Hearts of Darkness Searches for Movie Integrity

By Armond White

<i>Hearts of Darkness</i> Searches for Movie Integrity”></a></p> <p>Francis Ford Coppola鈥檚 1979 phantasmagoria Apocalypse Now put the concept of social disaster and political psychosis into the mainstream, from the Vietnam War to the Covidapocalypse. Film Forum鈥檚 upcoming revival of that woebegone milestone is accompanied by Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker鈥檚 Apocalypse, a documentary from 1991 that explores Coppola鈥檚 ambition from the personal perspective of his wife, the late Eleanor Coppola, who shares credit with co-directors Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper.</p> <p>Hearts of Darkness symbolizes 鈥渃onfusion,鈥 clarifying this era when American filmmakers can no longer search past their political delusions. Apocalypse Now was intended to summarize everything from the urban racial crisis, drug culture, and the generation gap to the military-industrial complex and the disorientation of the war itself.</p> <p>Given the polarization that has bedeviled society for the past decade, Francis Coppola鈥檚 struggle now becomes a parable for all the ways in which a filmmaker鈥檚 integrity and inspiration can be hobbled 鈥 including the deranged partisanship that hides behind today鈥檚 activist-filmmaker impulse.</p> <p>鈥淢y film is not a movie,鈥 Coppola told reporters at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival premiere.</p> <p>My film is not about Vietnam. It is Vietnam. It鈥檚 what it was really like. It鈥檚 crazy. And the way we made it was very much like the way Americans were in Vietnam. We were in the jungle, there were too many of us. We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little we went insane.</p> <p>In February 1976, Coppola personally financed a venture to shoot Apocalypse Now on location in the Philippines. Originally assigned to George Lucas and working from a script by John Milius, the project was loosely based on Joseph Conrad鈥檚 novella Heart of Darkness. But changing the venue of Conrad鈥檚 imperialist tale to chaotic Vietnam meant that the team of privileged college kids avoided precise historical analogies.</p> <p>Neither Francis nor Eleanor mention that Conrad鈥檚 proverbial high school reading assignment was written in reaction to the genocidal exploitation of Belgium鈥檚 King Leopold II in the Congo (also the subject of Mark Twain鈥檚 King Leopold鈥檚 Soliloquy).</p> <p>Hearts of Darkness denies contrasts between the first world and the third world 鈥 the racial minefield that Apocalypse Now maneuvers almost matter-of-factly. Yet this na茂vet茅 is one reason the production went over budget and out of control 鈥 the folly of an apolitical approach to a political subject.</p> <p>Swapping Conrad鈥檚 tale about colonialism in the Congo for the political intricacies of Vietnam permitted Coppola to foolishly compare his film shoot to actual warfare. He took on the state of mind of Colonel Kurtz, the American hero turned megalomaniac played by a reckless but reliable soulful Marlon Brando.</p> <p>The doc covers Coppola鈥檚 238 days of principle photography, adding a series of private conversations that Eleanor recorded for her diary. The film鈥檚 鈥渕etaphor for a journey into self鈥 makes its relevant to Hollywood鈥檚 current political sham. George Lucas admits, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know if it was pressure or fear, but people were afraid of the Vietnam War.鈥 Milius recalls, 鈥淪tudio executives are not known for their social courage.鈥</p> <p>None of them were especially political, so Apocalypse Now landed in the middle of hawkishness and pacifism that was either exotic or surreal. It was made in a halcyon era before filmmakers consciously aligned themselves to a political position but proceeded toward art, unlike today. Measuring himself against the legendary Orson Welles (whose 1938 radio broadcast of Conrad鈥檚 story was an influence) meant that Coppola would dare combine personal fears and national hubris (even improvising a reenactment of the My Lai massacre).</p> <p>Despite shooting in a swamp, in the middle of the Philippines鈥 civil war, braving a typhoon and other medical emergencies, steadfast Eleanor pledges, 鈥淚 always support Francis as an artist. So what, they take away your big house. If everything went down the tubes financing this film, it was okay.鈥 She explains, 鈥淚 focus on the present moment and do not think about the what-ifs.鈥</p> <p>After filming was completed and Apocalypse Now won the Cannes Palme d鈥橭r, Hearts of Darkness helps us understand the complications that Vietnam evokes in American consciousness, complexities that other filmmakers of Coppola鈥檚 generation eventually got right 鈥 whether the imperialist vision borrowed from Werner Herzog鈥檚 Aguirre, the Wrath of God or the liberal guilt in De Palma鈥檚 Casualties of War.</p> <p>Few modern filmmakers attempt grand-scale, visionary cinema like Coppola鈥檚 unseemly opus. Oppenheimer and The Brutalist are emotionally cramped, mingy-minded epics. Barbie; Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning; and F1: The Movie are intentionally trivial. Those cowardly films ignore the ideological confusion and moral bankruptcy that precede political and creative failure. (Not even Coppola鈥檚 disastrous Megalopolis could compete with the fiction that leftist partisans and the media manufactured in the J6 show trials.) Now, Hearts of Darkness survives, shaming the deficiency of Millennial filmmaking.</p> <p><a href=Read More…