Apocalypse Now - The Complete Dossier (1979)

Among the Top-10 Films I Have Ever Seen and Among My All-Time Favourites!

For me, a future Director's Cut will always be the better version because that is the version the director always wanted you to see but because of various reasons usually beyond their control at the time they had to settle which could range from budget to timing/length to censorship issues etc. Having seen both versions I can safely say that Redux is the best because the Director has full leeway to tell the story he had always wanted to tell even if it means that this is now a more than 3 hour long movie which for me I didn't even feel the length because it was so good, so powerful and so absorbing and after "Platoon" is the best anti-war movie ever made and is a masterpiece of film direction.

This film certainly rewards patient and repeated viewing and like any classic you pick up more from it and appreciate it even more every time you see it. The casting is excellent with unforgettable performances by Sheen, Duval and even Brando and it's amazing that Sheen didn't even get an Oscar nomination. While I can concede the Best Supporting Actor Oscar to Melvyn Douglas for his brilliant performance in "Being There" and Peter Sellers should have won the Best Actor award that year too I find it incredible that "Apocalypse Now" didn't win the Best Film and Best Director awards. I suspect if the voters had been able to see Redux, a lot more of the 8 nominations would have turned to wins for the film. Does anyone even remember or care about "Kramer versus Kramer" anyway?

This dvd version is also a treat as the sound quality has been remastered brilliantly for an excellent sound that truly gave my 5.1 Surround Sound system a great workout! It was an excellent viewing experience for me and the picture quality although not perfect was very, very well restored making this one of my favourite dvd purchases and together with the "Lawrence of Arabia" special edition dvd I have makes me content with what I have and not too bothered about looking for a "better" version. If this ever gets to Blu-ray though, I may reconsider for the apparently sharper images this format provides but as far as standard dvd versions go this is among the very few dvds that I've seen that is full value for money given the overall package of great picture and sound quality. The only thing is that there are no Special Feature documentaries here which is understandable given the film's length and this being just a one-disc edition. This doesn't bother me though but for those who absolutely need more then the more recent 2-disc release is the one for you.

Excellent film, excellent picture and especially sound quality makes this excellent value for money as well.

Very, very highly recommended! January 2, 2009

Presentation beautiful, movie classic

The movie is a classic, and the box set is beautiful. A must own for fans... December 18, 2008

Coppola conveyed the drama and spectacle of this truly outstanding film...

After the success of the first two 'Godfather' films in 1972 and 1974 respectively, Francis Ford Coppola embarked on an ambitious attempt to bring home the reality of the war in Vietnam, which had concluded with the fall of Saigon to the Vietcong in 1975... The plot was loosely based on the book 'Heart of Darkness,' a story by Joseph Conrad about Kurtz, a trading company agent in the African jungle who has acquired mysterious powers over the natives...Coppola retains much of this, including such details as the severed heads outside Kurtz's headquarters and his final words, "The horror... the horror..."

In the film, Sheen plays an army captain given the mission to penetrate into Cambodia, and eliminate, with "extreme prejudice," a decorated officer who has become an embarrassment to the authorities... On his journey up the river to the renegade's camp he experiences the demoralization of the US forces, high on dope or drunk with power...

Although, as a result of cuts forced on Coppola, the film was accused of incoherence when first released, it was by the most serious attempt to get to grips with the experience of Vietnam and a victorious reinvention of the war film genre... In 1980 the film won an Oscar for Best Cinematography and Best Sound...

"Apocalypse Now" was re-released in 2001 with fifty minutes restored... As a result, the motion picture can now be seen as the epic masterpiece it is...

December 14, 2008

Apocalypse Now with Redux, 2 DVD set

Hey, what's not to like? The scenes in the redux that were cut from the original are awesome. I love the film and it's great cast, action scenes and music... even tho the film itself is kinda depressing in it's tone.
Two thumbs up!!! Kippy December 6, 2008

Horrible packaging & missing essentials ruins great features

Alright, let me start off by saying that, although this dossier has a huge amount of lost footage, features, and pretty much everything but the kitchen seat, it is FAR from "complete". There was an exclusive 3-Disc version sold at Target which has seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth. I find it ironic they call the more common two-disc dossier the essential version, when it doesn't even have the trailers or the "Compound Explosion" scene, regardless of the fact that it has everything else. There's also a work print version flying around, and Francis Ford Coppola even said it himself that the raw, raw footage went for over 5 hours long and added-up to over a million feet of film total.

I got this for $9, but I never thought WHY it was marked-down. I think I have a theory now. This packaging is so flimsy that it actually came-apart from a poor glue job. And that black part in the upper-left, as well as the back? That's not "really" a part of the set: its a shamelessly tacked-on piece of paper, holding-on only by a sparse amount of glue on the top of the cheap cardboard case. Its not even applied to the whole of the back surface area, its just kind of there to fool you! The "wax" seal is a criminally weak piece of cardboard with barely-functioning velcro to help keep the contents inside. I actually kept the plastic wrap this DVD came in just to keep the back side intact.

Looks can be deceiving. Only buy this if its very cheap, or if its the three-disc version. This abomination is an insult to Coppola's masterpiece. December 1, 2008

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