'I did not direct it or anything, that was the way they do it,' Coppola said to USA Today. While intended to be a visual parallel to Willard's plan to assassinate Kurtz with a machete, the sight of an animal killed on-screen is jarring enough to render that thematic undercurrent irrelevant.ĭecades after the film's release, Coppola has stood by the scene, reaffirming that he was merely documenting reality itself. This was apparently a real-life practice that was already underway before cameras started rolling, with director Francis Ford Coppola filming the ritual as it occurred.
For a climactic scene involving a ritual performed by an Ifugao tribe, a water buffalo is killed on-screen.
