The beginning of Apocalypse Now is instantly recognisable now, but, as Coppola admits in his commentary here, was actually created somewhat by accident. The dreamlike montage was constructed out of discarded shots and the scene depicting a drunk Captain Willard (an actually drunk Martin Sheen) in a Saigon hotel room was not actually planned to be in the film. But add The Doors and some seminal sound design - Apocalypse Now pioneered the now-standard 5.1 surround sound system, never better utilised than with the opening sound effect of the swirling helicopter - and an iconic opening was born. It's for more than just show, however: the disorienting effect succinctly encapsulates Willard's fatigued mental state, and provides the first evidence that this is not going to be just another war film.
Francis Ford Coppola's 5-years-in-the-making follow up to the certified "Best Sequel Ever", The Godfather Part II, carried with it all the negative hype of a potential disaster. The budget had spiralled massively out of control; the Philippines shoot had dragged on and on for sixteen months, as opposed to the originally scheduled six weeks(!); the star suffered a mid-shoot heart attack, prompting Coppola's legendary "he's not dead until I say he's dead!" outburst; and the director was reportedly close to suicide. Over a million feet of film was shot, or roughly two hundred hours, which was part of the reason that the post-production alone took three years. Eventually, the negative buzz became so overwhelming that Coppola took it to Cannes in unfinished form to prove the doubters wrong. The rest, as they say, is history.
Regardless of its classic status, it must be said that Apocalypse Now certainly divided initial audiences, and still does to this day. It is completely unlike any war film before or since, depicting the chaos of the Vietnam conflict with a hint of surrealism and a definite off-kilter perspective. Coppola's aim was to show how war corrupts a man, and as his characters sail down the river everything gradually becomes more and more bizarre and unexpected, culminating in Marlon Brando's rambling (yet mesmerising) extended cameo. The genius of the film is that it pulls the viewer along on this journey; you feel like another passenger on the boat. Perhaps it is not as authentic an experience as, say, Platoon, but no other film captures so well the psychological effects of warfare and conveys them so completely to the viewer. No-one has ever accused Coppola of being unambitious, and if some of his (more recent) efforts have failed, at least commercially speaking, Apocalypse Now represents the height of his creative career.
In 2001 Coppola chose to go back and reinsert excised scenes to make the Redux version, which is closer to the film he originally showed at Cannes over two decades before. The added scenes, totalling 40 minutes or so (bringing the total running time to over 3 hours), proved to be controversial. None of them impact the plot, instead just taking the form of added vignettes on this episodic journey. The added French Plantation sequence bore most of the criticism, and it's easy to see why: it brings the narrative to a complete screeching halt for 15 minutes while new characters spout heavy-handed background information. A new scene in which Brando's Colonel Kurtz reads Time Magazine articles to the imprisoned Willard dents the mysteriousness of the character by showing him in full daylight, countering the oppressive shadow-drenched darkness of his other scenes. Nevertheless, while an ungainly beast, Apocalypse Now Redux remains a triumph. Such needless detours would never work in another film, but in the context of Coppola's insane endeavour they seem oddly fitting, only adding to its uniquely foreboding atmosphere.
Release Information
Country: US / Region: Free / Version: Special Edition / Discs: 2 / Distributor: Lionsgate.
Presentation
This is a carefully produced high-definition transfer, and it shows. For much of the film the print is damn near pristine, with a good (if not demo-worthy) level of detail and sometimes sumptuous colour. A big bonus is that the film is framed in its original 2.35:1 ratio, never before seen on any DVD/laserdisc releases. Several shots are clearly framed with the scope shape in mind, so it should never have been tampered with in the first place (cinematographer Vittorio Storaro championed a 2:1 crop for home viewing). The image quality only struggles with the predictably difficult Brando scenes at the end, swathed in shadow; here, crispness is reduced and some banding and inconsistent black levels interfere, though not catastrophically.
The sound... oh, the sound. You'd expect the film that invented the modern soundtrack to be noteworthy in that department, and, well, it is. Virtually every scene is continually active from an aural standpoint, the surround channels used expertly. The sound of swooping helicopters is virtually everpresent for the first half of the film, delivered with massive force and LFE through the DTS-HD track. A scene that impressed me particularly, however, was a more low-key one: as Willard and Chef take a walk in the jungle looking for mangoes, the soundscape teems with life and ambience. It even puts the sounds of Pandora's jungle in Avatar to shame.
Extras
The production of Apocalypse Now was so tortuous that it would make a fabulous film by itself - which of course it did, in the famous documentary Hearts of Darkness. It is finally offered for purchase in the US in a 3-disc Blu-ray set dubbed the "Full Disclosure" Edition. The version under review here, though, is the significantly cheaper 2-disc Special Edition. Both are region free.*
Both the theatrical cut and Redux are included, now sharing a single Blu-ray disc, while the extras occupy the second disc. Both cuts are accompanied by a Coppola commentary (the same commentary, just cleverly extended if you're watching Redux). As proven by Coppola's Godfather commentaries, he's an extremely entertaining talker, divulging anecdotes and reflections at a good rate, making this one of the best commentaries out there. This is the same commentary as found on the previous DVD edition.
Onto Disc 2. Two new, lengthy, interviews are included (in HD), in which Coppola chats with writer John Milius and Martin Sheen respectively. Both approach an hour in length, and are completely engaging and well worth watching in full. A third new piece is a shorter one looking at the casting of the film with Fred Roos.
The rest is ported from the previous DVD release. There is an extensive selection of deleted scenes, all with very poor picture quality but very interesting nonetheless. One of them, which runs for 15 minutes, basically just consists of Marlon Brando reading the entire poem "The Hollow Men" by T.S. Eliot, which is slightly excessive, but many will simply lap up any extra footage of the great man. A particularly intriguing scene shows the ultimate fate of Dennis Hopper's photojournalist; perhaps a surprising omission from the final film (and not reinserted for Redux). Two featurettes on the birth of 5.1 sound and a look at the helicopter flyover in the opening scene are sadly all too brief. Next up is a fascinating three-part documentary on the film's post-production, clocking in at about 45 minutes in total. Further featurettes look at the film's colour palette, the creation of the Redux version and some brief reminiscences from some of the cast.
*According to Amazon, a UK Blu-ray release from Optimum is due out in June, which includes Hearts of Darkness.
Summary
It could be argued that Apocalypse Now finished off Coppola as a filmmaker as it's his last truly great work. Nevertheless it concluded a decade the likes of which few, if any, other directors have ever experienced. A masterful film given almost perfect HD treatment.
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