After watching and analyzing the opening scene of Apocalypse Now, I researched facts online about the movie and came across a documentary that was actually made about the film called Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse. What I found extremely interesting was that in the opening scene, the actor actually hits his hand in the mirror and bleeds from it. The director, Francis Coppola was very particular on making the movie feel and be as real as possible. Other examples include when filming in the jungle the crew came across many obstacles when filming scenes and becoming sick.
The director wanted to make it so realistic that he poured gallons of gasoline in a forest in the Philippines to set on fire for the opening scene . He even tried to capture the horror of war in Saigon by filming in an active war zone.
Not only did the director go through great lengths with the jungle scene to make the film feel real. He also did it in the scene when he slowly around the room to show how he was beginning to lose it. This scene did not have the same level of danger as the other, but it did have just as powerful of an impact on the viewer.