Auteur and Apocalypse Now

 The use of low key lighting and shadows in Coppola's "The Godfather" is very prominent and is a big part of it's visual motif. It shows it's characters involved in the criminal underworld shrouded in darkness Some of these characters are shown in darkness from the beginning, most notably Don Vito Corleone, but the film is about the character arc of his son, Michael Corleone as he slowly descends into that world of darkness and circumstances make him take the role of Don Corleone. The use of lighting and shadows is used in a similar way in Apocalypse Now. In the first scene where we meet the character of Willard, where he has a breakdown in his hotel room, the lighting in the room is low key. This is when we see the real version of him, which he seems to cover up on the boat over the course of the rest of the film, though we slowly see it become darker and darker as he starts to break, until eventually we reach Kurtz' temple, which is almost pitch black, where he reaches his breaking point once again.

Many of the actors that Coppola uses in The Godfather are also in Apocalypse Now. Marlon Brando, who plays Vito Corleone in The Godfather, plays Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now. Robert Duvall, who plays Tom Hagen in The Godfather, plays Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now. This shows Coppola liked to maintain a close relationship with his actors and casting them multiple times. These examples are particularly interesting,as Brando's roles of Vito and Kurtz are almost polar opposites, as well as Duvall's roles of Tom Hagen and Kilgore, showing that these roles were not typecasted, but instead Coppola saw something in both of these actors, that made him feel they could play both roles, despite how different are. It is also known that despite the studios efforts to cast someone else, Coppola strongly believed that Pacino was the only actor right for the role of Michael Corleone and refused to use anyone else.

It is well known that the script of Apocalypse Now, especially the ending, was changed and improvised several times. The Godfather didn't have as much improvisation, as it was much more straightforward and many more decisions were made by the studio as Coppola didn't have as much influence as he did in Apocalypse Now. The original ending of Apocalypse Now written by Milius was the North Vietnamese attacking Kurtz' base, and it ended in a big climactic battle between the North Vietnamese and Kurtz' followers; Coppola scrapped this ending as it did not fit the film that he saw himself making, and after many changes, instead went with the ending that is now in the film,

Part of Coppola's auteur signature is large scale action set pieces. This is clear in The Godfather Parts I and II, especially in the famous "baptism" scene from towards the end of the end of the first film. However, this is even more prominent in Apocalypse Now, such as the "Ride of the Valkyries" scene. The scale and also the length of Coppola's work gives it a certain sense of "grandness", which is perhaps one of the main thing that people know him for as a director. 

The narrative themes of Coppola's most known work have all been very critical of America. While The Godfather criticises the American Dream, and displays what capitalistic greed can do to a seemingly normal man. Apocalypse Now, while criticising an entirely different part of American culture, also criticises the United States but rather than criticising the idea of the American Dream, it touches more on their military presence during the Vietnam war. Similarly, Apocalypse Now also shows someone's downfall, deterioration and loss of morality.