Francis Ford Coppola on why he recut 'Apocalypse Now' for 40th anniversary: 'The movie has so much more to yield'
For Francis Ford Coppola, the theatrical version of a film is very rarely the final cut. The legendary filmmaker has a well-established history of crafting multiple versions of his career-defining classics, including substantially different iterations of The Godfather, The Outsiders and, of course, Apocalypse Now. The latter film celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and Coppola marked the occasion by creating what he is promising is absolutely his last word on the film ... for now, at least.
Following a theatrical re-release earlier this month, Apocalypse Now Final Cut arrives on 4K Ultra HD combo pack on Tuesday. And thanks to a Dolby makeover, the film has never looked or sounded better. “You really look at the movie with new eyes,” Coppola remarks in a new featurette. “I couldn’t have imagined it being so rich, and to be at this level of sound and picture.” (Watch the clip above.)
Woking alongside Dolby technicians, Coppola went back to the original source materials for the Vietnam War-era film — which famously had a long and tortured production history — and painstakingly remastered it for high-definition viewing. Final Cut officially clocks in at 182 minutes: a half-hour longer than the 1979 version, and some 20-odd minutes shorter than 2001’s Apocalypse Now Redux. And even if you already own both of those versions, you’ll want this one on your shelf as well. “It was always a movie that people used to test out their equipment,” Coppola says. “The movie has so much more to yield.”
We love the smell of a stone-cold cinematic classic in the morning.
Apocalypse Now Final Cut is currently available to purchase on Amazon and Walmart.
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