I’ve never seen Apocalypse Now. That may seem like a strange way to start this review – and I’m sure it is – but it’s meant purely as a compliment. As feature-length making-of documentaries go, it’s testament to how engaging Hearts of Darkness is, in that its narrative and execution can completely engulf even those unfamiliar with the production it’s charting.
That said, the turbulent making of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now is no secret. Delayed by years and marred by swelling budgets, last-minute casting changes, and a star unwilling to learn his lines, it’s a miracle that Apocalypse Now released at all. Yet Hearts of Darkness is just as engaging in telling this story while also uncovering some of the smaller tidbits you can only glean from being there at the time.
The footage in Hearts of Darkness was compiled on-set by Eleanor Coppola, Francis’ wife. While her husband toiled over explosive set pieces, loaning helicopters from the Filipino military and constructing huge sets while paying the builders just one dollar a day, she was quietly capturing this chaos in the background.
It gives the film a searingly honest tone: there’s no compromise in what it shows and the level of access is truly unparalleled. In fact, the opening text references hidden recordings of Coppola and Eleanor’s conversations during production – the kind of unflinching honesty you couldn’t access without Eleanor Coppola on board. The same can be said for the retrospective interviews conducted by directors Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper, who speak to most of the main cast and crew – of course, excluding Marlon Brando.
As for the storytelling, it’s a broadly linear timeline of Apocalypse Now‘s journey to cinemas, from its initial inception by Orson Welles in the 1930s to its eventual release in 1979. The main focus, of course, is on the hugely turbulent filming process, which lasted over a year on and off. In doing so, the film often cuts between Eleanor’s behind-the-scenes footage of a sequence with the finished version in Francis’ film, which is a really effective way to present these parallels.
As the subtitle suggests, though, a huge portion of Hearts of Darkness is dedicated to Francis Ford Coppola’s experience on the film. He self-funded it as an intended first project for American Zoetrope (not dissimilar from Megalopolis) and as such, had a huge amount of personal investment in the film too.
It’s a great insight into his philosophy as a filmmaker, changing scenes on the fly and moving mountains to halt production and rearrange scenes where needs be. It’s not entirely glowing, though, and does examine how this slapdash, guerrilla-style filmmaking could cause issues for the cast. This was especially the case for Dennis Hopper, whose own enigmatic personality caused plenty of friction with Coppola’s in some of the documentary’s most passive aggressive exchanges.
Someone who comes off really well is Martin Sheen, who was called in partway through filming to replace Harvey Keitel as the protagonist, Willard. There’s a really brilliant sequence about his quest to find emotional inroads to the character, and the toll this ultimately took on his health. It’s the purest example of dedication to your craft, and just one of the film’s several interesting vignettes.
There’s altogether less exploration of Marlon Brando’s impact on the troubled production, and something I would’ve enjoyed more of in Hearts of Darkness. The scenes of him improvising his monologue as Kurtz, though – having famously not learned his lines – are magnetic. It adds to the mythos around one of the most legendary actors of all time, but doesn’t necessarily demystify the Brando enigma.
This release is wrapped in a hugely premium 4K set, which is nicely restored and loaded with special features. It also comes with Eleanor Coppola’s diary that she kept during production, much of which forms the documentary’s narrative. There’s also an extensive catalogue of her other work as a filmmaker, which compliments the insight we get into her from the film.
Other than that, though, Hearts of Darkness is a total Pandora’s box for fans of Apocalypse Now – and as my experience shows, those who haven’t even seen the film. It sublimely creates a narrative and atmosphere as cloying and chaotic as Vietnam itself, and is no doubt one of the best film docs out there.
The 4K UHD Collector’s Edition of Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Odyssey releases on July 28, 2025.
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