Apocalypse Now on DVD and Blu-ray

[colinr0380]

Here's a relevant article from Ain't It Cool News

[htdm]

Let's just hope that his "issues" with Hearts of Darkness are not on the level of the problems Zoetrope seems to have with Browlow's restoration of Gance's Napoleon.

[HerrSchreck]

Does anybody else's discs fall right out onto their laps when they open up the fold-out case inside, due to the weirdly halved snappers/disc-anchors created to compensate for the figure-8 disc-overlapping in the construction?

[Gordon]

Those 'figure 8' hubs are one of the most annoying recent trends in DVD production. Entirely pointless.

[djali999]

Does anybody else's discs fall right out onto their laps when they open up the fold-out case inside, due to the weirdly halved snappers/disc-anchors created to compensate for the figure-8 disc-overlapping in the construction?

I have the opposite problem - they're too goddamn tight, as if compensating for the obvious loss in "holding power". I hate it when I feel like I'm about to break a disc just to get it off the spindle. The things don't even spin freely once they're on the peg.

Package is too complex for my taste and the lack of chapter selections printed inside is kind of irritating, but I'm thankful just to have these in one box at all. I thought the "Act One" break would be lame, but it comes at just about the right time, so kudos to the DVD production team for the content of the discs themselves - well thought out.

[Narshty]

You know what this set needed? A Peter Cowie commentary (seriously).

[colinr0380]

Reading Heart of Darkness?

[manicsounds]

Try these:

Disc 1: Theatrical: go to "Special Features", highlight "Watch Apocalypse Now with...", press right, "May 11, 1979" is highlighted, press enter.

Disc 1: Redux: go to "Scene Selection", highlight 11-15, press enter. Then highlight Chapter 15, press left, highlight the Playboy bunny, press enter.

Disc 2: Theatrical: go to "Scene Selection", highlight Chapter 4, press left, highlight the picture of Col. Kurtz, press enter.

Disc 2: Redux: go to "Scene Selection" menu, highlight Chapter 5, press left - a group of cups will be highlighted, press enter.

Disc 2: Ether version of the film: Highlight "DVD Credits", press enter, go the the last page of the credits, highlight "Previous", press left, a mushroom cloud will be highlighted, press enter.

Disc 2: Either version of the film. Enter the "Special Features" menu, select "Post-production...", press enter, highlight "A Million Feet of Film", press right, an item will be highlighted on the corner of the movie screen, press enter.

[flyonthewall2983]

Awesome

[soma]

Picking this one up shortly, long, long overdue for an upgrade. Considering its content I can't believe how cheap it's going for over at DDD!

[Alonzo the Armless]

Watched the Redux for the first time over the weekend and observed this version humanizes Willard quite a bit. In the versions of Apocalypse Now I've watched before, he was very grim and unfeeling. In the Redux, there are scenes of him laughing, partying more with the boys on the boat, helping them in pranks like stealing Kilgore's surfboard, and even wasting precious fuel to get them laid. His scenes with the woman at the plantation reveal a more tender side one wouldn't expect from a man who barely talked to his wife aside from agreeing to a divorce. He seemed more focused on his mission in the original version, whereas in the Redux, he tries to forget about it every so often with diversions. He's almost a completely different character. I'm not sure I like this lighter version of him, but that may be because I'm so used to seeing the movie without these more human touches. At any rate, watching the Redux was like seeing Apocalypse Now for the first time.

[Antoine Doinel]

FFC talks Apocalypse Now to coincide with R2 steelbook release.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

An article on the five-hour workprint version.

[Jameson281]

Another article on the workprint, written a few years before the REDUX version of the film came out.

[TedW]

I have the bootleg version. I'm the world's biggest fan of Apocalypse Now, but even I find it difficult-to-impossible to watch completely. It is somewhere between a first rough cut and an assembly, meaning it hasn't really been shaped at all. Whatever gems you want to find were mostly restored to Redux, so the rest is a vast amount of material that is bad or doesn't work and was correctly removed for the final cut. Not really worth going to the ends of the earth for.

[dx23]

So the Complete Dossier Paramount release went OOP and now Lionsgate is re-releasing this film but only in it's Redux version in May according to Amazon.com. I'm surprised that Paramount didn't keep this in print, since I would think that this movie is a money maker from them.

[ianungstad]

I had been hoping Coppola was going to license these films to Criterion. Too bad they ended up with Lionsgate. I'm sure they'll release barebone editions of The Conversation, CQ, Virgin suicides, Hammett and The Escape Artist soonish.

[aox]

I know Coppola is getting old, but I wish he would revisit AN one last time and give it the same meticulous restoration he gave the Godfather trilogy for a Blu-Ray release.

[John Hodson]

So the Complete Dossier Paramount release went OOP and now Lionsgate is re-releasing this film but only in it's Redux version in May according to Amazon.com. I'm surprised that Paramount didn't keep this in print, since I would think that this movie is a money maker from them.

Paramount think they can't make any more money out of one of the great films of the '70s? The world has gone bonkers.

[Tom Hagen]

I know Coppola is getting old, but I wish he would revisit AN one last time and give it the same meticulous restoration he gave the Godfather trilogy for a Blu-Ray release.

Coppola and Murch already did a complete restoration in 2000-2001 when they reedited the film and added in the deleted scenes, going as far as to strike a new Technicolor three-strip print. I have no idea what more would need to be done to prepare the film for Blu, but the restoration work has already essentially been done.

I wonder if Criterion had an opportunity to take this and passed. I can't image that there's much left in the vaults for supplements that the dossier edition didn't already include. Short of releasing the film in Blu, there probably wasn't much for Criterion to contribute.

[kaujot]

I can't fathom Criterion passing over the chance to release this.

[CSM126]

Obviously they were just too busy working on James Schmaus' next vanity license from Focus.

[aox]

I know Coppola is getting old, but I wish he would revisit AN one last time and give it the same meticulous restoration he gave the Godfather trilogy for a Blu-Ray release.

Coppola and Murch already did a complete restoration in 2000-2001 when they reedited the film and added in the deleted scenes, going as far as to strike a new Technicolor three-strip print. I have no idea what more would need to be done to prepare the film for Blu, but the restoration work has already essentially been done.

I wonder if Criterion had an opportunity to take this and passed. I can't image that there's much left in the vaults for supplements that the dossier edition didn't already include. Short of releasing the film in Blu, there probably wasn't much for Criterion to contribute.

Pardon my ignorance, but that was almost 10 years ago and technology has advanced. Blu Ray wasn't around at that time either. I mean, even Criterion couldn't use their HD master restorations from the early to mid-00s for their Blu Rays. I know I will look back on this post in a few years and be embarrassed, but can you (or someone) explain the difference?

[TedW]

I don't think they "restored" the film in the way The Godfather was restored. I believe they cut the negative for the new edit and then did a new transfer, but that's not the same thing. And it is possible that there is some technical reason why an HD master from 2000 is not up to contemporary snuff.

[Roger Ryan]

Apart from doing a 4K scan (or whatever number they're up to now) for a HD release on Blu-ray, I can't imagine there's anything more one could do to make this film look better than it does (and it looks phenomenal). "Tom Hagen" is correct that the heavy-lifting work was done with the actual negative and prints back with REDUX made its theatrical debut.

As I understand it, the negative for APOCALYPSE NOW was in very good shape unlike the one for THE GODFATHER which was, at least partially, unusable. The restoration on THE GODFATHER was necessary just to get an acceptable HD image (similar to the recent work on THE AFRICAN QUEEN); that shouldn't be a problem for AN.