Hearts of Darkness

Description

Documentary from Eleanor Coppola, George Hickenlooper and Fax Bahr which chronicles the troubled production of the 1979 Vietnam War epic ‘Apocalypse Now’ directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Filming began in March 1976 in the Philippines and was meant to last four months. Instead it continued until May 1977 as the crew faced multiple challenges including severe typhoons, sickness and the recasting of actors. Marlon Brando arrived on set significantly overweight and Martin Sheen suffered a near-fatal heart attack on location at the age of 36. When the budget more than doubled, Coppola was forced to offer the studio his house and his profits from ‘The Godfather’ (1972) as collateral to allow him to finish the film. Eleanor Coppola documented the process of filming and narrated her behind-the-scenes footage before sharing her material with Hickenlooper and Bahr in 1990, who then added new interviews with the cast and crew to complete the story.