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Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse [VHS]

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Subtitled, "A Filmmaker's Apocalypse", this 1991 film is a documentary about the making of "Apocalypse Now", the 1979 film based on Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness". Set in Vietnam, it is the story of a captain, Martin Sheen, and his crew's mission to find and kill an insane colonel, Marlon Brando, who had created his own kingdom deep in the Jungle. On the way, everyone is touched with the evil around them. This summer I saw the re-edited version of the film and have been intrigued by it ever since. When I heard about this "Hearts of Darkness" I just HAD to see it.

The filming of Apocalypse Now was supposed to take just sixteen weeks at a budget of $13 million. It wound up costing more than $30 million, much of it put up by Francis Coppola himself, and took almost three years to get to the public. Coppola' wife Eleanor and their three children went along on location in the Philippines. She was interested in making a documentary and shot a lot of behind-the-scenes footage, even secretly recording private conversations she had with her husband about the film. The authenticity of the experience really comes through, as everyone involved with the production seemed to go a little bit insane.

Coppola had serious doubts throughout and we hear his words of despair as he thinks he's making a bad movie. We see the terrible typhoon that destroyed all the sets and realized that the helicopters that were being used for the shooting were actually property of the Philippine government who kept calling them away to fight a real disturbance that was going on just ten miles away. We see shots and scenes that never made it into the original film (although much of it eventually made it into the 2001 "Redux" version). We see and overweight Marlon Brando who insisted on being filmed in shadows. And we are right there to watch the filming of the scene in which Martin Sheehan has a mental breakdown. In order to do this he became bleary-eyed drunk, cut his thumb on a mirror and used the blood as part of the scene. The intensity is chilling and when, a short time afterward, he has a life-threatening heart attack at the age of 36, we're all there to see him as he is given first aid.

Now, years later, some of the actors are interviewed about their experiences. We learn that they did a lot of drugs during many of the scenes - acid, speed, marijuana, alcohol, which certainly added to the authenticity as well as the craziness of the whole production. Robert Duval talks about how his famous line "I love the smell of napalm in the morning was improvised. And the whole cast talks about how they improvised a massacre scene. Laurence Fishburne was only 14 when the film was made, a real coming-of-age experience for him. But this very stirring film portrait belongs to Francis Coppola. We get to meet him as a very imperfect human being doing his best to create an art form out of the script, changing it constantly as he went along, and eventually turning out a small masterpiece which went on to be nominated for eight academy awards.

I give this video my highest recommendation. It is a "must" for movie buffs. And an essential education for anyone involved in filmmaking itself. Don't miss it!

Shot by Francis Ford Coppolla's wife, Hearts of Darkness is an incredible, one hour fifty minute documentary that reveals the horrors of making the very popular Apocalypse Now. The film took forever to make, driving many of its participants to the brink of insanity, not just Coppolla, who was emotionally-unstable for much of the film. Viewers of this fascinating documentary will be amazed to learn that Harvey Keitel was originally cast as Willard, but was dropped after only two weeks of shooting. Though only 36 years-old, Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack during filming, an event that further postponed its debuts in theaters. There is some really great footage included here, especially the shooting of the opening sequence of the film which involves a very drunk Sheen lashing out as both his character and himself (at that point, Sheen was experiencing a lot of hostility towards Coppolla and had it out with him right then and there, an episode that would appear in the finished movie). Even if you didn't particularly care for Apocalypse Now, you will most likely find Hearts of Darkness interesting, nonetheless. It is a magnificent look at the troubles and triumphs of a film crew headed by a somewhat mad, but brilliant director. This shouldn't be missed.

Hearts Of Darkness glosses over one of the more important aspects of the film's creation, the hiring and firing of the first actor, Harvey Keitel, to portray Lt. Willard. We are simply told it was not working, and cut to Francis's hiring of Martin Sheen. But, we never see any of the footage shot with Keitel, we never learn if he was simply too different from Francis's vision of Willard to work, or was he simply doing a poor job, a malcontent, or clashing too frequently with Francis. For a so-called documentary to leave such wide open says much of the aims of the documentarian, in this case Eleanor. Also left open-ended is a much talked about aspect of the filming that the documentary does not cover, and that is Francis's infidelity on the set, and how that contributed to the distance between the couple. How this affected Eleanor's documentary, much less Apocalypse Now, is certainly ripe for discussion. This is the rare instance where such is not mere gossip for gossip's sake, but pertinent information about the director's state of mind in the improvisatory aspects of the film. Was his film more gloomy because of the infidelity's consequences? Hearts Of Darkness does a great disservice to its viewers by totally avoiding such questions, even as it claims a rare intimacy, due to Eleanor's claim to have surreptitiously recorded conversations without Francis's knowledge.

Overall, the DVD package is barely worth an investment, especially if a Coppola fan, but once again the studio that put out the DVD could have offered so much more for so little an investment. Hearts Of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse is a good and worthwhile 'Making Of' feature for a DVD release, but, as a stand alone documentary, it is rather lacking. Thus, with two making of documentaries, and no real feature, the package is saved by the aforementioned pluses alone. Better than nothing, but most viewers will wind up asking, 'Well, that's it?'

'Tis.

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.

HEARTS OF DARKNESS is one of the few documentaries on film making where you get to see a true artistic process. After watching this, you will find nearly all "Making of..." pieces found on DVDs for what they really are: marketing fluff. As a result, I eagerly watched HEARTS OF DARKNESS on DVD after last seeing it more than 10 years ago. I was very nervous that Coppola would be releasing a butchered form of the documentary. After all, he bares his soul in a way that few real artists do in public -- the picture of him holding a gun to his head (and not all in fun) is pretty intense stuff.

I am happy to report that the whole film is here, there doesn't appear to any cuts and the run time (96 minutes) matches that of the official times listed on the Internet. Thank you, Francis!

Now to the DVD extra, an hour-long documentary called CODA: THIRTY YEARS LATER. It's this new documentary (40% of the total DVD content!) which explains why Coppola is finally re-releasing HOD. The title "CODA" it misleading (especially in this context) because CODA has nothing to do with Apocalypse Now. Rather it is a documentary on Coppola's newest film YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH. Perhaps because YWY looks to be an essential parlor piece with lots of dialog, CODA is, unfortunately, tedious. In fact, YWY has not yet been given a wide release in the US, so what we really have here is a (you guessed it) "Making of..." film for marketing purposes. Sure, it would have made a great extra on the YWY DVD, but it is a huge letdown after HEARTS OF DARKNESS. In fact, CODA didn't leave me wanting to see YWY and initial professional reviews reveal that the film itself is a letdown.

Instead, rejoice that Coppola decided to re-release HEARTS OF DARKNESS to home video to market his new film. Every single student of film should see HOD -- it is also a perfect companion piece to Lost in La Mancha, another documentary that shows that most of Hollywood isn't the glitz that it sells. (Fun fact: both HOD and LLM are documentaries about people trying to make films that eluded Orson Welles -- though Coppola succeeded where Terry Gilliam failed.)

It took a lot of guts on the part of the Coppola family to release this documentary in the first place. Not many people would make public filmed footage of a family's patriarch losing his mind and coming dangerously close to total mental meltdown while making a movie. And in this case we are talking about a highly respected and honored director.

Francis Ford Coppola's descent into madness during the plagued filming of "Apocalypse Now" wasn't entirely the fault of the Philippines Army, horrific weather, Martin Sheen's heart attack during filming, or Marlon Brando's prima donna attitude. It wasn't just the rampant use of pop drugs on the set. Much of the trouble, including the lack of a cohesive script, falls directly on the shoulders of the director. And "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse," shot by the director's wife, Eleanor Coppola, and released 12 years after the original movie, never turns away from the truth. It is a fascinating account of how everything went wrong and still a remarkable film ascended from the madness.

Anyone who believes FF Coppola either botched or somehow missed great opportunity with the compound segment of the film can upon viewing this begin to understand how chaos during those dark days on the set in the late 1970s led to the final outcome. The director said, his film isn't about Vietnam; it is Vietnam. That statement is somewhat validated with this documentary.

It is amazing that such a powerful piece of filmmaking could come out of such a calamity. But, flaws and all, it is among the best films produced out of Hollywood. And this companion piece is a vital part of the story. It is a MUST SEE for fans of "Apocalypse Now." It is engrossing for all.

The late coming DVD release (November 2007) reportedly includes an update piece ("CODA: Thirty Years Later") that is most welcome. It's icing. Buy this one.

HEARTS OF DARKNESS is not only a great documentary, it is perhaps one of the best ever made. It is up there with CRUMB, THE THIN BLUE LINE, WOODSTOCK, MY BEST FIEND, and GREY GARDENS. However, a few changes have been made to the DVD version of the film. The songs "Suzie Q" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" have been replaced with some corny, cheap imitations--to save money, I suppose. Likewise, in one scene in the original version of the film, Francis Ford Coppola serenades a little girl sitting on his lap--the song? "Anything Goes." In the DVD version of the film, Coppola's singing has been removed, which makes the footage pointless. I don't know if the song was removed because of the potentially immoral implications, or due to more fees for the rights to the song "Anything Goes." Either way, I feel that someone has messed with a masterpiece. Of course the film is still great and should not be missed. Perhaps you have to have seen the original as many times as I have to notice these changes. I only hope I encounter no more changes as I resume watching the film. (I hope someone has not removed The Doors' "The End" and replaced it with something "similar.")

With so much written about Francis Ford Coppola's landmark Vietnam epic the question arises as to whether we need to witness another account of the ill fated production of arguably the greatest post World War 2 American film. Well, yes as a matter of fact, as Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper's film about the making of "Apocalypse Now" remains the definitive version. The documentary combines the footage shot on set by Coppola's wife Eleanor, with interviews with the cast and the principal members of the production team, and a large contribution by Coppola himself. What began in March 1976 as a 16 week shoot soon mushroomed into a production that lasted almost three years. John Milius' original screenplay became devoured by Coppola's unique vision, a "work in progress" which slowed filming to a snail's pace. The documentary catalogues the major calamities that plagued the film - the problems with the Philippine government, the abominable weather that destroyed huge sets, Martin Sheen's heart attack, bad press back in Hollywood and Marlon Brando who refused to play an elephantine Colonel Kurtz. Contributions from the cast are by turns funny and informative. The archive footage of Coppola and some clandestine recordings of the self doubts he confessed to his wife are extraordinary, as we see a film-maker who decorated the seventies with some wonderful motion pictures, crumble and dip his toes into the waters of madness as the budget for the movie soared into absurdity. "Hearts of Darkness" is also essential as it shows much of the footage that was left on the cutting room floor - the so-called "French Plantation" sequence, some of Brando's improvisations and the destruction of Kurtz' compound which never made the director's cut. Unfortunately there are some omissions. No light is shed on Harvey Keitel's firing from the movie after just two weeks of shooting. And Brando refused to contribute to the documentary. Finally what is so great about "Hearts of Darkness", is that it sends you scrambling back to view "Apocalypse Now" with new insights and a greater appreciation of Coppola's cinematic alchemy. For those interested, film fans should seek out the similar "Burden of Dreams", Les Blank's 1982 chronicle of the troubled production of Werner Herzog's "Fitzcarraldo," another film that almost succumbed to the ravages of the jungle...

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.

In his treatise on strategy and warfare, On War, Carl von Clausewitz explains that "Everything in war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult." He goes on to explain that "the difficulties [in war] accumulate and end by producing a kind of friction that is inconceivable unless one has experienced war... Countless minor incidents - the kind you can never really forsee - combine to lower the general level of performance, so that one always fall far short of the intended goal. Iron will-power can overcome this friction; it pulverizes every obstacle, but of course it wears down the machine as well."

Friction is the difference between real war and war on paper, he says. It is the difference between the plans drawn up by political and military leadership and what actually happens on the battlefield.

The concept of friction, however, is applicable to any sort of planning exercise. We've all planned events or projects that sounded great on paper, but once we began carrying them out, we realized it wasn't at all as we had initially hoped. Remodeling a kitchen that went from being a summer project has now crept into Christmas time. Or perhaps a project at work that ended up costing much more than originally anticipated. Friction is all those little unforeseen delays, costs, and obstacles that impact the timeliness, price tag, and overall quality of a project or an event.

The practical implication of friction was beautifully illustrated in the film, Hearts of Darkness: a Filmmaker's Apocalypse, which documents the filming and production of Director Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. It shows how Coppola went into the filming of the project with such high hopes, but so many unforeseen variables, many of which were out of his control, ended up almost wrecking the project and ruining Coppola.

The filming of Apocalypse Now took place in the Philippines, which at the time was engaged in a civil war. Coppola was renting helicopters from the Philippine government for one of the most famous scenes in the film. However, filming was often interrupted because the government would take a few of the helicopters back to fight the rebels. Martin Sheen, who played Captain Willard, the film's main protagonist, had a heart attack midway through the filming and needed several weeks to recover. Typhoon Olga came through and destroyed much of the set and forced the closing of production. And finally, Marlon Brando, earning a then-unprecedented $1M a week, arrived on set much overweight, not prepared, and unhappy about the ending. The film ended up being $30M over budget and four times over schedule. In a recorded phone conversation with his wife, Coppola confessed that he no idea what he was doing and even contemplated suicide.

In the end, Coppola successfully managed the immense friction of the production. Apocalypse Now is arguably the best Vietnam War movie ever made and the film is one of the best in history.

But how did Coppola pull this off? How did he overcome the insurmountable obstacles that were thrown at him and create a masterpiece? In other words, as Clausewitz asks, "Is there any lubricant that will reduce this abrasion?" He immediately answers: "Only one, and a commander and his army will not always have it readily available: combat experience... Habit hardens the body for great exertions, strengthens the heart in great peril, and fortifies judgment against first impressions. Habit breeds that priceless quality, calm, which... will lighten the commander's task."

Clausewitz believes, thus, that experience is what reduces friction. Experience is what instills a sense of realism into the outlook of an initiative. An experienced leader understands that there will be problems that crop up and add delays and increase costs of the project. Experience teaches him to not get ruffled by these problems and to take the unexpected in stride. Experienced leaders not only maintain an even keel when the unforeseen hits, but also use it to their advantage through natural gestures and improvised courses of action. The friction forces them to be innovation and creative.

By the time of the filming of Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola already had several Academy Awards under his belt. He won Best Picture and Best Director Awards for The Godfather and The Godfather Part II; two other films he directed and produced, The Conversation and American Graffiti, respectively, were nominated for Best Picture; and he had won three Best Screenplay Awards. Coppola had begun his film career 17 years earlier and was, at the time, at the peak of his career. Needless to say he was an experienced film director.

In The Hearts of Darkness, you get to see how such an experienced professional and leader handles the immense friction that happened in the production of Apocalypse Now. He improvised the entire beginning scene when Martin Sheen, who at the time was very drunk from a birthday celebration, punches the mirror in his hotel room in Saigon. He worked around Marlon Brando's weight by dressing him in all black and only shooting him in the dark. And lastly, he worked the torrential downpour from the tropical storm - it rained for many days straight - into the shooting. I couldn't imagine the film without these improvisations!

Only a director of Coppola's experience and will power could have managed the magnitude of friction that was inherent in the production of Apocalypse Now and successfully turn it into one of the best films of all-time (and even he almost failed).