“We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little… we went insane.” – Francis Ford Coppola.

Production running waaaay longer than planned? Check. Budgets spiralling out of control? Check. Egos through the roof? Check. Director having his own personal breakdown? Check. Marlon Brando bloated and insufferable? Check. Martin Sheen mid-production heart attack? Check…

In the great book of extremely troubled film productions (and there should be one) you’d have to expect a large and significantly tasty chapter dedicated solely to 1979’s Vietnam war flick / mindfuck Apocalypse Now – which, in the humble opinion of moi, happens be the greatest film ever made. That or 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Strange then, that despite Apocalypse Now (and the extended cut Apocalypse Now: Redux) being available in all good retailers for years, the accompanying documentary Hearts of Darkness – using behind the scenes footage filmed by Eleanor Coppola (Francis’s wife) is still not available for the good British public to engorge in.

Luckily however, I’ve managed to snag myself a copy. And it is good. Who knew (the then skinny) Laurence Fishburne was just 14 when he was cast as Clean? Who knew that, in the original script Willard & Kurtz joined forces at the end to fight off a Vietcong attack? Who knew that the decapitated heads scattered around Kurtz’ stronghold were actually actors, buried up to their necks for 8 hours a day? Who knew that Marlon Brando was such an arse that despite Coppola having to juggle the vastly complex production, major script re-writes, killer typhoons and the whims of the Philippine government – Brando threatened to quit production (and keep his $1Million advance) because he was asked to delay his arrival for one week?

What interests most about filmmaking documentaries isn’t the frequently smug vox pops with the lead actors waxing lyrical about how ‘mind-blowing’ the film will be – there is none of this in Hearts – it’s rather seeing how far the filmmakers are willing to go for their vision to be fully realised, and Apocalypse Now cost Francis Ford Coppola more than just his personal Godfather-earned fortune, it almost cost him his career, his family, and his mind. And Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse is a rare treat that needs to be made less rare.