Dir: Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper, Eleanor Coppola | With Dennis Hopper, Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, George Lucas, Eleanor & Francis Ford Coppola, John Milius

Apocalypse Now was a film about madness that made the people making it mad. In fact, Francis Ford Coppola likened his 1979 thriller to the Vietnam war itself: ‘It was crazy… we had access to too much money and too much equipment, and little by little we went insane’.

All is this is captured in Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991) the behind the scenes feature doc shot during the making of the original film, and now restored to glorious 4k.

The doc exposes, through interviews and around sixty hours of footage, the clash of egos, the riveting rollercoaster of drug-fuelled emotional meltdowns that went on between cast and crew, on a day to day basis, along with the trials and tribulations connected to the film’s financing and a catalogue of other disasters involving the local government. We even hear about Martin Sheen’s putative heart attack and witness a cool but intransigent Marlon Brando refusing to play an obese character.

All this took place in the toxic confines of the sweltering Filipino jungle. A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse is cinematic catnip for fans of the film. Even if you haven’t seen the original thriller the doc provides fascinating insight into the human mind under extreme pressure, and the crazy world of ‘on location’ filmmaking. @MeredithTaylor

RETURNING TO UK CINEMAS ON JULY 4 | 4K UHD COLLECTOR’S EDITION ON JULY 28 2025