I saw Hearts of Darkness years ago after being a huge fan of Apocalypse Now and even reading original material that inspired the movie, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse is not tied to Conrad's writing in more than a spiritual sense, just as Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam film was only "inspired by" Conrad. Hearts of Darkness chronicles the making of Apocalypse Now as a documentary that Coppola's wife created during the 283 days (!!) of filming. This release of the documentary includes another hour-long documentary called Coda: Thirty Years Later. Coppola's wife also stood behind the camera for this while her husband created a self-produced, small film called Youth Without Youth, based on writing by Romanian Mircea Eliade. The idea of pairing these documentaries was to show Coppola removed from the craziness of the epic journey that spawned Apocalypse Now. For Coppola fans, more Coppola can't be considered a bad thing, but the difference between the two documentaries is a wide gulf that just points up the excellence of Coppola's early work and how his vision thirty years ago was even strong enough to color his documentary footage.

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse is a stark production, with just the two documentaries and not much more. We do have Francis Ford Coppola's commentary over Hearts of Darkness, which I don't remember being part of the documentary when I last viewed it on DVD. It would have been nice to get some trailers or commentary from other actors around the production of both films to make this version of Hearts of Darkness worthwhile for fans that might have missed its earlier release.

The contrast of Tim Roth, the lead actor from Youth Without Youth, and Dennis Hopper from Apocalypse Now could not be more striking. Hopper looks in every scene like he's ready to eat the camera-operator while Roth looks like he's ready to fall asleep. Picture Roth in Pulp Fiction and you have captured what Hopper exudes on and off screen. The amazing thing about Hearts of Darkness is how it captures the moments off screen when the actors should have been smoking and jawing around a trailer, or something. Instead of quiet reflection, we see moments with the actors that showcase how out-of-control things truly became on the entire production of Apocalypse Now. Coppola was sick, Sheen was drunk, Brando was improvising his lines... No wonder that Coppola is heard in the beginning of Hearts of Darkness saying that his movie "isn't about Vietnam, it is Vietnam." Everything about the Hearts of Darkness documentary feels like a revelation. The cast is filled with familiar actors that you suddenly see in a new light. Except Dennis Hopper and Brando, who both appear to be simply caught on camera acting as they do in real life. The proximity of the film to the Vietnam conflict, separated from the war by less than a decade, must have made it incredibly meaningful material. Coppola's struggle to complete the film turned Apocalypse Now into something very personal. Watching Coppola on set and off set during the making of Apocalypse Now is truly watching someone possessed. His determination to make the damn thing is just incredible.

Watching Coda is like watching a Coppola home movie, compared to the impact of the Hearts of Darkness documentary. It's not that Coppola is less passionate, but his source material isn't haunting him in the same way. His rumination on life, religion, time, and love looks incredibly interesting and the actors appear to be turning in good performances. The most genuine moment of Coda is when Coppola blows up on location about having too many people. He goes off about the fact that all the equipment needed to make a film should fit in one truck, but instead he has an entire field of trucks. In the moment, he seems a little crazy acting like he's at the mercy of the people around him when they are actually there only at his demand. After he calms down, he talks about the cloud of people and stuff hanging around on the periphery of every movie set and how these things become a "tax" on the filmmaker. It's a step removed from Britney's paparazzi, but probably not much different. Watching Coppola strung out in Coda makes you miss his wild Hearts of Darkness persona. Clearly his wife would not agree since she jumps on camera at times to editorialize about how interesting it is to watch Coppola's journey and how the intellectual themes in Coda are a nice parallel to his experience of finding his way as a man and an artist. I'm not so sure. At one point, Coppola talks about knowing as an artist when one is on the way up versus on the way down. He recalls going up and coming down and then riding a roller-coaster ever since. One wonders if a person that can weather the storm of a production like Apocalypse Now is ever likely to be satisfied with any less. Since Coppola never managed to top himself, he appears in Coda to be a bit lost and out of time. So maybe the themes of Coda are actually true to Coppola's life, but more in a melancholy than sentimental way.

Regardless of your perspective, you'll learn a heck of a lot about Coppola through the two documentaries and all can agree he is a complex and brilliant individual. Watching him work through two distinct and almost polar creative environments is a fascinating experience for any film buff and aspiring director, actor, or writer. Highly recommended.