Apocalypse Now, from director Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, The Conversation, Bram Stoker's Dracula), is considered one of the greatest war films of all time, it features in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, as does this documentary about the making of the film, which was rated well by critics. Told mostly from the point of view of Coppola's wife Eleanor, with interviews from Coppola himself (including without his knowledge) and the cast and crew, this film chronicles the ups and downs, high and lows and generally the sensational events during the making of Apocalypse Now, based loosely on the book Heart of Darkness. It shows the director's frustration with the various occurrences on and off set, problems during scriptwriting and filming, the firing of Harvey Keitel and replacing him with Martin Sheen, Sheen drunk on set, injuring himself and having a heart attack, trying to secure the casting of Marlon Brando or any big name in the part of Kurtz, funding and distribution for the film, and the tabloids capturing all this. With contributions from Sam Bottoms, Gia Coppola, Roman Coppola, Sofia Coppola, Robert Duvall, Laurence Fishburne, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Dennis Hopper, George Lucas and Martin Sheen. It is interesting to see what really goes behind the scenes during all the aspects of making a film, before and during the production, and it goes to show that filmmaking really is not an easy process, a great documentary. It was number 43 on The 50 Greatest Documentaries. Very good!
