Amazon.com video review:
Hearts of Darkness is an engrossing, unwavering look
back at Francis 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. Similar to Burden of Dreams,
Les Blank's absorbing portrait of Werner Herzog's struggle to make Fitzcarraldo, the
film chronicles Coppola's eventual decent into obsessive psychosis as
everything that could go wrong does go wrong. Storms destroy sets,
money evaporates, the Philippine government continually harasses the
director, Coppola has romantic affairs, and he can't write the story's
ending. Everything is captured on film. In the most disturbing scene,
we watch Martin Sheen have a drunken nervous breakdown while his
director goads him on (he eventually suffered a heart-attack, but
finished the film).
Other incredible footage is not visual, but
aural as the film includes tapes Eleanor Coppola recorded without
Francis's knowledge. In them, he truly sounds like a madman as he
confesses his fears about making a bomb of a movie. But while
Hearts of Darkness is an amazing, voyeuristic experience, its
importance lies in the personal reflections offered by those
involved. Sheen, Coppola, and Dennis Hopper speak frankly without
embarrassment, offering us an essential piece of film
history. --Dave McCoy
