Hearts of Darkness

Summary

“We were in the jungle. There were too many of us. We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and gradually we went insane.”

After reaching the apex of critical and commercial acclaim with The Godfather, The Godfather: Part II, and The Conversation, filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola wanted to make a film that only he could make. Working from a script by acclaimed screenwriter John Milius, he planned to make a film that would simultaneously be about the Vietnam War and also an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s classic novel Heart of Darkness. In order to achieve his goal of making what would eventually be titled Apocalypse Now, Coppola took his wife, young family, and massive cast and crew to the politically volatile Philippines to film in the jungle. Coppola’s wife Eleanor kept a journal and filmed footage during the entire shoot with hopes of documenting the extraordinary measures her husband went through in order to achieve his masterpiece. Amazingly, Eleanor did not pursue completion of this behind-the-scenes documentary for another decade, despite having amazing 16MM footage and wonderfully illuminating taped recordings of Francis facing an existential crisis. When George Hickenlooper and Fax Bahr realized the goldmine of material that Eleanor had stored, they began putting the footage together, recording Eleanor reading entries from her diary, and interviewing cast and crew members who were more than happy to talk about their experience working on the film. The resulting documentary Hearts of Darkness became a classic in the genre, and stands as one of the best (possibly the best) documentaries to ever be made about the filmmaking process.

Hearts of Darkness follows the story of how Francis Ford Coppola navigated the tumultuous financing, shooting, refinancing, and completion of his masterpiece. Along the way, he faces every obstacle that could ever be thrown at a film. Sets that had been built are washed away in freakish acts of nature. The press back home constantly bombarded the papers stating that Apocalypse Now would be a Heaven’s Gate style financial disaster. Francis had every bit of his wealth tied up in the project and if it failed, he would have gone bankrupt and lost everything. The film went massively over budget and shot months past its shooting schedule. There were issues with the Philippine government, which they relied upon for their helicopters (and protection.) The ending of the film needed to be reworked. Marlon Brando almost refused to appear in the film despite his $1 million dollar fee. Martin Sheen had a heart attack. Coppola had moments of self-doubt and near collapse. The film literally came close to destroying him, physically, mentally, and financially. Yet – the crew persevered.

Hearts of Darkness is a masterpiece of the form. The only picture that is similar in scope and impact for a documentary about filmmaking would be the amazing Burden of Dreams from documentarian Les Blank about Werner Herzog’s quest to make Fitzcarraldo. Both films are about dreamers who were forced to go to the jungles of foreign lands to make pictures that were as ambitious in scope as they were in many ways insane to pursue. I love both films. I was admittedly surprised when I saw that Lionsgate was releasing Hearts of Darkness as a stand alone 4K release. Like most film lovers, I have owned Apocalypse Now in every conceivable format. The 4K release (by Lionsgate) is one of the best on the market and features a Blu-ray copy of Hearts of Darkness. Lionsgate could reason that everyone who loves this film probably loves Apocalypse Now. If they have the 4K, they have this on Blu-ray, so this was a brave move in my opinion. Regardless, I applaud the decision, because this is a picture where the footage deserved to be seen in 4K. Apocalypse Now is one of the most incredible artistic triumphs of any filmmaker – filmmaking on the most massive scale possible – and the documentary captures its conception and execution perfectly.

The interviews in the picture shine a light on what the cast and crew were thinking with great interviews with Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, George Lucas, John Milius, Vittorio Storaro, Laurence Fishburne, and more. The archival footage shot by Eleanor is stupendous. Memorably, Marlon Brando complains of swallowing a fly in one moment. Fans of Apocalypse Now, and people who love seeing how films are made will consider Hearts of Darkness essential viewing. I appreciated Lionsgate for choosing to give the film a standalone 4K release.

Video:

Presented in 4K UHD, the majority of the footage is in 1:33:1 aside from when sequences from Apocalypse Now are played in 2.35:1 in 4K. The documentary footage looks great, with a fine level of grain that fits its origins. Fans of the picture will be happy to have this in a definitive viewing format.

Audio:

The DTS-HD MA 5.1 track bursts into life occasionally when clips from Apocalypse Now are shown, but for the most part sounds like any interview based documentary. It sounds great.

Supplements:

The Lionsgate disc does not feature the same supplements as the StudioCanal disc, so fans wanted in depth features may want to import that release. That said, I enjoyed the sole feature on the disc.

• The Making of Hearts of Darkness – this interesting half hour long supplement features interviews with Eleanor, Sofia, Francis, and Roman Coppola alongside filmmakers Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper. Fans of the film will enjoy this extra material.

Overall Scores:

Video: 4.5/5

Audio: 4.5/5

Supplements: 3/5

Overall: 4.5/5

Hearts of Darkness is a fantastic exploration of an artist obsessively pursuing his creative dreams while risking everything, and the hard toll this process took on himself and his family. Fans of Apocalypse Now will consider this required viewing, but even those who don’t enjoy Apocalypse Now but love seeing the process of how large scale films are made will find Hearts of Darkness revelatory. This picture would make a great double feature with Les Blank’s wonderful Burden of Dreams which Criterion has recently given a 4K release. I think that this would be a great addition to any film lover’s library and appreciate Lionsgate for giving the picture a solo 4K release. That said, the Studio Canal edition released in the UK has a decent assortment of additional supplements. Highly recommended!