Did you know George Lucas was supposed to direct Apocalypse Now? In fact, he and screenwriter John Milius envisioned an entirely different ending for the movie, but Francis Ford Coppola wanted to be more faithful to the novella that helped inspire it, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.
Everybody has heard of Lucasfilm, but George Lucas, in partnership with Francis Ford Coppola, also formed the movie production company American Zoetrope, whose films include The Godfather trilogy, American Graffiti, THX 1138, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, The Rainmaker, and, of course, Apocalypse Now (under the varied name Omni Zoetrope).
Making a motion picture does not come without hardships and challenges, and epic films are certainly no exceptions. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse is a movie about a movie. The documentary is an incredible and fascinating look at the production of Apocalypse Now during the 1970s, a movie that studios didn't want to touch because of its subject matter. Now, while the Vietnam War is the backdrop of the whole film, Apocalypse Now is really about a military assassin who is sent to "terminate with extreme prejudice" a U.S. Colonel who had gone insane. (I love Harrison Ford's cameo in the movie.)
Speaking of which, insanity is a theme of Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, just as it is with the film it's about. There is some animal cruelty by primitive natives in Apocalypse Now, so I have to warn that there's a bit more of the barbarity in the documentary.
I resent when people say a movie "sucks" or is "garbage" because when you realize what goes into making a movie, you will have a greater appreciation for it, no matter how "bad" the film is.
I love watching behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with cast and crew, and learning about how movies are made. There are other epic movies whose creation deserves its own documentary film. James Cameron's The Abyss and Titanic come to mind. But watch the highly acclaimed Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, and you will appreciate what goes into filmmaking taken to the extreme.
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