Hearts of Darkness 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		0.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

Hearts of Darkness 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 16, 2025

Joseph Conrad's legendary Heart of Darkness introduced an inimitable phrase to the popular vernacular with "the horror! the horror!". While that statement might contextually mean something quite different within the realm of Conrad's tale, it also serves as a cautionary epigram for any potential filmmaker wanting to undertake an arduous production as Francis Ford Coppola did with Apocalypse Now. Hearts of Darkness has been included as a supplement in some previous releases of Apocalypse Now, but it also started getting its own standalone releases, as evidenced by this very offering.

As mentioned above, Hearts of Darkness has been included as a supplement in some previous releases of Apocalypse Now. My now pretty ancient Apocalypse Now Blu-ray review of the so-called "Full Disclosure Edition" has a few comments about the documentary in the Special Features section. The documentary was also included in Apocalypse Now 4K as a supplement. More recently, Studio Canal released the documentary on its own, and Svet Atanasov's Hearts of Darkness 4K Blu-ray review offers more information.

Hearts of Darkness 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: This release does not include a 1080 Blu-ray, so these screenshots are taken directly from the 4K UHD disc and downscaled to 1080 and SDR. Color space in particular is therefore not accurate. Because no 1080 disc is included in this package, the 2K video score above has been intentionally left blank.

Hearts of Darkness is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer (mostly) in 1.33:1. There are some "baked in" deficiencies on tap here courtesy of some of the archival footage in particular, some of which can be littered with everything from scratches to bright blue lines running down the length of the frame to even what appear to be some vestigial tracking issues, but all of the "contemporary" footage caught by Eleanor Coppola looks great, though the 16mm source can lead to a bit of unavoidably fuzziness at times, with a rather pronounced grain field. Still, detail levels are frequently impressive, and a lot of the talking head material offers good, precise renderings of everything from facial features to the fabrics on clothes worn. The HDR / Dolby Vision grades frankly didn't strike me as adding a wealth of highlights, but there are some interesting nuances now to the backgrounds of several interview segments, and I'd argue that HDR may even help delineate the blacks and whites of a lot of the stills utilized.

Hearts of Darkness 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Hearts of Darkness features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that frankly may be strictly unneeded, given the narrated and/or talking head aspect of the documentary. That said, there is noticeable (if at times jarring) immersion at play when the actual sections of Apocalypse Now are utilized. Otherwise, the side and rear channels may frankly not offer a wealth of engagement, though there are certainly no issues in terms of the clarity of any of the spoken material. Optional English and French subtitles are available.

Hearts of Darkness 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Unlike the Studio Canal release for Region B which has significant bonus contents (on both its 4K and included 1080 discs), or even some of the previous uses of Hearts of Darkness on releases of Apocalypse Now (some of which had an optional commentary by the Coppolas), only the following sole (if excellent) supplement is offered.

• The Making of Hearts of Darkness (HD; 37:35) offers yet another "meta" layer with even more background and contextual information on the production(s).

A digital copy is also included.

Hearts of Darkness 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Hearts of Darkness is uncomfortably revelatory in any number of ways, but that's one of the reasons why it's so incredibly visceral. This new 4K edition from Lionsgate sports generally solid technical merits, but the lack of significant supplements may be a disappointment for some. On the whole, Recommended.