Before I get into Hearts of Darkness allow me to comment on Apocalypse Now. This is my second favorite Vietnam film behind Platoon. It is a trippy telling of a soldiers mission to travel up river to disarm and bring back a Captain who has gone rouge and by all reports totally insane. The movie is epic in both scope and pretension.
Hearts of Darkness is a solid doc shot and directed by Coppla's wife. It explores the tremendous amounts of obstacles that had to be overcome in order just to get the film in the can.
The movie was shot in the Philippines with permission and assistance from the Filipino government. That is to say when they weren't busy fighting insurgents from the south. Then three weeks into principal photography Coppla decided that his leading man, Harvey Keitel wasn't working out and the film had to be postponed while a replacement was found. This would be a common event in the making of the movie. Martin Sheen was finally selected and filming resumed. Just in time for a monsoon that ravaged the landscape destroying much of the country and most of the elaborate sets that were constructed.
Where in most films there is a studio backing up a film (at least financially), Coppla was spending his own money in an attempt to be independent from the studios. A philosophy he abides to even today. He had millions of dollars invested, so his neck was really on the line.
Then there was the problems with the script. Coppla didn't like the ending of the original script written by John Milius. He figured he would absorb the jungle and become inspired to write the ending while on location. But he couldn't get it and all that did was delay things even more. Then came Brando. Playing the insane Kurtz he was as stubborn if not more stubborn than ever. He was notorious for being a pain in the neck. All the way to the point that Coppla had to threaten to walk away from The Godfather because the studio was so again casting Marlon in the title role.
This movie was shot in the late 70's about a war that was fought in the late 60's. Almost needless to say drugs were rampant. Both in the script and in the blood stream of many of the actors and crew of the film. acid, pot, speed, uppers, downers, booze you name it. All these of course played a part in the direction of the movie.
Hearts of Darkness did a good job of taking you to the jungle and understanding everything that was riding on the production. For my money I prefer the documentary "Burden of Dreams" (Movie #39). There are similarities abound between these two films. This would make a great double feature. Maybe even better than either doc and the movie they are documenting.
I give Hearts of Darkness ★★★.
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