This is a fine film in its own regard, but is a must-watch for any fans of Apocalypse Now.
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The production of Francis Ford Coppola´s "Apocalypse Now" is one of the more storied efforts in filmmaking history. Coppola filmed "Apocalypse Now" through his personal production company American Zoetrope, and had to place a lien against his own home to secure funds to complete his epic picture. A large number of sets were complete destroyed when a typhoon roared its ugly head and after first firing Harvey Keitel, Martin Sheen replaced the actor and suffered a near fatal heart attack. These were only some of the problems faced by Coppola and his filmmaker, which saw the number of shooting days of "Apocalypse Now" go far beyond the original intended schedule and last for 238 days. Hollywood gave the film the nickname of "Apocalypse When?" and the film´s constant delays garnered a lot of attention.
"Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker´s Apocalypse" is a documentary created by Coppola´s wife, Eleanor Coppola. The footage for the film was captured during Eleanor during the long and strenuous shooting schedule of "Apocalypse Now" and showed many of the hardships and problems that faced Francis Ford and the actors and filmmakers. Some of the snippets caught by Eleanor´s cameras were initially intended to be private diary moments; they were included in the documentary and helped show how much of a drain mentally and physically the production was for Francis Ford Coppola. Years later, in 1990, Eleanor Coppola worked with filmmakers George Hickenlooper and Fax Bahr to create new interviews and piece together Eleanor´s footage to detail the historic efforts in bringing "Apocalypse Now" to the big screen.
This film is a very informative and personal look at the making of "Apocalypse Now." Francis Ford Coppola was in a suicidal mindset at times during the making of his film. There were times when the film´s production was completely out of his control and events surrounding him caused him great stress. Being his wife, Eleanor Coppola had privy access to Francis Ford´s most intimate thoughts on the production and her camera does an excellent job of capturing the issues surrounding the film and her husband´s reactions to these. An example of problems detailed in "Hearts of Darkness" is the moments when the Philippine military needed to take the rented helicopters away from the production and attack guerrilla soldiers in the jungle not far from Francis Ford´s cameras. These scenes show the frustration had by Francis Ford during the making of his movie.
"Hearts of Darkness" also details a lot of the history of the film. The documentary shows the first failed attempt by Francis Ford Coppola to make the picture as a ´guerilla´ style pictured filmed during the actual Vietnam War with 16mm hand cameras and directed by George Lucas. This would have been a hostile shoot and put American Zoetrope employees in great danger and this first attempt to make "Apocalypse Now" failed. It looks at the adaptation of the Joseph Conrad novella "Heart of Darkness" and plot lines retained in "Apocalypse Now." The documentary takes a look at the reasoning for Francis Ford to create an independent company to produce films outside of the Hollywood system and discusses how Francis Ford wholly intended "Apocalypse Now" as the keystone of his efforts. This rationale and other elements of Francis Ford´s mindset show why the director put everything on the line to make his film.
This interesting documentary does an excellent job of showing the sometimes fragile state of Francis Ford Coppola and documents the history of the making of this film, however, it is the problems faced during the 238 day shoot that is among the more interesting moments. Before "Apocalypse Redux," "Hearts of Darkness" was the only way to see two scenes originally cut from the picture and the documentary explains why the two lengthy and expensive scenes were omitted. The moments pertaining to Marlon Brando´s involvement is another high point in the production. The actor was paid three million dollars for three weeks of work and showed up overweight and had not read the script or Conrad novel. Francis Ford came up with an interesting solution to this problem. The damage done by the typhoon and problems Ford had putting everything together were other highpoints highlighted by the documentary.
"Apocalypse Now" nearly destroyed the life of Francis Ford Coppola. The film hit him hard mentally and physically and left him nearly broke. "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker´s Apocalypse" does a magnificent job of bringing the stories about the production of this historic film to the public eye. The making of the film was a tremendous undertaking and it is amazing that Francis Ford pulled off the picture that he did. This documentary is easily the best ´making of´ film I have ever seen and Francis Ford´s wife Eleanor did a tremendous job of gathering footage showing the highs and many lows of the making of the film that showed the personal toll it took on her husband and the amazing manner in which he pulled everything together. Directors Bahr and Hickenlooper put together the footage from Eleanor´s cameras and working with her to provide narration and a story arc to perfectly tell the filmmaker´s apocalypse that surrounded the making of "Apocalypse Now."
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