Hearts Of Darkness, the behind the scenes story of making Apocalypse Now, is getting a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release in its own right.
As much as Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now stands tall amongst the finest of 1970s cinema, I’d argue it’s enhanced still further by the sheer battle he had to get it made. It’s a staggering story in its own right, and one that was captured by the late Eleanor Coppola during the making of the movie.
Then, in the early 1990s, she shepherded the footage and story into Hearts Of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, which to this day is up there with the very best documentaries about making a movie.
It took a good year for Eleanor Coppola, along with Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper, to edit down the footage, and it’s been released and screened several times since. However, for the first time, it’s now had a 4K revamp, and is heading to the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format.
With quite a collection of extras, too. The posh collector’s set comes with a 64-page book of essays, as well as a plethora of on-disc extras. Included amongst them, a making of documentary, which if you think about it, is a making of a making of film. Not seen that too many times.
The set is coming out on 28th July 2025, and you can find more information on it – and order a copy – right here.
We’ll leave you for the minute with the synopsis for the film…
In the late seventies celebrated director Francis Ford Coppola and his cast and crew ventured into the dense jungles of the Philippines to begin work on what would eventually become his masterpiece, Apocalypse Now. But the journey from page to screen soon spiralled into a hellish, life-threatening nightmare that echoed the film’s narrative. Plagued with adversity, one of the most influential films ever made had one of the most notorious shoots in cinema history that few survived unscathed. Compiled from rare on set footage filmed by Coppola’s wife Eleanor and interviews with the cast, Hearts Of Darkness is the ultimate feature-length documentary, capturing the explosive events that lead to Apocalypse Now becoming an acknowledged classic.
