Directed by George Hickenlooper, Fax Bahr and Eleanor Coppola, a chronicle of the production problems — including bad weather, actors’ health, war near the filming locations, and more — which plagued the filming of Apocalypse Now, increasing costs and nearly destroying the life and career of Francis Ford Coppola.
It’s safe to say that if you’re a fan of Apocalypse Now, Hearts of Darkness is essential viewing. You will learn more than you could hope about this complex production and the intense amount of planning and work that went into making it. It’s almost hard to believe how many problems and obstacles that Francis Ford Coppola faced making this film and yet he turned it into a masterpiece of cinema. Not simply visually but one with a genuine message and exploration of America’s conflict in Vietnam.
Considering that Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse is only ninety-six minutes long, it contains a crazy amount of detail. The remarkably in depth nature of the documentary is impressive, there’s unfettered access and it goes into every different element of the film and the many issues they faced. Unsurprisingly, as Coppola’s wife Eleanor Coppola could capture the experience in such an honest way which is fascinating to watch. It allows you to see both sides of the famed director, the natural and the professional. It also feels like it captures the feel of the film within its own style, it’s injecting the energy of Apocalypse Now and portraying how that frenzy impacted everyone involved.
Even if you aren’t a fan or haven’t seen Apocalypse Now, this is still a fantastically made documentary on its own. It gives you such a wide view into the filmmaking process, how nothing is a straight line, it’s problem-solving, negotiation and making creative choices with not just the film but the budget. This is a particularly hectic example, which makes it all the more interesting, to have such a volatile location and so many changes to cast and crew, not to mention changing scenes as they go along. It gives a great perspective of how the best filmmakers trust their instincts. You see how often Francis Ford Coppola has a sudden idea and either adds new elements or scraps what they’re working on, in the best interests of the picture as a whole.
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse is one of the best documentaries ever made on filmmaking. It gets into the nitty gritty, the planning and co-ordination but also takes plenty of time to discuss the acting process and the vision, as well as how this epic experience requiring serious endurance impacted the cast and crew. It’s jampacked with fascinating details, if you never knew Martin Sheen actually replaced another actor to lead Apocalypse Now, it’s an interesting story that you’ll learn in this documentary.
It’s ridiculously impressive how much they fit into an hour and a half, and it’s so naturally captured and yet has its own sense of artistry to work alongside the film. The filmmakers captured how complicated of a journey it was to arrive at the finished picture, but it was absolutely worth it for the masterpiece that is, Apocalypse Now. (Even if it requires seeing Coppola without a shirt on, many more times than you’d like.)
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