--- title: "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/hearts-of-darkness-a-filmmakers-apocalypse/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/hearts-of-darkness-a-filmmakers-apocalypse" critics_score: 86 critics_reviews: 9 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991): what the critics said Critics' score 86 from 9 reviews: 8 positive, 1 mixed, 0 negative. The reviews lean strongly favourable, and most critics place it in the front rank of making-of documentaries, with several putting it at the head of the field. The praise clusters on Eleanor Coppola’s footage and the audio recordings she made on set, which critics say show a director stripped of his defences and full of self-doubt, and on the scale of the disasters catalogued: weather, government trouble, cast changes, illness, a reluctant star. A number of critics also read it as a lament for a period when American studios backed projects this ambitious and this unruly. Reservations are few and the spread is narrow. The Los Angeles Times is admiring but more circumspect, finding the film neither celebratory nor iconoclastic and declining to call the whole enterprise either triumph or fiasco. The only mixed notice comes from The Skinny, which grants the mishaps their legend but finds ninety minutes of self-indulgence, a film mostly for cinephiles. Nobody dismisses it. ## The Times — Kevin Maher Rating ★★★★★. 3 July 2025. This is easily the best behind-the-scenes documentary ever made, with brutally candid interviews and explosive footage capturing the relentless crises and unashamed honesty of the Apocalypse Now production. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/hearts-of-darkness-review-apocalypse-now-xgrjr6lhw) ## The AV Club — Scott Tobias Rating A. 28 November 2007. The critic calls it one of the great making-of documentaries, comparable to Burden of Dreams, for its coverage of production disasters and deep look inside Coppola's mind. It highlights the self-doubt captured in audio recordings as a major revelation. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/hearts-of-darkness-a-filmmakers-apocalypse-1798203459) ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 17 January 1992. The documentary strips Coppola bare of defenses yet reveals him as a great and brave filmmaker. It provides fascinating, harrowing film history through Eleanor Coppola's footage and interviews. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/hearts-of-darkness-a-filmmakers-apocalypse-1992) ## The Guardian Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 2 July 2025. This is the greatest ever making-of documentary, now on re-release, showing the terrifying production of Apocalypse Now. The critic praises Eleanor Coppola's contribution through her footage and recordings of the chaos. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jul/02/hearts-of-darkness-a-film-makers-apocalypse-review-francis-ford-coppola-and-the-mother-of-all-meltdowns) ## The New York Times Rating Critic's Pick. 27 November 1991. The film offers one of the sharper portraits of a filmmaker as alchemist, showing Coppola struggling with logistical problems, accidents, and demons before pulling off a miracle. It is well worth scrutiny on a large screen. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/27/movies/review-film-coppola-s-apocalypse-then-the-making-of-a-screen-epic.html) ## Empire — Thomas Wyndham Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. The critic finds the documentary an engrossing and hilarious account of the chaotic making of Apocalypse Now, highlighting the director's determination amid disasters like weather, cast changes, illness and logistical nightmares. It serves as an affectionate reminder of a time when filmmakers pursued ambitious, distinctive projects. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/hearts-darkness-review/) ## Time Out — GA Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 10 September 2012. The documentary catalogs the disasters that beset the making of Apocalypse Now, from weather and government issues to Martin Sheen's heart attack and Marlon Brando's reluctance. It is an anecdotal and revealing film that illuminates the catastrophes of one project while showing what American cinema has lost since the 1970s. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/hearts-of-darkness-a-filmmakers-apocalypse) ## Los Angeles Times — Michael Wilmington Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 17 January 1992. The documentary about the troubled shoot of Apocalypse Now is neither smugly celebratory nor iconoclastic; it constructs an almost hypnotic document of an endeavor that defies easy description as triumph or fiasco. Bahr and Hickenlooper deeply admire Coppola and his achievement. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-01-17-ca-34-story.html) ## The Skinny — Nicola Balkind Rating ★★★. 3 January 2012. It is the world's best-known making-of documentary about Apocalypse Now, capturing the production's legendary mishaps through Eleanor Coppola's narration. However, 90 minutes of self-indulgence make it a cinephile favourite. [Read the review](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/dvd-reviews/hearts-of-darkness) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/hearts-of-darkness-a-filmmakers-apocalypse.md