Hearts of Darkness

After watching Apocalypse Now, it was obvious that the tremendous effects of war on an individual are so much greater than what we see as civilians. After we finished the film in class, I decided to watch “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse” a documentary that chronicles how Apocalypse Now was plagued in the most unusual way by extraordinary script, shooting, budget, and casting problems. Even the process of making it nearly destroying the life and career of the celebrated director, Coppola. Francis Ford Coppola was fond of saying 'Apocalypse Now' was "not about the Vietnam War; it was the Vietnam War", and this long overdue chronicle of the film's troubled production certainly proves his point. Using behind the scenes footage shot by Coppola's wife, Eleanor, and borrowing several passages from her published diaries, the documentary traces how what began as a modest wartime action movie would emerge, after several years, several tens of millions of dollars, and more than one physical and mental breakdown, as a brilliant, visionary epic. The production itself was often a living illustration of what could go wrong did go wrong, including a civil war, a devastating typhoon, a near-fatal heart attack suffered by actor Martin Sheen, and the appearance on the set of an unprepared, overweight Marlon Brando to play Colonel Kurtz. Among the many revealing moments is Martin Sheen's drunken breakdown on camera (included in the end product), and snippets of the fascinating, discrete audiotapes showing the director near the end of his wits. Invaluable hindsight is provided by cast and crew, including Coppola himself, who was never quite able to recover professionally from the experience. 

Coppola threatened suicide three times during the filming as well and lost 100 pounds from the exhaustion of creating this film. It is very unusual to see the parallels between the film itself and the Vietnam War as a whole, but most importantly they exist and are emphasized. Just think about it for a second. Although Coppola had a great confidence to do this movie after his colleagues told him that the idea would destroy him, he went through with it, nearly lost his mind in the process, created a masterpiece of cinema, and now he will never be the same, just like a solider who has been to war and seen some crazy things. With all the confidence that led to the disaster of the Vietnam conflict, I can easily say that I've never seen anything like these eerie similarities, especially with the hardships they faced for two different purposes.