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Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse More at IMDbPro »

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39 reviews in total

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0 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
If you are a film student, it's not for you, 3 May 2011

Author: Hans from Germany

I'm still trying to understand what "making of" means. As a film student I was expecting to grasp useful informations that could explain to me why "Apocalypse Now" took so much time to be produced, why Coppola tried to kill himself and so on. Unfortunately I can say it's one of the most tedious making of I've ever watched, because all the horror, the problems, the dreadful filming diary don't explain anything, in the end I feel like the irresponsibility or Coppola own's money took over so that many production problems would come up due to over-pretension.

Maybe I'm being harsh, but for me the documentary was pointless to watch, there are very few things you can take into account, I turned off my TV and thought Coppola speaks too much and says nothing on Hearts of Darkness, he's not being clear but redundant all the time.

If you are like me and want something more solid, go for "Lost in La Mancha" that tell us Terry Gilliam's nightmare, It's much better, interesting and rather sad.

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1 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Next: A Film Maker's Apolaypse REDUX..., 20 August 2001

Author: André-7 from Montreal, Canada

When one sees Coppola saying what a disastrous movie he is making, or sitting on the set and telling the actors (with absolute belief) that the french plantation scene is not at all what he imagined and that it would never never never find its way into the finished film...

One wonders at how MONEY changes a man's values. The lesson here is that you do not tamper with a thing after you've put it aside. EVER. Get on with the rest of your life Francis and leave your masterpieces alone. You only succeed in devaluating them for posterity.

The documentary film makers should go back and add two or three minutes on how, after a lackluster decade as a has-been film maker in the 90's, Coppola needed major studio backing for his up-coming MEGALOPOLIS, and so enthusiastically went back to pee on Apocalypse Now to curry favor.

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2 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Pretentious but interesting, 27 August 2005

Author: rottingcarrot (rottingcarrot@hotmail.com) from Toronto Canada

After reading some reviews on Hearts of Darkness I was looking forward to seeing total chaos unfolding behind the scenes of the production of apocalypse now. I was somewhat disappointed to find out that the supposed chaos that went on during the filming of apocalypse now was greatly overstated. Its true that the film faced many setbacks and some really bad luck but it wasn't as gripping a struggle as I was hoping for.

We get to see a lot of scenes with Coppola whining about things like the Filipino army taking the helicopters away from the production to fight a war, how he's disappointed in martin sheen for having a heart attack and being worried about the film going over budget, but overall the problems they faced didn't give me the feeling that the film was all that out of control. Coppola's raving about how he's going insane in the jungle just comes across as pretentious.

Hearing all the hype about this movie you'd think that the crew were living in shacks and eating bugs but in reality they were all living in expensive hotels and being pampered with catered food like any other big budget Hollywood production.

If you want to see a documentary about the making of a film that really has you scared for the sanity of the cast and crew I suggest watching either Empire of Dreams: the making of the star wars trilogy. (only for the making of star wars though, the rest of it is completely self serving) or Apocalypse soon: the making of citizen toxie. These documentaries do a much better job portraying the desperation a filmmaker can go through trying to complete their vision.

Even though i seem to be bashing the movie I would still recommend it. If you're a fan of Apocalypse Now you will definitely enjoy seeing what was going on behind the scenes.

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0 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
What some folks will do for a movie, 4 March 2000

Author: Rovin from Vancouver, Canada

I know that Apocalypse Now! has this great reputation and all--even though I don't remember it being so great--but after viewing this documentary I was left thinking of that famous anecdote from Marathon Man. Method actor Dustin Hoffman went without sleep for days to prepare himself for being tortured by Olivier's character--and when he told this to Olivier, the famous Shakespearean actor is reported to have replied: "Why not try acting? Its much easier."

I do not think the end results of Apocalypse Now justifies the insane expenses and misery that apparently went into the making of it.

If anything, this film shows the crazy extravagances filmmakers will go to in order to make "art," and in this case the end certainly does not justify the means.

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1 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Wow, 31 May 2006

Author: LordB13 from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Every director should have a vision, but so should every dictator. Francis Ford Coppola must have worshiped Stalin at some point because his directing style in Apocalypse Now seems to indicate a predilection for ruling with an iron fist. Personally I've never thought much of Apocalypse Now, but respect it in that many good points and observations of human nature are made. Kurtz, being shown and introduced as almost god-like. Having complete control over his men who speak of him as if he was the second coming of Christ. Willard is somewhat of a curiosity. He mulls on about how he admires Kurtz and......this is so hard. I am completely indifferent to this movie. Most of the performances are unbelievable in that the actors always seem like they're acting. One only has to watch Dennis Hopper to realize that. " I...I..I wish I had the words man..", Hopper says of describing Kurtz, but what he really means is " Hey man...I cant think of anymore dialogue man". Marlon Brando so full of himself and self aware of the clout and power he has in the entertainment business that he just rambles on for days while Coppela is hoping enough of the footage will be usable or make enough sense that it can be used in the movie. Francis pushes all his actors like he is the plantation owner and they are the slaves. After seeing Hearts of Darkness I lost even more respect for this film. The continuing battles of Coppela's obsession with making his epic, Brando trying to prove that big stars have the power to do anything they want, and a bunch of actors that don't know what they are doing. Sure the film is nicely shot, but it couldn't be taken seriously. Apocalypse Now is a very funny movie, and perhaps that was all intended to end when Willard killed the woman on the boat showing that he is completely obsessed with getting up river to Kurtz, but then the laughs continue. Let us not forget Kilgore, the name alone is hilarious. Not a slight on Duvall but Kilgore comes across as more of a cartoon character than a real person. Perhaps intended, but it took me right out of the movie. Improvisational movie making is not my cup of tea. The real madman here is Coppola; he spent an unbelievable amount of time and money on a complete mess, and only through generous editing found some meaning in it. The original version of Apocalypse Now was somewhere around six hours....one can only wonder.

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0 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
fascinating at times,but not in depth enough for me, 24 November 2007

Author: disdressed12 from Canada

this is a fascinating documentary at times.it goes into all the problems there were with getting the movie Apocalypse Now finished.the film went over budget and over time and was beset by weather problems,as well as problems with government in the Philippines,where they were filming.as i was watching this documentary,i got the feeling that there was no way the movie Apocalypse now would be a movie i would want to see.based upon what was shown,i don't think the movie could have made much sense.as much as the documentary was fascinating,it didn't go into enough depth for me.there are also some disturbing images of animals being killed for a a local ritual,which i felt were much too graphic and unnecessary.i give Hearts of Darkness a 6/10

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0 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Proof positive that behind-the-scenes documentaries aren't very interesting, 6 October 2005

Author: selfparody from United States

APOCALYPSE NOW is my favorite war film that tries to deal only with the combatants. Coppola was one of the best directors of the seventies (though I think Godfather is a bit overrated) That did not convince me this was a good documentary.

There is so much potential here that is wasted. Take the famous helicopter attack, a scene filmed in the middle of an uprising against Marcos. While we do get the humorous scene of FFC complaining about a war taking priority over his movie, the treatment of the rebel situation is painfully slim. Was their uprising justifiable? Was Coppola potentially in the wrong by working with Marcos? What was the end result? That was not dealt with. It's a very suspicious omission, and seeing the whole story would have greatly enhanced the scenes power.

Another part that irritated me was the showing of the deleted scenes (the Bunnies and the French Plantation) These were very justifiably cut scenes which provide nothing but impatience, but they were restored for the REDUX. This convinced me that this is nothing more than a promotional piece.

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2 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
self-indulgent mess, 17 March 2002

Author: marc from Seattle, Washington

I've never seen a "making-of" documentary that made me hate the film involved more than this one. So self-important, so self-indulgent, so pretentious. All these come to mind where "Hearts of Darkness" is involved.

And to think--I used to like "Apocalypse Now."

3/10

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6 out of 20 people found the following review useful:
Documentary Doesn't Capture Intenseness Of The Film, 27 March 2007

Author: ccthemovieman-1 from United States

Being a fan of "Apocalypse Now" and seeing the film at least a half dozen times, I was anxious to see this documentary on the making of the famous 1979 movie.

Director Francis Ford Copolla's wife, "Gia," filmed most of this 96-minute documentary and there aren't that many interesting statements to hear. For such a wild and controversial movie, with so many memorable scenes, I would think the material here would be better. It's not boring but, outside of hearing that Harvey Keitel was the first choice to play Martin Sheen's role, I didn't find much more than trivial information offered in this.

Watching Marlon Brando brood and act like a spoiled professional athlete of today with a ego bigger than the size of Cambodia, was annoying. Imagine paying this jumbo boob that kind of money to work a half hour a day and then beg him just to do that! At least the other actors were civil enough to give interviews and act like human beings.

Overall, this documentary was flat, boring and unmemorable: everything the movie was not.

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