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HEARTS OF DARKNESS: A FILMMAKER'S APOCALYPSE (TV)

Summary

This documentary film follows the infamously troubled production of the highly acclaimed 1979 Vietnam War epic "Apocalypse Now," loosely based on Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," first published as a magazine serial in 1899.

At the Cannes Film Festival, director Francis Ford Coppola states that the film "is Vietnam," acknowledging that his cast and crew, much like the real soldiers, gradually "went insane." Coppola's wife Eleanor, shooting extensive behind-the-scenes footage, explains that the film, which he frets will be a "disaster," reflects many of his own personal fears and obsessions. Orson Welles' original 1930s plan to adapt Conrad's work was scrapped for financial reasons; "Star Wars" visionary George Lucas was tapped decades later to direct screenwriter John Milius' screenplay, which repositioned the story in contemporary times – but no studio was willing to risk the danger of making the film in the midst of the Vietnam War. Coppola, having amassed personal wealth from the wild success of the first two "Godfather" films (1972, 1974), decided to raise the $13 million budget himself, $3 million of which was promised to actor Marlon Brando, cast as madman Colonel Walter Kurtz, for a planned three weeks of work.

Coppola struck a deal with Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos for use of his lands and military equipment and used local laborers to construct Kurtz's nightmarish compound, among other set pieces. After a few weeks of shooting, however, Coppola made the difficult, and expensive, decision to replace lead actor Harvey Keitel, playing haunted Captain Benjamin Willard, with Martin Sheen. In the now-famous napalm-strike scene, in which Lieutenant Colonel William Kilgore (Robert Duvall) blasts Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" to frighten the enemy, filming was complicated by the loss of multiple helicopters, which were called away to fight off real rebels elsewhere in the country. Filming quickly fell behind schedule, and Coppola explains that he grew to dislike the script's original ending, in which Willard ends up fighting alongside his intended target, Kurtz. The notoriously difficult Brando refused to allow Coppola extra time for rewrites, however, and matters grew yet worse when typhoon season arrived and destroyed several sets, forcing a two-month shutdown.

Eleanor remained "fearless" about the project as her husband obsessed over the script. Hollywood news media began reporting on the myriad problems plaguing the highly ambitious production. Coppola discusses the "ghostly" dinner party at a French plantation, intended to have an antiquated 1950s vibe, but he eventually lost patience with the narrative detour and cut the entire sequence. (The scene was later re-inserted in the 2001 rerelease known as "Apocalypse Now Redux.") Lucas hesitantly describes Coppola's style as "very intuitive." The other actors recall his use of disorganized note cards and frequent incorporation of the actors' own ideas, including the "My Lai massacre" scene in which the boat crew pointlessly executes several innocent Vietnamese farmers. Sam Bottoms, who played youthful surfer Lance, admits that the actors were using plenty of drugs during filming; Frederic Forrest, as New Orleans saucier "Chef," recalls the all-too-realistic scene in which Chef and Willard are suddenly attacked by a wild tiger in the jungle.

Sheen discusses Willard's emotional breakdown in a Saigon hotel room early in the film, admitting that he was extremely drunk at the time and painfully "revealed himself" as he genuinely smashed a mirror and allowed his tormented emotions to show. In March 1977, the 36-year-old Sheen suffered a heart attack, and a panicked Coppola refused to "admit" his lead's condition and scrambled to continue filming with a body double for Willard. He somehow convinced a skeptical Milius to continue with his vision of the movie. When a tribe of Ifugao natives were cast as extras for the scene at Kurtz's compound, Eleanor was struck by their elaborate ritual ceremonies, including animal sacrifices, and pushed Coppola to film the scenes, later accepting the "honor" of a slaughtered caribou's heart.

Actor Dennis Hopper, who plays the "wonderful apparition" of an unnamed American photojournalist who has become a crazed Kurtz fanatic, admits that he was "not in the greatest shape" at the time and joined the production late in the process. The 200th day of filming passed, and when Brando finally arrived, Coppola was alarmed to find that he was "shy" about his significant weight gain – and had never read "Heart of Darkness." After endless discussion with the actor about his character, he decided to simply allow Sheen and Brando to improvise dialogue during their brief but crucial scenes together. Coppola reached near-suicidal levels of anxiety about his "bad movie," afraid it would seem pretentious or simply incoherent. But upon its eventual release in 1979, it was a great box office success and amassed a number of prestigious awards, including two Academy Awards and the Palme d'Or at Cannes. Coppola concludes that he hopes the movie's legacy will destroy the "so-called professionalism" of the industry and inspire filmmakers to follow unique paths.

(In addition to the 2001 "Redux" version, which includes several additional scenes, a "Final Cut" was released in 2019, from which approximately 20 minutes were removed from the "Redux.")

Details

  • NETWORK: Showtime
  • DATE: May 24, 1991 10:00 PM
  • RUNNING TIME: 1:35:49
  • COLOR/B&W: Color
  • CATALOG ID: B:46077
  • GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
  • SUBJECT HEADING: Public affairs/Documentaries; Filmmaking; Vietnam War; Films - Production and direction
  • SERIES RUN: Showtime - TV, 1991
  • COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

  • Doug Claybourne … Executive Producer
  • Fred Roos … Executive Producer
  • Michael Doqui … Supervising Producer
  • Fred Fuchs … Supervising Producer
  • George Zaloom … Producer
  • Les Mayfield … Producer
  • Eleanor Coppola … Director
  • Fax Bahr … Director, Writer
  • George Hickenlooper … Director, Writer
  • Todd Boekelheide … Music by
  • Carmine Coppola … Music by
  • Mickey Hart … Music by
  • Francis Ford Coppola … Interviewee
  • Eleanor Coppola … Interviewee
  • John Milius … Interviewee
  • George Lucas … Interviewee
  • Larry Fishburne (see also: Laurence Fishburne) … Interviewee
  • Robert Duvall … Interviewee
  • Sam Bottoms … Interviewee
  • Frederic Forrest … Interviewee
  • Dennis Hopper … Interviewee
  • Marlon Brando
  • Joseph Conrad
  • Harvey Keitel
  • Ferdinand Marcos
  • Martin Sheen
  • Richard Wagner
  • Orson Welles