Apocalypse Now’s 1976 jungle shoot in the Philippines was pure madness: budget bloat, typhoon-wrecked sets, recast actors (Harvey Keitel out, a near-fatal heart attack for Martin Sheen), hookworm infections, drug-fuelled parties and Marlon Brando turning up unprepared. Francis Ford Coppola ended up financing the over-year-long nightmare himself and famously admitted, “we went insane,” turning what was meant to be a five-month shoot into a cautionary legend.
Enter Hearts of Darkness, the behind-the-scenes doc cobbled together by Eleanor Coppola’s 80 hours of footage and directors Fax Bahr & George Hickenlooper. Newly restored in 4K, it lays bare the mud-sodden, rain-drenched, homesick hellscape and even features candid Coppola audio tapes that capture his doubts, his crew’s loyalty and the stubborn spark that somehow turned chaos into one of cinema’s greatest war epics.
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