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Apocalypse Now (Steelbook Edition) [1979]


RRP: £17.99
Our Price: £7.48 (subject to change)

Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

In the tradition of such obsessively driven directors as Erich von Stroheim and Werner Herzog, Francis Ford Coppola approached the production of Apocalypse Now as if it were his own epic mission into the heart of darkness. On location in the storm-ravaged Philippines, he quite literally went mad as the project threatened to devour him in a vortex of creative despair, but from this insanity came one of the greatest films ever made. It began as a John Milius screenplay, transposing Joseph Conrad's classic story Heart of Darkness onto the horrors of the Vietnam War, following a battle-weary Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) on a secret upriver mission to find and execute the renegade Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who has reverted to a state of murderous and mystical insanity. The journey is fraught with danger involving wartime action on epic and intimate scales. One measure of the film's awesome visceral impact is the number of sequences, images, and lines of dialogue that have literally burned themselves into our cinematic consciousness, from the Wagnerian strike of helicopter gun-ships on a Vietnamese village to the brutal murder of stowaways on a peasant sampan and the unflinching fearlessness of the surfing warrior Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall), who speaks lovingly of "the smell of napalm in the morning". Like Herzog's Aguirre, The Wrath of God, this film is the product of genius cast into a pit of hell and emerging, phoenix-like, in triumph. Coppola's obsession (effectively detailed in the riveting documentary Hearts of Darkness, directed by his wife, Eleanor) informs every scene and every frame, and the result is a film for the ages. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com


Finally a proper release of a modern classic war film
Review date: 2008-10-25 Rating: 10 out of 10

I had the original release of Apocalypse Now Redux and it is one of my favourite modern war films. When they release such an important film without extras I am disappointed, but after a six year wait it is finally here and in a steelbook as well. There are a wealth of extras including a commentary by Francis Ford Coppola, deleted scenes and featurettes about the making of the Redux version along with other features about the sound and video and Marlon Brando's full reading of T.S. Eliots poem "The Hollow Men" which featured briefly in the film

I would just like to let you know that the film is split onto two discs unlike previous releases. I don't know how many people are bothered by this. The only reason I mention this is that the previous release of Redux was on one disc, and like the King Kong Deluxe Extended Edition dvd, they split the film on two discs with extras on each to bulk them out. I thought it may have been better to put the film on one disc with the extras on the other. When they re-released the Godfather boxset, part 2 was moved on to one disc rather than two which it used to be on in the previous release

Also the Hearts of Darkness documentary is not included and is not easy to find on it's own, so it would have been a nice feature, perhaps on a third disc, but as I said there are enough other extras so you will have to track it down separately

With this version, you can have an on screen marker to show when the extra footage from the Redux version is on. Thankfully this is optional. If you don't want to watch the extended cut of the film, you can just watch the original instead. I have only received it today so haven't been able to compare if the picture quality is any better, but the sound is still 5.1 so it looks like no change on that front. I only paid £5.99 so a bit of a bargain, even just for the extras alone

I love the smell of napalm in the morning



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Reviews


Great but ...
Review date: 2008-09-13 Rating: 10 out of 10

This is the definitive DVD version of the film (excepting the absence of the Hearts of Darkness documentary) but a DVD only release with no Blu-Ray release is criminal!

A relatable version of "Heat of Darkness"
Review date: 2008-09-03 Rating: 10 out of 10

The basic story is that Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who was sent to Vietnam (60's era) to correct a problem, now sees the problem differently and has exceeded his authority in the correction. Therefore Captain Benjamin L. Willard (Martin Sheen) is dispatched to dispatch the colonel. In this Joseph Campbell ("The Hero with a Thousand Faces") type adventure, he meets with many situations that help him grow and understand the problem that Colonel Kurtz faced. Will he complete his mission or succumb to the came forces as the colonel in the heart of darkness?

This is basically an updated version of Joseph Conrad's book "Heart of Darkness" with a lot Francis Ford Coppola thrown in. The location is Viet Nam, instead of Africa, and as with any update; they thought it would be more relevant than trying to explain the Congo. Toss in some songs from the 60's era ("The Best of the Doors"- `The End'), and some classics (Wagner - "Die Walkure: Ride of the Valkyries"), and you have a movie. Too bad it is not that easy.

I would not worry too much whether this looks like Vietnam or if certain events really take place, as that is not the point of the picture or the intent of the story telling. The feel of the book was conveyed. And I would not worry if it does not match the book story word for word as this is a different media. If you come away with the question "what would I do if it were me?" it worked.

Not to distract from the movie review, however I was in Viet Nam (1967-1968) in an armed reconnaissance organization. And the Vietnam I was in did not have the surrealistic scenes. We did get to see Bob Hope and Martha Ray "The Big Broadcast of 1938" (1938). Before that I always thought it was a bunch of hype. However it did make a difference having them take the time to go there. So I could see something as weird as the bunny scene happening.

Besides the movie there are the Scenes of the destruction of the Kurtz compound set. They were required to clean up after the movie was made. Coppola says that these scenes were removed from the end of the movie so people did not think that it was part of the story. However I saw this on TV and they left the scenes in and I did think it was part of the story.

Another movie interpretation of, "Heart of Darkness" was made later. Not quite as moving as Apocalypse Now, but you should see it to compare to the original, "Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death "(1988). Adrienne Barbeau is Dr. Kurtz.


Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Martin Sheen
Frederic Forrest
Sam Bottoms
Robert Duvall
Marlon Brando

Creators:
Marlon Brando (Primary Contributor)
Robert Duvall (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm
EAN: 8717418153809
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 2
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2008-08-25
Audience rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 147 minutes

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