Special Report: Hearts of Darkness (1991)

The Projection Booth Podcast

The Projection Booth

Film Reviews, Film Interviews, Film History, Tv & Film

4.8 • 686 Ratings

🗓️ 25 July 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mike speaks with co-director Fax Bahr and archivist James Mockoski about the stunning new 4K restoration of Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991), the definitive behind-the-scenes documentary chronicling the infamously turbulent production of Apocalypse Now.

What began as a Vietnam War epic in the Philippines became one of the most harrowing shoots in cinematic history—captured on 16mm by Eleanor Coppola and transformed into a raw, revelatory portrait by Bahr and co-director George Hickenlooper. Bahr discusses the collaborative assembly of Eleanor’s intimate footage, audio diaries, and newly recorded interviews with stars like Martin Sheen and Dennis Hopper.

Meanwhile, Mockoski details how American Zoetrope restored the film from the original elements for the first time, regrading in 4K, restoring the original 2.39:1 aspect ratio, and remixing the sound in 5.1. With the full blessing of Francis Ford Coppola, this restoration brings fresh clarity and depth to a film that remains a blistering, essential look at artistic obsession, collapse, and endurance.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wake up! The Jones is a redo in their garden! Love that porcelain paven and all that fencing.
0:05.3	I knew it. They'd been with their landscaper to Jusen. A mini-digger! No wonder she was so smug at Zumba! Right, I want a sunken seating area. She won't have that? For materials, too high, timber and paving. Don't waste time. Deucon's got the lot. Like Terales, porcelain,
0:01.7	from only £22 per square metre.
0:03.6	Love it!
0:04.4	All trade prices exclude VAT Don't waste time. Deuton's got the lot. Like Terales, Porcel and Pave-in from only 22 pounds per square meter.
0:22.4	Love it.
0:23.1	All trade prices exclude VAT at 20%.
0:25.9	So now you can keep up with the Joneses.
0:28.0	And the Evanses.
0:29.2	And the Patels.
0:35.0	Hold your ears, folks.
0:36.9	It's showtime.
0:38.7	People pay good money to see this movie.
0:41.0	When they go out to a theater, they want cold sodas, hot popcorn, and no monsters in the projection booth.
0:47.4	Everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring.
0:50.3	Turn it off.
0:56.0	Turn it off. Turn it off.
0:57.0	It's scary to watch someone you love confront failure.
1:14.6	Death, fear of going insane.
1:17.6	It's what it was really like. It was crazy.
1:24.6	I was making it on the crest of the acclaim of the Godfather films.
1:31.6	Every day, a hundred problems.
	...

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