Review of Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991) by Alexandre A — 06 Nov 2008

A must see for any aspiring or wannabe filmmakers. Holy mother, what a fight. It nearly killed the director and the star. Secret, unknowingly taped conversations between Coppola and wife (one of the doc's directors), Eleanor Coppola.

238 days of shooting in the REAL jungles of the Philippines, this epic film was an epic in filmmaking. Francis Ford put EVERYTHING he had built at stake. He challenged every convention of Hollywood filmmaking, and fought a battle of proportions most of us will never know.

And he won. After having seen this doc, I think I know why everything that came afterward simply doesn't reach the heights. A battle like that is won only once, because EVERYTHING pointed to disaster.

There was no light at the end of the tunnel, just a massive wall, and Coppola spent everything in his reserves on destroying that wall. He had to. Heart-attacks, barrels at the temple, jaded actors, and drugs and rock and rolling uphill.

.. It takes a giant to fight that battle and win it once. It takes a god to do it twice.