| | | The Magic and Madness of Making Apocalypse Now.
Features: DVD, English, French, Spanish
Filming was scheduled to last sixteen weeks. One year later it was far from over.In 1979, Francis Ford Coppola shook the film world with Apocalypse Now, a harrowing odyssey through the ravaged landscape of the Vietnam War. Nearly thirty years later, the journey resumes with Hearts of Darkness, a riveting chronicle of the turbulent making of Apocalypse Now. Through on-the-set footage filmed by the director's wife, Eleanor Coppola, and more recent interviews with the film's cast and crew, Hearts of Darkness is the fantastic history of a movie beset by physical and personal upheavals: the complete destruction of the film sets by hurricane; the heart attack of leading man Martin Sheen; the director's own admission that he has no idea of how the movie will end. Hearts of Darkness is an unforgettable, unflinchingly honest account of a landmark film that was a miracle in the making.
"...illuminates the catastrophes that beset one particular project, and shows, by way of comparison, exactly what American film has foregone since the '70s." Geoff Andrew, Time Out
"The most engrossing, most revealing film about the making of a movie ever produced." Hal Hinson, The Washington Post
"Harrowing and funny, a fine film on its own...leaves us with a new appreciation for the Vietnam War epic it documents." Joe Brown, The Washington Post
"A fascinating 1991 postmortem on the making of Francis Coppola's Apocalypse Now." Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
"A phenomenal documentary about one of the most notorious film shoots of all time." Rob Thomas, Capital Times
Editor's Note
In the late 1970s director Francis Ford Coppola began filming his monumental Vietnam epic, APOCALYPSE NOW. Shot in the Philippines, the film would eventually take years to complete and include 238 days of principal photography, the lead actor's firing, the replacement star's heart attack, a typhoon on the set, difficulties with an overweight Marlon Brando, ritualistic animal slaughter, and President Marcos' war with rebels. Coppola's wife, Eleanor, documented his struggles during the marathon moviemaking by using her own film crew to shoot behind the scenes and secretly tape conversations with her tormented husband. Her work was used by filmmakers Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper for their riveting documentary HEARTS OF DARKNESS. Using interviews with the stars of the film, including Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, and Dennis Hopper, the producers and production crew, and especially Coppola himself, the filmmakers unravel the story behind the making of APOCALYPSE NOW and the director's torturous search for an ending. Coppola compared his film to America's efforts in Vietnam: "We were in the jungle, there were too many of us, we had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little we went insane."
Plot Summary
Eleanor Coppola's documentary on the making of her husband's 1979 film, APOCALYPSE NOW, uses footage she shot while on location with him. The film also incorporates interviews with cast and crew members.
| Features | Coda: Thirty Years Later - A Brand-New Documentary Seen Here For The First Time. Eleanor Coppola Rejoins Her Husband As He Directs His First New Feature Film In Ten Years, Youth Without Youth. Coda Reveals An Older Francis Coppola As He Approaches Independent "Guerilla Filmmaking" In A Youthful Way, With His Small Crew Shooting In Romanic Making A Self-Financed Personal Film Completely Outside Of Studio Control | | Audio: English Dolby Digital Stereo | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Paramount |
| Release Date: 11/20/2007 |
| Running Time: 95 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1991 | | Catalog ID: 13184 | | UPC: 00097361318448 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Available Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Standard 1.33:1 [4:3] |
| Cast & Crew | Dennis Hopper - Featuring | | Doug Claybourne - Executive Producer | | Eleanor Coppola - Featuring | | Fax Bahr - Writer | | Francis Ford Coppola - Featuring | | George Hickenlooper - Writer | | George Hickenlooper, et. al. - Director | | George Lucas - Featuring | | Harrison Ford - Featuring | | Jay Miracle - Editor | | Larry Carney, et. al. - Cinematographer | | Laurence Fishburne - Featuring | | Les Mayfield - Producer | | Marlon Brando - Featuring | | Martin Sheen - Featuring | | Michael Greer - Editor | | Orson Welles - Voice Of | | Robert De Niro - Featuring | | Robert Duvall - Featuring | | Sofia Coppola - Featuring | | Todd Boekelheide - Original Music By |
| Awards |
Winner (1992) | | | Emmy, George Hickenlooper, et. al., Outstanding Individual Achievement - Informational Programming - Directing | | | Emmy, Michael Greer, Jay Miracle, Outstanding Individual Achievement - Informational Programming - Picture Editing | |
Nominee (1992) | | | Emmy, Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper, Outstanding Individual Achievement - Informational Programming - Writing | | | Emmy, Doug Claybourne, et. al., Outstanding Informational Special |
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| | Professional Reviews | Rolling Stone
"...Riveting....Jaw-dropping location footage..." 01/23/1992 p.50Sight and Sound
"...[A] fascinating account of the making of APOCALYPSE NOW..." 01/01/1992 p.44 Entertainment Weekly
"...The most spectacular inside look ever offered into the ineffable process of filmmaking....Through Coppola, the film reveals the spirit -- still alive and kicking -- that put the dream in the dream factory..." 01/31/1992 p.40 Los Angeles Times
"...An almost hypnotic document. All the interviewees are salty and unsparing, of themselves especially. Milius is bearish and hilarious; Eleanor idealistic, precise; Coppola nakedly open..." 01/24/1992 p.F1 Chicago Sun-Times
"...Fascinating, harrowing film history. We feel for once we are witnessing the true story of how a movie got made..." 01/17/1992 p.38 Total Film
"...A classic in its own right..." 08/01/2000 p.100 Chicago Sun-Times 9 of 10
The making of a film has never been documented with more penetration and truth than in "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse," which chronicles the agony and the ecstasy of Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" (1979). That is because no other documentary has ever had access to materials that are normally off-limits: Shots that were never used, scenes that were abandoned, private arguments between the director and his actors, cries for help and confessions of despair, and even conversations between Coppola and his wife that she secretly tape-recorded..."Hearts of Darkness," written and directed by Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper, is based on documentary footage that Eleanor Coppola shot at the time, and on recent interviews with both Coppolas, plus Milius, Lucas and actors Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper, Timothy Bottoms and Larry Fishburne, who incredibly was only 14 when he played one of the patrol boat crew. Eleanor's secret tape recordings were also made available, and the result is fascinating, harrowing film history. We feel for once we are witnessing the true story of how a movie got made. - Roger Ebert
The Onion A.V. Club 9 of 10
...for Francis Ford Coppola, at least on his phantasmagorical 1979 Vietnam epic Apocalypse Now, filmmaking is an open-ended process, beginning with questions that he hopes the movie will answer. In adapting Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness as a grand metaphor for the Vietnam War, Coppola felt he had to go along with his hero's terrifying journey upriver, even if it meant living with the possibility that he wouldn't find those answers, and the film would fail colossally. Call it courage or hubris, but for Coppola to haul a production of this size to the Philippines without knowing its artistic destination is an invigorating sort of madness--and one that's indelibly imprinted on the finished product...As the days dragged on and the budget ballooned, the Coppolas offered up their personal assets as collateral, and even then, Francis didn't know whether he was making a good movie or a deeply pretentious one. His paroxysms of self-doubt, picked up in Eleanor's secret audio recordings, are perhaps the biggest revelation in Hearts Of Darkness, proof that creative genius often lies chillingly close to the abyss. - Scott Tobias
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