Hearts of Darkness – A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse

In 1976 Francis Ford Coppola embarked on the filming of what was to be his most expensive and difficult undertaking. In Apocalypse Now he integrated themes from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness into a story about the Vietnam War. The film was shot on the Philippines. Between March 1976 and August 1979, Coppola’s wife Eleanor shot 60 hours of documentary material on the spot. Bahr and Hickenlooper, `Apocalypse fans’, decided to transform this material, along with their own recordings which mainly consist of interviews and reminiscences, into the documentary Hearts of Darkness. A Film-maker’s Apocalypse.The film tells the story of failures, obstacles and, not least, Coppola’s obsession. It was as if a curse was on Apocalypse Now. Between screenplay and the final version on the silver screen were ten years, 238 days of shooting and 27 months post-production. Protagonist Harvey Keitel was sacked and replaced by Martin Sheen, who had a heart attack half-way through shooting. The helicopters borrowed from President Marcos were requisitioned to fight communist guerillas. Marlon Brando cost a million dollars a week but didn’t even bother to read Conrad’s book. It is in this light that one should see Coppola’s statement that the film director is one of the last dictators is in this democratic world. Despite all the set-backs, Coppola himself was willing to do anything at any price. The film starts with the words which he spoke during the press conference in Cannes: `My film is not a movie about Vietnam. It is Vietnam. It is what it was really like. It was crazy.’ Coppola’s fear at the time (`This is a 20 million flop’) was not to be: so far Apocalypse Now has earned more than 350 million dollars.