Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991)

Hearts of Darkness is an engrossing, unwavering look back at Francis Coppola's chaotic, catastrophe-plagued Vietnam production, Apocalypse Now. Filled with juicy gossip and a wonderful behind-the-scenes look at the stressful world of moviemaking, the documentary mixes on-location home movies shot in the Philippines by Eleanor Coppola, the director's wife, with revealing interviews with the cast and crew, shot 10 years later. Similar to Burden of Dreams, Les Blank's absorbing portrait of Werner Herzog's struggle to make Fitzcarraldo, the film chronicles Coppola's eventual decent into obsessive psychosis as everything that could go wrong does go wrong. Storms destroy sets, money evaporates, the Philippine government continually harasses the director, Coppola has romantic affairs, and he can't write the story's ending. Everything is captured on film. In the most disturbing scene, we watch Martin Sheen have a drunken nervous breakdown while his director goads him on (he eventually suffered a heart attack, but finished the film).

Other incredible footage is not visual, but aural as the film includes tapes Eleanor Coppola recorded without Francis's knowledge. In them, he truly sounds like a madman as he confesses his fears about making a bomb of a movie. But while Hearts of Darkness is an amazing, voyeuristic experience, its importance lies in the personal reflections offered by those involved. Sheen, Coppola, and Dennis Hopper speak frankly without embarrassment, offering us an essential piece of film history. --Dave McCoy Amazon.com

Finally!

This has to be one of the most anticipated DVD releases of last year. For quite a while, I was trying to find a VHS copy, while hoping that this would finally come out on DVD. We had JACK on DVD, but not this documentary with almost mythical status. But, now it's out, and it's great. I'm not a fan of certain documentary filmmakers (cough...Ken Burns) who try to create drama with filmmaking smoke and mirrors. "Cue music, cue Morgan Freeman or Anthony Hopkins reading a letter, then cut to historian explaining what it all means." I'm much more of a fan of someone like Robert Drew, whose films on JFK allow an almost voyeuristic view into the subject. HEARTS OF DARKNESS has moments that absolutely spellbind you, particularly the scenes with Brando as he basically riffs until stating that he has nothing left to say AND the scene where Martin Sheen basically melts down in front of our eyes as Coppola eggs it on. What makes this so special is that you realize that both the film and the film about the film are rare gems that we may never see again. There will never be another APOCALYPSE NOW--the times and the industry have radically changed. "Just recreate the jungle with CGI." And, there will not be another HEARTS OF DARKNESS. A must-see. May 16, 2008

Hope that a little fat girl in Ohio will be the next Mozart of film.

Destroying professionalism and making it an art form. This is some of the wisdom from Francis Ford Coppola on this documentary made by his wife Eleanor on the making of his film, the godfather of Coppola films in my opinion, Apocalypse Now - The Complete Dossier (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)

The interesting thing about Apocalypse Now is that with probably over 1,000 reviews here on Amazon counting the different versions you could probably get a different interpretation for each review. It's so good and so deep and has so many metaphors that it could mean any number of different things for viewers and nobody would be wrong.

I'm not going to try to analyze this documentary however because you have the people involved with this masterpiece giving their own perspectives on the doc. What I will do is list some things I found interesting in hopes of generating some curiosity for people to see this fascinating work. It made me want to see the film again and read the book Heart of Darkness (Norton Critical Editions) and if you haven't seen Apocalypse Now, as a film lover I envy you.

- Harvey Keitel was originally cast to play Capt. Willard and was fired and replaced for Martin Sheen.

- The part in the hotel room where Capt. Willard is spiraling out of control was just as much Sheen. It was his 36th birthday he was drunk and actually punched and broke the glass mirror and broke down.

- Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack while filming and was actually given his last rights, halting filming for a couple of months.

- Coppola mortgaged his own house and used his own money to make the film.

- The boat going down river and the crew specifically Sam Bottoms character was actually under the influence of drugs while filming most of the time.

- Some filming was shot during a typhoon that killed nearly 200 local people.

- Hearts of Darkness was supposed to be Orson Welles first movie instead he did Citizen Kane when it fell through.

- Some of the script was written and altered by Coppola while filming influenced by his dreams and most of the movie he did not have an ending for.

- A civil war was taking place in parts of the Philippines while shooting and helicopters used for the film from the Philippine govt had to be taken straight out of filming and into battle.

The film really shows you art imitating life.
April 20, 2008

Never get outta the boat

And you thought you had a bad day at the office! Francis Ford Coppola went way up the river (and pretty much around the bend) during the making of "Apocalypse Now", and his wife Eleanor was there to watch (while shooting some of her own footage, and at times, even secretly recording intimate conversations with her hubby). Writer-directors Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper took this raw material and assembled an amazing, intense documentary that takes the viewer about as uncomfortably close to the utter madness of filmmaking as most of us would care to get. Many feel that this film is even better than "Apocalypse" itself. This DVD includes a new documentary about the making of Coppola's recent theatrical release "Youth Without Youth". Gluttons for punishment might consider a double-bill with Les Blank's "Burden of Dreams". February 15, 2008

GREAT. JUST GREAT

Despite its reputation, I'd never gotten a chance to watch this feature until now. The best thing I found about it is that you are able to feel how everybody involved are this close to going completely over the edge. The level of madness in this documentary is truly amazing.
Despite being aware of the final result which is APOCALYPSE NOW itself you'll feel the tension and unease about what will eventually happen and that I think is HEARTS OF DARKNESS triumph. It's a miracle a movie that good came out of this whole situation but for me, the film's weak link is the Brando part and after seeing the level of irresponsibility he showed during filming, it's far from surprising. To Coppola's credit, he made the best from what he had.
I read a review of this DVD and came very close to not buying it due to the suppossed mediocrity of video and audio. All I can say is that it looks exactly the way it should. January 9, 2008

The classic documentary.... Finally on DVD!

Hearts of Darkness - A Filmmaker's Apocalypse is directed by Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper. People interviewed in the film and seen through archival footage include Francis Ford Coppola, Marlon Brando, Eleanor Coppola, Sofia Coppola, Dennis Hopper, Robert Duvall, Harvey Keitel, Martin Sheen, Lawrence Fishburne, Harrison Ford, George Lucas, and Sam Bottoms.

Hearts of Darkness is a behind-the-scenes look at the multi-year process of Francis Ford Coppola filming and putting together his masterpiece, Apocalypse Now. During the filming of the now-classic film, Francis' wife Eleanor recorded numerous audio reference journals, as well as video footage of the shooting process and her husband in action. Bahr and Hickenlooper combine Eleanor's audio and video recordings with then-new interviews (circa 1991) of the cast and crew, and their recollections of the filming process. With the combination of old footage and new, the story is told of Coppola's struggle to bring his idea to life - with hardships that include the time taken to film the movie stretching out to several years when it was only supposed to take a few months, the film going over budget so much so, that Coppola had to put up his own money and even pawn his belongings, as well as numerous weather, political, and health issues. Even Coppola himself was contemplating suicide numerous times during the production gone awry! But despite numerous difficulties, he finished his movie - and created one of the finest motion pictures of all time.

This is one of those rare "making of" documentaries that is every bit as entertaining and interesting as the film it's about. Bahr and Hickenlooper do an excellent, almost seamless job combining their then-new interview footage with the old video and audio journals created by Eleanor during production. Even if you're already a die-hard Apocalypse Now fan, you're going to learn things you didn't know (did you know that George Lucas was originally going to direct? That Orson Welles had planned to make a movie of Heart of Darkness (the story on which Apocalypse Now was based) but abandoned the project?) For its nearly-one hundred minute duration, the compilers of this footage do an incredible job painting a picture of a distraught director, and his struggle to bring his vision to life.

The film was finally released in DVD in November of 2007. The disc is light on the bonus features, but here's what is offered:

-Newly recorded commentary with Francis and Eleanor Coppola. Definitely the more interesting of the two additional features included here. Eleanor shares her experiences on the Apocalypse Now set, and her difficulties and hardships in filming documentary footage, often due to her lack of experience in filming. She also talks about her documentary notes, and the story behind their publication, and how they have ultimately become vital for film students. Francis tells his side of the story, making clear that there are numerous portions of the documentary that he did not approve of (his comments during the portion about Martin Sheen's heart attack are particularly interesting.) It has often been speculated that Francis didn't want the documentary released on DVD because there were so many little things here and there he didn't approve, and this commentary track sheds some light on things.

-Coda: A new documentary on Francis Ford Coppola's recent film, Youth Without Youth. After watching Hearts of Darkness, this comes off as a huge disappointment. Not only does this documentary have nothing to do with Apocalypse Now, it more-or-less comes off as an hour-long commercial for the movie. One theory I have read on numerous sites is that Francis only released Hearts of Darkness on DVD so that he could release Coda, and get more publicity out there for his new movie. An irrelevant disappointment I gladly would have aborted in favor of some Apocalypse Now-related extras.

Hearts of Darkness is a masterpiece of a documentary that takes you behind the scenes on the production of one of the greatest movies ever made. Whether you're an aspiring filmmaker or just someone who loves Apocalypse Now or the cinema of Francis Ford Coppola, you will not be disappointed.

Thumbs up January 5, 2008

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