When we talk about great documentary films a whole host of titles will inevitably come up in the conversations: Shoah, Hoop Dreams, Grey Gardens, Night and Fog, to name just a selection. When we talk about great documentary films about filmmaking, then there are a rarefied few that sit right at the very of the canon. Hearts of Darkness is one of those films.
Subtitled A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, the documentary presents a revealing, behind-the-scenes look at the troubled and increasingly fraught production of one of cinema’s great, influential masterpieces: Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam war epic, Apocalypse Now (1979).
In the spring of 1976, Coppola and crew ventured into the dense jungles of the Philippines to begin filming on his long-planned adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella, Heart of Darkness. Initially set to be a five-month shoot, the notoriously hellish production was plagued by a host of challenges, from unrelenting weather and near-fatal illness to crippling budget overruns, casting changes, and hostile creative crises, finally wrapping after a mammoth 238 days in the jungle.
It’s a process that mirrored the film’s own chaotic descent to madness and became the stuff of cinematic legend. Thankfully for us, Coppola’s wife, Eleanor, was on set to capture the whole thing in meticulous details, and narrate all the behind the scenes footage.
More than a decade after the release of Apocalypse Now, Coppola handed his wife’s footage over to young filmmakers Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper, who, along with Eleanor, spent a year editing it all together – along with new interviews with the original cast and crew – into what became a landmark work of documentary filmmaking.
With any sort of behind the scenes look there’s always the danger that audiences will start to think differently about the personalities and creatives featured, and to an extent, that’s certainly the case here. Coppola’s creative obsession had a serious impact on all involved, particularly his own family, yet Eleanor captures it all in a very frank and brutally honest fashion.
Yet for all the difficulties and creative clashes, a sort of new admiration forms. A new appreciation that such tensions and difficulties can ultimately lead to the production of this storied piece of cinematic art.
Image & Audio
Hearts of Darkness arrives on 4K in a newly restored native 4K (2160p) presentation with Dolby Vision courtesy of Studiocanal. Coppola’s original footage is beautifully restored and looks superb, with incredibly rich colours and clarity. There’s plenty of grit and grain which gives the footage and authentic and raw quality, but the whole film looks hugely impressive. The Apocalypse Now scenes look outstanding, as expected, but many of the behind the scenes shot often look equally stunning.
Audio options include the original English LPCM 2.0 track and a German LPCM 2.0 track, alongside a newly remastered English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which proves a revelation. While many may prefer the authenticity of the 2.0 track, the remastered 5.1 track is hugely impressive and blends almost seamlessly with the immersive power of the actual Apocalypse Now film footage. Dialogue is crisp and beautifully clean, and the effects and overall ambience are perfectly rendered.
4K Ultra HD Collector’s Edition
The three-disc 4K Ultra HD Collector’s Edition set offers a rich selection of extras that celebrate both the documentary and the life of Eleanor Coppola (1936–2024).
The package includes a newly printed version of Eleanor Coppola’s Notes – On the Making of Apocalypse Now, as well as two posters featuring both the original and newly commissioned artwork. The striking new visuals are designed by Akiko Stehrenberger, a multi-award-winning artist.
New additions include the featurette “The Making of Hearts of Darkness,” featuring exclusive interviews with Roman Coppola, Sofia Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola, and Fax Bahr. A new tribute, “Eleanor Coppola: Art is All Around Us,” also premieres as part of this collector’s release.
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