Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmakers Apocalypse

Synopsis

The title is derived from the source material for Apocalypse Now, the Joseph Conrad novella Heart of Darkness. Using behind-the-scenes footage, and narrated by Eleanor Coppola, it chronicles how production problems including bad weather, actors' health and other issues delayed the film, increasing costs and nearly destroying the life and career of Francis Ford Coppola. In 1990, Eleanor Coppola turned her material over to two young filmmakers, George Hickenlooper and Fax Bahr (co-creator of MADtv), who then shot new interviews with the original cast and crew and intercut them with her existing material. After a year of editing, Hickenlooper, Bahr, and Coppola debuted their film at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival to universal critical acclaim.

Awards

Originally aired on television in the United States, Hearts of Darkness won several awards: The National Board of Review, USA award for "Best Documentary", 1991, an American Cinema Editors award for "Best Edited Documentary", 1992, two Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awards for "Outstanding Individual Achievement – Informational Programming – Directing" and "Outstanding Individual Achievement – Informational Programming – Picture Editing", 1992, and the International Documentary Association award, 1992.

Home video release

Hearts of Darkness was released by Paramount Home Video on VHS and LaserDisc in 1992, with further re-releases occurring in 1994 and 1998. Paramount later released the film on DVD on November 20, 2007. The DVD version includes a commentary track from both Eleanor and Francis Coppola (although each was recorded separately) and a bonus documentary entitled Coda, about Coppola's film Youth Without Youth.

It currently is available on Blu-ray in the Full Disclosure edition alongside both the Theatrical Version and the Redux Version of Apocalypse Now, released on October 2010.