Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991)
American Zoetrope

Description

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse is an engrossing, unwavering look back at Francis Ford Coppola’s chaotic, catastrophe-plagued Vietnam production, Apocalypse Now. Filled with juicy gossip and a wonderful behind-the-scenes look at the stressful world of moviemaking, the documentary mixes on-location home movies shot in the Philippines by Eleanor Coppola, the director’s wife, with revealing interviews with the cast and crew, shot 10 years later.

Tags

Apocalypse Now, Filmmaking

Collected reviews and ratings

10.8 Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

The movie's rich, elliptical portrait of Coppola keeps prompting us to ask: Is he a reckless megalomaniac or a true artistic hero? The answer, I believe, is both.
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10 Amazon user reviews

If you're a fan of Apocalypse Now, this DVD is a necessary purchase. It gives essential insight into the creative process and bedraggled production of one of the greatest films of the 20th Century.
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10 digitallyobsessed.com | Jon Danziger

A magnificent and candid look at a filmmaker unafraid to swing for the fences, knowing full well that the biggest rewards require the greatest risks. An absolutely necessary companion piece to Apocalypse Now, and a canny bit of documentary filmmaking in its own right.
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10 digitallyobsessed.com | Jon Danziger

A magnificent and candid look at a filmmaker unafraid to swing for the fences, knowing full well that the biggest rewards require the greatest risks. An absolutely necessary companion piece to Apocalypse Now, and a canny bit of documentary filmmaking in its own right.
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10 Washington Post | Hal Hinson

It's the most engrossing, most revealing film about the making of a movie ever produced.
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10 The Onion A.V. Club | Scott Tobias

Call it courage or hubris, but for Coppola to haul a production of this size to the Philippines without knowing its artistic destination is an invigorating sort of madness—and one that's indelibly imprinted on the finished product.
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9.0 DVD Talk | Preston Jones

Flaws and all, Apocalypse Now is one of the silver screen's most indelible works, a frustrating, illuminating examination of men and madness, an exhilarating classic. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse is of an equally rare breed - a film that enhances and deepens one's appreciation of an often misunderstood artwork.
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8.5 DVD Verdict | Brett Cullum

It is a rare experience where we get a glimpse of what it is really like working on a production. In this age of fluffy studio-produced "making of" featurettes the film is a breath of fresh air.
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8.0 filmcritic.com | Chris Barsanti

For a portrait of cinematic obsession and unbridled megalomania rarely seen outside of a Werner Herzog home movie, one would be hard pressed to find a more satisfying piece of work than Hearts of Darkness.
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0.0 documentaryfilms.net | Bryan Newbury

In Hearts of Darkness the angst, agony and ecstasy of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now receives a masterful dissection. That it doesn’t descend into parody for one minute is an accomplishment of Herculean proportions.
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