Hearts of Darkness

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, shot by Eleanor Coppola, is a film that reveals many of the hardships that filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola faced while filming Apocalypse Now. The film Apocalypse Now, despite its great success, was not an easy film to write, direct and produce. The film shows all of the obstacles that Francis Coppola had to navigate through, nearly costing him his career and even his life. There is an innate parallel of Apocalypse Now to the Vietnam War itself. Hearts of Darkness begins with the beginning of Coppola's filming. The documentary follows the film’s descent into chaos through the 18 month filming period. The film is a chronological summary of Apocalypse Now’s filming; from their arrival to the Philippines to Marlon Brando’s arrival and the conception of Coppola’s film’s ending. The audience is shown the anticipation and worry that gradually builds up from Coppola’s point of view.

Hearts of Darkness was an expository documentary. Throughout the film, there were interviews with people involved in the making of Hearts of Darkness, especially Francis and Eleanor Coppola. In fact, most of their interviews are used as narration for the documentary. Eleanor Coppola even included clips of conversations with her husband that she had secretly recorded for narrative effect. Quoting some of these: “I tell you from the bottom of my heart that I am making a bad film.” and “We are all lost. I have no idea where to go with this.” Much of Coppola’s ideas were undermined. An example would be Marlon Brando arriving on set completely out of shape, contrasting the storyboard depiction of Kurtz, a gaunt, almost skeletal figure. Evidence of these various shortcomings are shown using talking heads (interviews), voiceovers and archival footage.

Hearts of Darkness was comprised of a healthy combination of behind-the-scenes footage, footage from Apocalypse Now, archival footage, interviews, still images (some derived from Apocalypse Now’s storyboard/playbook) and audio of secretly recorded conversations. I enjoyed how “honest” the documentary seemed. Nothing about it was polished and pretty like some documentaries can be. Eleanor Coppola managed to get as much footage as possible, instead of being selective in what she wanted to film. A scene (or rather, two) that I found really thought provoking involved the caribou being slaughtered as a ritual. Although people know of indigenous races and the ways their cultures function, it’s a different experience altogether witnessing an even like this as close to live as possible. It was also effective in revealing how the symbol of the caribou was meant to foreshadow the death of Kurtz in the film. Another scene in Hearts of Darkness that caught my attention was Martin Sheen’s drunken improvisation in the hotel. The scene made me think about reasons why the room would be charged with the possibility of Sheen attacking Coppola or the crewmembers. I was also impressed to learn that Coppola chose to film Sheen while intoxicated, aiming for something as natural as possible to film – the real thing.

There really isn’t much that I could critique about Hearts of Darkness. There was a variety of different camera angles, a diverse abundance of content, and a truly intimate look of the film. The only thing that I could think of that could have been added were more shots without voice-overs, but even then this is such an insignificant loss.

Much like Apocalypse Now, Hearts of Darkness is about far more than its subject matter. As we join Martin Sheen in his quest to assassinate a madman in the jungle, we see human nature, how it clings to order, how it may embrace chaos. In this film, we see more than a movie being made. There’s the struggle against commercialism, the drive to create, and the inner battle that is the artistic process made manifest. Watching Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, we can feel for once that we’re eye-witnesses to the true story of how a phenomenal film was made.