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Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmakers Apocalypse watch along

🕑 Added 2024-07-17 16:00:13 +0000 UTC

Comments

Amalia Wolf

Wow! I just saw this comment, thanks so much for sharing. Glad he came back and so sorry for your loss ❤️❤️❤️I’m blown away from the sending do the tapes that must have been so special for him while he was away!

Amalia Wolf

So sad

Kinokind

Sadly, Eleanor Coppola died April 12th, at the age of 87.

Catchermag

I’m late to the party for comments, just did the watchalong. I’ve seen this documentary about four times, it’s an amazing film. I was born in 1969. I have tapes that my mother recorded when I was three that we sent to my father in Vietnam. He came back and lived until last year. He never spoke about the war with me. I was always fascinated with the war, coming of age in the 70’s. When I was a teen the subject of Vietnam was having a societal shift from one of shame to one of sympathy for the soldiers who were killed and the vets who survived. Platoon came out when I was 17 and it was a much talked about subject. When I saw Apocalypse Now it had a tremendous effect on me, I watched it over and over in my VHS cassette. Watching it felt like taking drugs, it was mind altering in a way. The movie itself, as this documentary illustrates, was an exercise in confusion and chaos without knowing how to end it, just like the war. The teenaged boy in me thrived on that sort of chaos, I didn’t know who I was yet but I knew the journey was gonna be wild. Anyway…..I got sidetracked lol. A.N. is a GREAT movie and so is this documentary. Speaking of, Ken Burns Vietnam and Vietnam in HD are both stellar documentary series.

Totally agree with Coppola being a great salesman. And the helicopter pilots were insane. Brando improvising profound dialog is pretty impressive; it's not my fave performance, to me it's just Brando being Brando, that's the way he talks in interviews.....Brando said in his memoir "I was pretty good at bullshitting Francis", and that's how it always looks to me. But still, I couldn't imagine anyone else in that role, definitely not Nicholson or Pacino or any of the other guys he was talking about. Robert Duvall says he thinks the Brando section of the recut is much better; I've been meaning to rewatch just that section to see what he means!

Catchermag

A spear

JM63

I'm astounded that the iconic helicopter scenes turned out so well considering that they had new pilots everyday. And the sheer logistical challenge of setting up those explosions and sets and taking care of the cast and crew in a remote, fairly poor country -- just mind-blowing! (Now I want to see the French plantation version.) Brando's improvisation is also amazing. Gotta be one of the great performances of all time, certainly one of the best supporting roles. You're right, Coppola is a great salesman. From dealing with the crew, the cast, the government, and the studios, the film wouldn't have been possible w/o his almost insane self-confidence. I really enjoyed this, glad your new setup is working well.

Amalia Wolf

😆😆😆ya “not acid just speed” just kills me! And ur write OMGosh she is the one narrating! See more parallels!

Amalia Wolf

I felt like I couldn’t finishing my words LOL but glad I could give some insight on that! Glad it resonated with u!!

Finally got to finish it! First off, the animal stuff totally turns my stomach too, believe me, it's not just you.....and although I could do without it, it definitely fits into "the heart of darkness". Brando most definitely was method.....he's THE method actor, he's the one who got everyone being a method actor! But by this time, he was more of a prankster; he'd get these big salaries and then he'd act up on the set. He had a sort of embarrassment about being an actor, in relation to the political causes he was always involved with, he'd never talk about acting during interviews, he'd always change the subject when asked. From "Apocalypse" till the end of his career, he was usually difficult to work with. I always say: Hearts Of Darkness is pretty much "Apocalypse Now".....except Eleanor narrates it, not Martin Sheen!! (PS: Love Sam Bottoms talking about all the drugs he did while shooting. "No, I didn't drop acid that night, I was doing speed....." LOL)

Amalia Wolf

AWWWW

Erik Lundmark

I joined instantly when I saw this was posted 👍️👍️👍️👍️👍️

Amalia Wolf

Right

VivendoBem

For me, even better!

Catchermag

Oh my, never thought I’d see this here, but it’s fantastic. Equally as good as the iconic film!

Samuraibry1

I don't think Dennis Hopper was acting... that performance was inspired... chemistry?

Amalia Wolf

Thanks for watching!! It was a great doc!

James Rogers

A great doc on the making of a 'messterpiece'. The story may have a happy ending but we get to see the costs associated with that level of artistic obsession. Yes, my glass is half empty. Great reaction. Can't wait to see what's next.

Jeb Manning

I can't wait to watch this. Stories like this about troubled productions are so fascinating to me. If you'd want to watch another documentary about a movie with an incredibly troubled production, I'd highly recommend Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau. It's about the making of the 1996 movie The Island of Dr. Moreau. It covers Richard Stanley's experiences while he conceived and developed the idea of doing the movie, his time as director, the aftermath of his firing, everything that went wrong, and the overall finished quality of the film. I've seen it, and the stories about the making of The Island of Dr. Moreau are pretty crazy.

Amalia Wolf

Felt a bit rusty hahah but it was fascinating for me to watch actors/directors work together

Amalia Wolf

Lolol

Amalia Wolf

Yes I heard about that!! So sad RIP

Jeffrey Schmidbauer

Eleanor Coppola did a fantastic job on this documentary. May she rest in peace. She passed away earlier this year.

Jeffrey Schmidbauer

"Don't look at the camera! Make like you're fighting!"

Amalia Wolf

It’s so good!!

Amalia Wolf

WOW did he! That’s amazing!! It was so well done! I felt rusty as a reactor after 1 week off hahaha but holy moly this was such a good documentary!

RFK Fan

WOW!!! What a surprise!!! I had no idea you had this on your radar! Gene Siskel picked this as the # 1 movie of 1991. No greater documentary that better shows what a director has to endure to put his vision on screen than HEARTS OF DARKNESS...

Jeffrey Schmidbauer

YESSSS! Great choice!

Amalia Wolf

You are totally right!!! My word for it is CRAZY it’s such a fascinating story

Henry Graham

Oh wow. I absolutely love that you are reacting to this! It's such a fascinating and illuminating companion piece to Apocalypse Now. It truly is staggering that Coppola managed to pull anything at all out of this chaos, let alone one of the greatest films ever made.