The work of a director on a film has overall responsibility for visual style but I don't agree fully that the director alone has the most creative influence on a film. In Casablanca (1942) it was the 'studio system' that had most of the power over the production of the film and the director had to work within this system. The major studios at the time produced movies on their own filmmaking lot and the actors, directors, producers and crew were under long term contracts. The importance of the studio over cast and crew and the conflict this could cause was obvious when Casablanca won an Academy Award for Best Picture and Jack Warner, one of the studio owners at Warner Brothers, was the first up on stage to collect the award, which is reported to have upset the film's actual producer, Hal Wallis.
The studios would own their 'stars'. This was known as the 'star system'. By the time Apocalypse Now was filmed in 1979, the system had changed. This film was made under 'New Hollywood' where it now accepted that characters did not have to be traditionally motivated. The cast of Apocalypse Now were unpredictable and often reckless as were their characters. As the film was set in the Vietnam War some critics said that the film glorified war while others saw it as expressing the real horrors witnessed in the war at that time. The film's director, Francis Ford Coppola, did have a lot of creative control over the movie and part of the reason he was allowed this freedom was his success on other films such as The Godfather (1972).
Apocalypse Now was filmed outside the Hollywood studio system and Coppola struggled with a lot of things going wrong that he had to deal with himself. As none of the actors were under contract, most of the cast and crew flew back to the States and the film went over budget. Coppola had to personally invest some of his own money in the movie. The creative input into the film from Coppola was almost 'anti-studio system' in the very long time it took to film the movie, in the randomness of the filming and the breaking of the budget. But this creative control resulted in a film that reflected the chaos of the action on screen and how being in the middle of a battlefield may have felt. The film shoot, originally scheduled for six weeks, took sixteen months.
Operating outside of a studio system, unlike Casablanca, meant that the actors' lines could often be improvised and director Coppola encouraged this. He allowed Brando to complete an 18 minute speech as Kurtz that he cut to a few minutes and allowed Martin Sheen to stage a breakdown on set that carried on unscripted as he punched a mirror and even attacked the director. It was Coppola's judgement as an auteur to allow these scenes to be filmed, even though Martin Sheen's mental state on set was so dangerous.
Without a director who was known as an auteur, these scenes could have been stopped by a less creative director from being filmed, and so the importance of the director to creative control is of strong importance to the way a film can look. Even some shots like the opening tracking shot of the film were accidental: a spare shot from the attack on the village was used after being found on some film reel accidentally. This kind of filming would never have been allowed in the classical Hollywood style used in Casablanca.
Apocalypse Now appealed to a younger audience who were part of the 'hippy culture' of the 1970s and part of the anti-war movement, The film also had very exciting widescreen visual effects and stunts, lots of violence and drug taking on screen and off screen too, and was very different to the classical Hollywood style of the past: the widescreen battle sequences were more suited to the new sound systems and giant screens too and Apocalypse Now was filmed in 70mm Dolby Stereo Surround Sound. This was all part of the New Hollywood cinema experience and more violent and shocking movies, that included films like The Exorcist and The Godfather.
The 'film form' of Apocalypse Now made use of post-Vietnam War anger and rock music as well as literary references (Conrad's Heart Of Darkness) to mix spectacular battle scenes with an anti-war message. The film also used opera (Wagner's Rise Of The Valkyries) in the helicopter attack on the village to add to such a crazy and wild mix. The death of an animal, even though this would have happened in a village anyway, was also a shocking scene that upset many. This 'boundary pushing' helped make the film so creative and memorable and often shocking to cinema audiences at the time.
I believe the production on a film and what is not seen on screen is often as important as the creativity of the director. In Apocalypse Now there were many behind the scenes disasters that the crew had to cope with such as the battle scenes being difficult to film as the attack helicopters on loan kept being called away. Coppola was also having trouble with his cast: he asked Dennis Hopper what he needed to get in character and Hopper replied: "an ounce of cocaine", Marlon Brando refused to learn his lines and had put on a great deal of weight and Martin Sheen was suffering from an alcohol addiction at the time and had to be replaced by a body double for longer shots. When Sheen punches the mirror in his breakdown, he wasn't acting and he was suffering from a real nervous breakdown on screen. Sheen also had a heart attack that Coppola kept quiet from the studio and covered up by saying that his star had heat exhaustion. Coppola was able to use the chaos around him to create a movie of creative extremes in both action and characterisation.
The production context for Casablanca was that it was made under the Classical Hollywood System and so was created extremely quickly and as efficiently as possible. Unlike Apocalypse Now, it was filmed in a studio. The director was appealing to all audiences to get American support for the battle against the Nazis in the Second World War. In the introduction to the film, the information is being introduced through establishing shots - at Rick's café and with the use of maps - so the audience knows the backstory of the film. Casablanca aimed to boost morale during wartime and so a message was being passed on to the audience. This is very similar to Apocalypse Now that was also being filmed with a message that was warning of the horrors of war and the no win outcome for those involved.
For Casablanca, Warner Brothers was the first major Hollywood Studio to present an anti-Nazi message and the importance of the studio system to the message of the film here is perhaps more important than the input of the director, as the studio was dictating the Film Form most strongly - the director was there to pull the 'defeat the Nazi menace' message together for them. For Apocalypse Now it is the opposite as it is the director who is allowing the film to present a strong message of the horrors of war as an auteur and not making a film to promote the ideas of the studio he is working for. Coppola made his own film form up for the movie and was not told how to film it by the studio.
The creative signature of Michael Curtiz on Casablanca stopped the film being only shot in Classical Hollywood Style as he was was using his own artistic lighting, impressionism (in the use of shadows), high crane shots and unusual camera angles. Although the film does follow Classical Hollywood Style in that the plot progresses in typical and expected ways, Curtiz does push the format with a lot of his own creativity such as the camera angles seen at the start of the film where an establishing shot is used to show Rick's Bar. Shadowy shots in the gloom are used to indicate suspicion and the use of a song 'As Time Goes By' (to represent the romance between Rick and Isla) and 'La Marseillaise' (to represent opposition to Nazi rule) also elevate the expected classical Hollywood style of plot progression to a more auteur kind of directing: this is the director pushing his creative control to make his own style but is also careful not to challenge the Studio System too much. Curtiz is an important creative on the movie but perhaps not as important as Coppola was to Apocalypse Now which could never have been as good without Coppola. Casablanca probably could have been a success even without Curtiz directing.
An example of Curtiz's creativity in Casablanca is when the camera pans from left to right while inside Rick's bar. The creative signature for Francis Ford Coppola is using strategic lighting in 'Apocalypse Now'. It provides visual aspects on the river on the lighting. Coppola also casts regular actors such as Robert Duvall and James Caan in his movies and had worked with Marlon Brando before Apocalypse Now in The Godfather. In Coppola's films the hero is often strong inside and wanting to change the world around them and not for selfish needs and maybe even with some uncertainty and doubt.
A film production can be influenced by many creative factors including the studio system, cast, cinematography, soundtrack and reputation over the years since its release. In Casablanca, the stylish direction is an important part of the film's creative success including the opening sequence as we walk inside Rick's Bar that is very striking as the camera looks around at all the customers as if we are a stranger stepping inside for the first time and catching glimpses of other people with suspicion. The editing work here helps make the sequence very effective. The music and cinematography also work to make a film memorable and in Apocalypse Now this is very effective at showcasing the creativity of the director: the helicopters against the sunset and the soundtrack of The End by The Doors and Kurtz's shadowy hideout all help to make many of the sequences in the film so memorable.
Without a creative director films may never be as successful as they could be or develop the film into becoming a classic. A good director can make an outstanding script more effective or showcase the skills of the cast in their movie. A successful movie can be influenced by cast, script, cinematography and soundtrack as well as studio control and production.
Also important to how a film develops creativity is the reputation it gains over the years or even a famous quote even though the most famous line in Casablanca: "Play it again Sam" was never actually said (it was "Play it once, Sam"). But many other quotes from this movie have helped the film become so popular: "Here's looking at you, kid", "We'll always have Paris" and "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine". Apocalypse Now is also famous for its quotes, especially: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning", from screenwriter John Milius that symbolises optimism in the middle of chaos: a strong theme in the movie.
For Apocalypse Now, the reputation of the cast taking drugs, and the budget going way over budget, and the odd behaviour of stars such as Marlon Brando on set, and Martin Sheen's heart attack have all added to the reputation of the movie and helped it become a classic of cinema as has the behind the scenes footage and a documentary revealing the troubled shoot.
In Casablanca, filmed under a more structured Hollywood system, the director adds the creative style of an auteur when he can, but the film is boosted as a creative project by the Studio System: Warner Brothers insisted the film had a strong morale boosting wartime message and the cast and crew included many who had fled Nazi occupied countries in Europe. The singing of the song La Marseillaise in Casablanca as a symbol of defiance against the Nazis and is symbolic of a film that has an agenda as many other films shot during the Second World War would also come to have. The work of the director here is to allow the message to be carried across and in Michael Curtiz the film had a director who had lost close family in Auschwitz too, as had many of the cast, so that when La Marseillaise was sung on set as a message against the Nazi occupation, many of the cast and crew burst into real tears. All of this background adds to the creative direction of the film - not just the work of the director.
A director who is also an auteur can make a movie a success and give a film a unique identity as well as help make a film a classic. But cast (such as Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Martin Sheen and Marlon Brando), cinematography, soundtrack and myth around a movie with many unusual events happening (such as the heavy drug taking on Apocalypse Now or demands of Marlon Brando to be shot in shadows and refusing to learn his lines, or the morale boost to the war of Casablanca or 'horrors of war' theme of Apocalypse Now all add to the success and style of a film. This 'coming together' of creative talent cannot always be predicted but it is true that without a a creative director with their own style a great film will be less likely to become a classic of cinema in the same way Apocalypse Now and Casablanca have both now become.
