Francis Ford Coppola’s long overdue, substantially over-budgeted, $30 million Vietnam war epic, Apocalypse Now, was finally released in America in the summer of 1979. For director Coppola, the film threatened to become a personal Waterloo ?- both financially and creatively. Originally budgeted at $12 million, Coppola risked his own assets, by borrowing $18 million against his homes, yacht, properties and residuals on prior films, in order to complete the project. He also seemed to lose control over the direction of the film, at one point admitting, the film was making itself, and it is easy to draw parallels between difficulties in concluding the movie and those encountered in ending the actual war. But Coppola survived the risky artistic adventure. Partially due to Coppola’s …