I tweeted about this yesterday, but figured everyone else should know about it as well: Lionsgate (distributed by Maple up here in has announced the Blu-ray release of Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now”, in a three-disc “Full Disclosure” special edition that will include both the original 1979 theatrical version and Coppola’s 2004 “Redux” edition, and also throw in Eleanor Coppola’s essential documentary “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse”.
The Digital Bits has all the details, as well as confirmation of the one element that makes this release an absolute must-buy for anyone who loves Coppola’s hallucinatory war epic: For the first time on any home-video format, “Apocalypse Now” will be presented in its intended aspect ratio of 2.35:1.
Previously, all widescreen transfers of the film — the laserdisc, both of Paramount’s DVD releases and the letterboxed television master — were framed at 2:1, the “ideal” aspect ratio cinematographer Vittorio Storaro calls Univisium. The idea of a single universal aspect ratio for television and film isn’t inherently terrible, but Storaro insists on retrofitting his earlier scope films to 2:1 whenever someone asks him to approve a transfer. (The only other one of which I’m aware is Paramount’s “Tucker: The Man and His Dream”.) And since “Apocalypse Now” wasn’t shot at 2:1, the image has to be cropped (or panned) to fill the taller frame. That’s insane, someone else needs to stop him.
When I interviewed Coppola last year, he was kind enough to indulge me in a few fanboy/gearhead questions about the restoration of “The Godfather” and “One from the Heart”. Finally, we turned to “Apocalypse Now”, and I’m not ashamed to admit I literally begged him to make sure any future HD transfers were framed appropriately. A year later, it looks like I got my wish — and on October 19, we’ll finally be able to see Coppola’s purest cinematic work the way it was always supposed to be seen.