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The seeds of Apocalypse Now took root while the Vietnam War was still taking place, with Coppola visualising shooting with 16mm cameras in the actual war-zone! George Lucas was penned to direct this graphic tale of wartime excess but, probably luckily, the studio got cold feet and shelved the project. Only after the immense success of the Godfather movies was Coppola able to revive the idea, although this time around he would direct with the backing of American Zoetrope. Choosing the Philippines as the ideal location, the naive innocence of Coppola seems amazing in retrospect. With a filming schedule of 6 weeks, Harvey Keitel in the lead role and an unfinished script, the Hollywood circus decamped to the jungle.
From the very first day of filming the production seems on a knife-edge; hundreds of local builders are constructing Kurtz's temple from huge adobe blocks, Coppola has cut a deal with Ferdinand Marcos to use the Army's helicopters and the humid heat is enough to wear anyone down. However, Coppola's problems are only beginning when he decides to fire Keitel after three weeks on location. A serious decision for any director, hence Coppola is much relieved when Martin Sheen takes over the lead role (even if he is out of shape and doubtful that he can complete even this limited shoot). The behind-the-scenes camera work is excellent, drifting over choreographed explosions, huge crowds of extras and the struggles of Coppola. Not only is this movie bigger than anything he's ever tackled, the logistics of the location are overwhelming and scenes are being re-written by him on a daily basis.
Chaos reigns over the set when the monsoon arrives, astounding all with its primeval ferocity and capacity for destruction. No wonder shooting is postponed for several months while the sets are rebuilt, giving everyone some much needed recuperation. The hundred day mark comes and goes, yet Coppola is still wrestling with the story and how to end it. Sheen has a near-fatal heart attack, a culmination of the stress of inhabiting a character such as Willard. The two-hundredth day of shooting arrives; will this journey to destruction never end? Is this an eternal purgatory for all concerned, leading to the total flop which Coppola is sure he is creating?
This is more than just a movie, it's an exploration of the darkness that resides in all of us. The anarchy of Vietnam was just an outlet for these feelings, funneled through the immature emotional matrix of teenagers. Apocalypse Now captures this atmosphere, but Hearts of Darkness shows us the torment required to bring forth such a vision. The documentary also discloses just how repulsive and unprofessional Marlon Brando is, taking an obscene amount of money ($1 million per week) and not even bothering to read the story before turning up on set, bloated and awkward. An impressive documentary for an astounding film, that's for sure.
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