We were all walking down to say good-bye as the waiting helicopter started its engine up. It went whooh whooh whooh, a kind of turbine sound, as it began to whirl up. I immedetely saw the existing cut of the film, from the line "Charlie don't surf"--then bang!--suddenly the film cut to whirling helicopters and a lot of noise. But I thought, It would be interesting to introduce this turbine sound about five seconds earlier, so while you're watching the scene at night, you start to hear an inexplicable sound that gets louder and louder and louder, until, when it's quite loud, Robert Duvall says, "Charlie don't surf", and then it cuts to a mass of helicopters. You're not quite aware of what the sound is or where its coming from, and then you realize, if you think about it all, Oh, that's what it was.While Murch would go onto edit numerous films, and continues to work to this day (including of course, the film of The English Patient), it's highly likely that Apocalypse Now will be considered his masterpiece. It would usher in a new era in Hollywood filmmaking, one where sound was as important as the image. I've owned the film on every home video format available, and saw it in the theater in the summer of 2001, when it was released as Apocalypse Now Redux, and its sound is stunning in every format.
Needless to say, anyone with an interest in film--whether as a fan, as a student, or actually working in the industry--would benefit from reading these Conversations with one of film's master craftsmen.
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