walter is the newest, so he's the least crazy.'" Thus, Murch was assigned to edit the beginning of the film, from the opening to the famous scene in which a village is decimated as a recording blares Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries"; that scene was previously Greenberg's responsibility. As Murch remembers it, Coppola said: "I want Walter to edit the first, let's say, quarter of the film because that's the most normal, and he's the most normal." When faced with the footage of the opening eight minutes, however, Murch took a different tack. With no script for this scene to guide him, he turned to material not intended to be part of the actual film — including the opening shot and the footage documenting Willard's drinking and karate moves. "The slow-motion shot was taken simply to document what is still the largest practical explosion ever set off for a film," Murch says. "And the drinking/karate scene was an improvisatory acting exercise to help recently hired Martin Sheen get up to speed with Willard's character. But when Francis saw the dailies of this material, as profoundly different as they were, he felt that they could somehow be woven together into a kind of overture for the film, setting up the subjective intensity of Willard's state of mind. This was the challenge Francis set for me, the so-called 'most normal' of the editors!" He adds: "You were watching a man who was deep in some kind of nightmare of frustration (what we would now call post-traumatic stress) — not able to fit in back home, and stuck in a shitty hotel room in Saigon far from his goal, which was to get back into action in the jungle." What Murch sought — here and elsewhere in the film — was both density and clarity. "I'm always trying to find the balance point between these two contradictory values," he says. "The audience has to feel, cinematically, the full density and impact of what this guy is experiencing, but at the same time, they have to understand what is going on." In total, Murch's tour of duty on the film lasted almost two years, with his editing responsibility eventually encompassing the film's first half, up to the sampan massacre scene. Then, in September 1978, he shifted to his original roles as sound designer and re-recording mixer, working in tandem with sound editors Richard Cirincione, Leslie Hodgson, Pat Jackson, Jay Miracle, Leslie Schatz, Maurice Schell, MPSE, and Les Wiggins; and re- recording mixers Richard Beggs, Mark Berger, CAS, Thomas Scott and Dale Strumpell. "It is the longest post-production of any film that I have ever been involved in," he says. Production had not been quick and easy, either. The shooting days numbered about 230, Murch says, though he was present for only two of them: a single weekend in March 1977, when he flew in from London for a conference. "I did breathe the air of the Philippine location and catch the mood," he says. "It was shortly after Marty [Sheen] had had his heart attack, so the situation was fraught, but they were still shooting what they could." Crises also included Brando's more-overweight-than-anticipated appearance, a typhoon that took out the sets, and a major piece of recasting, when Harvey Keitel was swapped for Sheen. "After three weeks or so of shooting, Francis realized that the intense subjectivity of the Willard character did not mesh with Keitel's active approach," Murch says. What had been an action- oriented film became more philosophical. "The film was recast with Martin Sheen; a number of key heads of departments left at that point, and a different approach was taken." A consequence of these crises: an inordinate amount of film. Due to uncertainty about the film's ending, no comprehensive first assembly was ever prepared. If one had been, Murch says, "It probably would've been six or seven hours long at least." Murch believes that the "drop-dead length" for most films is approximately 145 minutes, and Apocalypse Now was no different. So, how to turn six (or seven) hours into two-and-a-half? Adding to the challenge was the hope — still lingering when Murch joined in Apocalypse Now. United Artists CONTINUED FROM PAGE 28