A Journey Toward Madness: A Review of "Hearts of Darkness"

The movie "Apocalypse Now" is an amazing movie to watch. It can take some getting used to. It is a strange film, to say the least, but it was one of the first ones to make some kind of effort to really look at the Vietnam War. These days, the movie is known as one of the greatest modern movies and one of the greatest war movies ever made. What many people do not know is how difficult this movie was to make. This is a movie that nearly drove the director, Francis Ford Coppola, insane and nearly killed the lead actor, Marin Sheen.

When Coppola first started out making movies, one of the movies he wanted to make was called "Apocalypse Now" and it was a loose adaptation of Joseph Conra's novel "Heart of Darkness." Believe it or not the movie was originally supposed to be directed by George Lucas, fresh off of "American Grafitti," and there was even the suggestion that the movie would be made in Vietnam while the war was still going on. It would be made on 16 millimeter film and with small cameras. That movie never quite developed and Coppola went on to become a millionaire with his "Godfather" movies and Lucas went on to do "Star Wars."

Once the two gangster movies were a success, Coppola resurrected his desire to do "Apocalypse Now." This time he knew he would be filming in the Philippines and not in Vietnam. Still, he hoped it would only take a few months, that he would have a great movie when it was done, and that it would tell the tale of what life was like in Vietnam, a war that had only just ended and was still fresh in the minds of so many.

So, Coppola packed up himself, his film crew, his actors and his family and moved to the Philippines. He also asked his wife to record a documentary, showing him making the movie. The documentary that resulted from that is called "Hearts of Darkness" and it was originally released on Showtime and is now available in a new DVD version. It is a remarkable and fascinating documentary. I had originally seen it on Showtime when it first came out and was captivated. When I saw this new DVD version, I was captivated all over again.