“Apocalypse Now” and Apocalypse Later:

Authorized Alternates of Coppola’s 1979 Film for Alternate Contexts

By Roger Leatherwood Brown

INTRODUCTION

About 40 minutes into Francis Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, a television crew films

Willard and his men as they land on the beach that Lt. Colonel Kilgore is holding against

the Vietcong. The TV director, a khaki-clad man with a beard, yells “Don’t look at the

camera! Just go through like you’re fighting!”

This “documentary” filmmaker, concerned with the verisimilitude of his footage, is

played by Francis Coppola himself. The cameo was unplanned – the original actor was

unavailable the day of shooting1 - but the moment goes beyond being a mere

Hitchcockian cameo. By the time of the release of “Apocalypse Now” in 1979 he was

one of the most recognizable filmmakers of the new Movie Brat era,2 which included

George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and others. His very public struggles to film, edit, fund,

and ultimately finish “Apocalypse Now” had become common fodder for gossip

columns, show business magazines, and news outlets for the past 4 years.

Coppola originally considered Apocalypse Now a fairly straightforward follow-up to The

Godfather II and The Conversation (both 1973) that had won him critical and financial

acclaim. But the production of Apocalypse Now would turn into his “own persona

Vietnam,”3 a 5-year endurance test for Coppola, involving cataclysmic weather, ongoing
Brown/Apocalypse Now and Apocalypse Later 2

script and actor issues, and major financial and personal crises that would put his

livelihood and family at risk.

The production of the film has been well documented, and the purpose of this paper isn’t

to reiterate what others have done in depth.4 The amount of ink devoted to its production

both during and after its release has contributed to its status as a troubled work that was

over-budget, misguided, unfilmable and even unfinishable. Instead, I seek to explore how

the nature of the production created a shifting identity for the film as an elusive “original”

that has continued to change as Coppola has gone back and “remade” it.

Over the course of the last 25 years, the film we know as Apocalypse Now has been

embodied in numerous incarnations, with 3 distinct (and official) theatrical releases, at

least 2 additional home-video versions, all of which were authored and authorized by

Coppola himself, and a rumored 5 1/2 hour cut that has circulated unofficially. The film

has never escaped its status as troubled and unfinished, a perpetual “work in progress”

that never achieved a final state.

Yet this “unfinished” film has entered the canon as one of the most important films in the

last 30 years dealing with the Vietnam War, and was chosen in 2000 by the National

Registry by the Library of Congress for special preservation.

This paper explores the difficulty of a film to achieve the state of a “preferred” version in

a troubled production and post-production history, using the unique example of

Apocalypse Now, particularly illustrative because the director was responsible for all

iterations of the film.5 It will also consider the changing concept of and concern for an
Brown/Apocalypse Now and Apocalypse Later 3

”original” version in shifting cultural contexts, a concept that is increasingly less critical,

as multiple versions can be “authorized.”

ART IMITATES LIFE

The ambiguity as to Apocalypse Now’s true shape and specific narrative reflects our own

shifting relationship to the film, as an audience, and its role as a cultural and historical

barometer.

The myth of AN6 began before it was released – its troubled production became a matter

of public record as reports of bad weather, firings and health problems of the actors, as

well as Coppola’s budgetary woes and apparent increasing megalomania and profligacy

filled newspapers and gossip columns worldwide.

The root of the problem may be found in Coppola’s attempt to have his film embrace all

the contradictions of war, imperialism, and morality. During his press conference at

Cannes, Coppola tried to defend why the film got away from him:

My film is not a movie. My film is not about Vietnam. It is Vietnam. It’s what it

was really like. It was crazy… and the way we made it was very much like the

way the Americans were in Vietnam. We were in the jungle, we had access to too

much money, too much equipment, and little by little we went insane.7

Coppola submitted the first public version after last-minute editing and much public

speculation to the 1977 Cannes Film Festival, as a “work in progress.”8 This was the first

time a film had ever been shown that was unfinished. Although winning the Palme d’Or

in that form, Coppola would further tinker with it (and test screen it) before opening a

deluxe version in 70mm for initial release, then adjusting it again for the wider 35mm
Brown/Apocalypse Now and Apocalypse Later 4

release. Two more alterations were prepared and released on home video, culminating in

the much-extended “Redux” in theatres in 2001.

In recent memory, only Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner has enjoyed as many publically

released versions each identified as distinctly different; yet only the most recent Blade

Runner: The Final Cut is considered “authoritative,” having Scott’s full editorial input.9

Coppola’s tinkering with his film for each new release can’t be cast as an attempt to

restore a lost original or preserve a previously “perfect” version.

Each version is Coppola’s.10 Each version addresses different purposes and marketing

strategies as his and our relationship to the film has changed. Each has been brought to

the market with a different financial and cultural context. Each version can be considered

to have been received under different circumstances, not least of which is the historical

resonance and meaning of the film’s own history. By acknowledging and addressing

these cultural resonances with each iteration, Coppola has created new versions by “re-

authoring” the film.

To better appreciate each version, a short background of the challenges and historical

circumstances by which it was created and received is instructive.

PRODUCTION

The script to AN was originally written by John Milius in 1969 as a loose updating of

Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness.” In Milius’s original, Willard joined Kurtz in his madness

at the climax, participating in a firefight against American helicopters in an expensive

climactic action sequence. George Lucas, who went to USC with Milius, was to direct the
Brown/Apocalypse Now and Apocalypse Later 5

film, planning to shoot in a cinema verite documentary style in 16mm, around the

canyons of Los Angeles, for a budget less than $1.5 million, similar to the footage being

seen at home on television at the time.11 Coppola, who had gained a foothold in

Hollywood as a screenwriter (and had won an Oscar for his screenplay Patton) intended

to produce this version, but after the financial failure of Lucas’ THX 1138 in 1971, the

plan was put on hold.

3 years later, after the success of the Godfather films, Coppola was ready to revisit the

project. Lucas was no longer available (working on Star Wars by then), and Coppola

decided to direct it himself.

Want I wanted to do… was to create a film experience that would give an

audience a sense of the horror, the madness, the sensuousness, and the moral

dilemma of the Vietnam War.12

The film was budgeted at $12 million, with UA putting up $7.5 million in exchange for

domestic rights, and Coppola putting up the rest. It started shooting in April ‘76 in the

Philippines, even though Coppola wasn’t yet satisfied with the original ending. He

thought he could “find it” along the way as he shot, a directorial strategy he had

employed for his film The Rain People (1969).13

The film quickly encountered obstacles. The lead actor, Harvey Keitel, was fired 2

weeks in, in a disagreement over acting styles, and was replaced by Martin Sheen.

Coppola, as early as filming the scenes with Lt. Col. Kilgore (played by Robert Duvall),

realized the film was turning much more surreal in tone and look; “no longer a traditional
Brown/Apocalypse Now and Apocalypse Later 6

war film.”14 He realized his ending “as written wasn’t going to work. I was painting

myself into a corner and I knew it.”15

Two months into production, monsoon season hit the Philippines, washing away sets and

shutting down production for 6 weeks. By that time, the film was already 6 weeks over

schedule and $2 million over budget, and all this bad news was leaking to the press back

in America, which took great interest in the director of The Godfather II and The

Conversation. Martin Sheen’s heart attack in March 1977 and contractual problems with

Marlon Brando later that year only added fuel to the fire.

Coppola still didn’t have a satisfactory ending. UA loaned him $10 million more to

finish, and he put up his house, the fledgling Zoetrope Studios, and his Napa vineyard as

collateral.16

The film ended up taking 238 shooting days, and cost $27 million, almost $15 million

over budget.17 That wasn’t the end. The initial editing began as early as January 1977

and would continue for almost 3 years. Richard Marks along with Walter Murch worked

on what would be over 1 million feet of film (over 200 hours worth)18. Coppola

consulted with Dennis Jakob, an eccentric acquaintance who had worked on Roger

Corman’s LSD-influenced The Trip’s hallucination sequences, and he suggested Sir

James Frazer’s “The Golden Bough,” a cultural treatise on mythology and religion, for

guidance, as well as T.S. Elliot’s “The Hollow Men.”19 Elliot’s famous line, “This is the

way the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper” informed Coppola’s decision to

officially abandon the firefight of the original Milius script and go with a more

ambiguous, meditative ending.20

Brown/Apocalypse Now and Apocalypse Later 7

Coppola hired writer Michael Herr21 in early 1978, 4 years after he began the project and

a year into editing, to write voice-over narration to tie the episodic nature of the film

together. Coppola tested various versions of the film during this period, sneaking the

film through the course of 1978. Information and details of these “sneaks” further

emphasizing the apparent inability of the film to be finished.22 Originally intended to be

released in April 1977, it was moved to December, then moved again to October 1978.23

“Apocalypse When?” was the title of numerous articles.

In spite of being put into production first, and intended to be the first major Hollywood

motion picture about Vietnam, both Hal Ashby’s Coming Home and Michael Cimino’s

The Deer Hunter beat it to theatres. Both were up for the Best Picture Oscar in 1978.24

Coppola decided to show the film at Cannes to try to change the perception that he’d lost

control of the film. The award helped to prove the film was not the train wreck many

were predicting.

ENDINGS

Coppola never properly addressed the pace and length of the film; it seemed to peak with

the Kilgore scenes, and the increasingly weird and surreal episodes threatened to detract

from the trip straight down the river, the spine holding the film together. The extended

scene at the French plantation was cut, as was a second scene with the Playmates at their

wrecked helicopter.

Most of the press criticism and subsequently the work was focused on the ending. The

Cannes version ended ambiguously, with Willard standing at the top of the steps after

killing Kurtz, frozen, as the crowd seems ready to embrace him as their new leader.
Brown/Apocalypse Now and Apocalypse Later 8

Coppola thought the ambiguity manifested the point of the film, but he eventually added

4 more minutes of footage of Willard leaving the compound with Lance, and ignoring the

radio calls for an airstrike on the boat.

At a sneak screening in Westwood in May of 1979, Coppola further exacerbated the

impression he had no ending by handing out comment cards explaining the unfinished

nature of the print, but also stating the screening was “my invitation to you to help me

finish my film.”25

The film finally was released August 15th, 1979 in three cities (New York, Los Angeles,

and Toronto) in deluxe 70mm prints and 6-track "quintaphonic" soundtracks. It was 2

years late. This version had no credits.26 When the lights went down jungle sounds filled

the theatre before any images appeared on screen; the same happened at the end when the

screen went to black.

The film made $322,000 the first weekend at the three theatres, an impressive per-screen

average, and received generally rave reviews.27

For the wider release 4 weeks later, UA needed a credit sequence. Coppola had had the

Kurtz compound set blown up, shooting the destruction with slow motion and infrared

cameras for a possible airstrike sequence he never seriously entertained as including in

the film. Coppola agreed to lay the credits over the surreal footage, and this version was

arguably the one seen by the vast majority of theatregoers during the initial run of the

film.28 The inclusion of the stylized explosion footage at the end after Willard’s final exit

gave the ending a sense of closure, that the struggle to end the insanity had been

successful – a sense of closure every previous version of the ending had failed to achieve.
Brown/Apocalypse Now and Apocalypse Later 9

If we don’t actually hear Willard call in the strike, we at least know the site of Kurtz’s

megalomania is destroyed.

The film grossed $37 million in its first 6 months of release and earned another $18

million from foreign markets.29 By 1982, UA had earned back their $37 million on $82

million in revenues. A sale to ABC Television for $4 million finally put the film into the

black. It was successful at awards time, being nominated for 8 Oscars30 and winning 3

Golden Globes.31

HOME VIDEO

Although the film had finally been released, its final form had yet to be decided. Shortly

after its release, Coppola was aware that the ending with the explosions was being taken

literally; viewers assumed Willard had blown up the compound, in spite of evidence to

the contrary (he ignores the radio transmission at the end). “The explosions are purely a

graphic device, not a story point,” Coppola complained.32 “It’s so clearly the credits.”33

Apparently it wasn’t so clear. Still sensitive to his intent being misunderstood, Coppola

changed the credits for the VHS and laserdisc releases in 1981, and the credits ran over a

black background at the end (reformatted to 1.33:1 so all the words would show across

the TV screen). This ending is Coppola’s preferred one; it’s appeared on all subsequent

releases.34

This “airstrike” version lived on precariously – a number of original 35mm prints in

circulation were recycled for television and cable showings. The end sequence was

squeezed as well to 1.33:1 for these TV-prepared prints.35

Brown/Apocalypse Now and Apocalypse Later 10

In 1991, the film Hearts of Darkness appeared, comprised of documentary footage

Eleanor Coppola had shot during the production put together by Fax Bahr and George

Hickenlooper. This behind-the-scenes film showed previously unseen footage of the

French plantation scene, the Playmates at their crash site in a torrential rain (shot during

the cataclysmic monsoon), and some of Brando’s improvisations as he tried to find his

character.

The story of the film‘s making continued to resonate in the culture. Coppola’s stature as

a visionary but risk-taking director grew with the subsequent One From The Heart (after

which he did lose Zoetrope Studios), and taking on quirky but commercial projects like

The Outsiders and Peggy Sue Got Married.36 An urge to reevaluate AN as an important

turning point in Coppola’s career, and as a harbinger of his changing filmmaking

practices through the ‘80s, led him to reappraise his initial version – and the process by

which it was made.

REDUX

Buoyed by the growing reputation of the film, Coppola had begun to second-guess his

initial under-the-gun editing of the film. In 1979, unsure of his chances for success,

Coppola had erred in the direction of caution for much of his decisions. “I took out the

weird stuff,” he would explain later. “What was I worried about?”37

In 1977, Coppola has already experimented in substantially reediting one of his major

works – his mini-series “The Godfather: A Novel For Television” (1977) (later

remarketed to home video as The Godfather Epic) recut his 2 Godfather films into

chronological order, and added over 55 minutes of footage. The most controversial
Brown/Apocalypse Now and Apocalypse Later 11

aspect of this version is that it completely discarded the intricate intercutting between

Vito’s past in New York and the fate of his son, Michael after the events of the original

film – an aesthetic that reduces the narrative to linear order and erases much of the ironic

and fatalistic aura surrounding the 2nd film’s plot. It is a substantially different work,

with different rhythms, pace, and narrative strategy.

In 1999 Coppola began doing a similar re-authoring of AN, restoring cut scenes from

what he described was its original conception:

Over time, the strangeness of art becomes absorbed by the audience. And in fact,

15 years later, the version we put out on Apocalypse really wasn’t so strange. And

maybe the film could stand to have some of the other material put back. As I’ve

always said, the far-out art of the past becomes the wallpaper of the future.38

This attitude reflects a change in the way the film was being received.39 Coppola knew

the audience had changed both in their sympathy to his efforts and in their aesthetic

tastes. “Redux seemed to be a kind of a rebirth of it. Partly meaning that it was the

original version or, ah, it was the full film.”40

His hesitation and rephrasing from the word “original” to “the full film” is revealing.

Coppola has been resistant to disregard previous versions, and (as far as I can tell) has

never gone on record saying that “Redux” was the “director’s cut,” a phrase that would

suggest the previous versions were unauthorized. They aren’t.

“Redux” is really a new work, with 25% of its running time added or new. It’s born of its

time, 1999, and indeed specifically addresses the known history of the production of the
Brown/Apocalypse Now and Apocalypse Later 12

film, including the extraneous material that became known extra-texturally, outside the

film, mostly through scenes sampled in Hearts of Darkness.

Without the troubled and public production history, without the subsequent

documentation, including Eleanor Coppola’s book Notes and her film, the controversy

over Brando’s performance and various endings and versions, including the rumored 5

1/2 hour cut,41 the “Redux” would not be possible or desired.

Coppola never really had a chance to explore and fine-tune the first two-thirds of the

film. He would add in the French plantation scene, the second Playboy bunny visit, as

well as more short scenes with Kilgore and with Brando, adding 49 minutes. These give

the film a more measured pace, and put the ambiguity of ending into proper balance.

Murch admits they “started from scratch.”42

We went back to the original negative and all the splices were opened and it was

added to that. So this is the only version of Apocalypse Now that now exists.”43

Cinematographer Storaro supervised a digital remastering on the fading original

negatives. Three Technicolor dye transfer separations were created as reference.44

Storaro also changed the aspect ratio – officially – from 2.35:1 to 2.01 as he had done

with his previous The Last Emperor when it was released on DVD in 2007.45 (He’s

become an advocate of 2:0:1, primarily for technical reasons.).46

The “Redux” version was released theatrically August 5th, 2001 and eventually grossed

$4,626,000. The run, starting with 2 prints (and each grossing over $40,000 the first

weekend) eventually grew to 105 prints47 6 weeks later.48

Brown/Apocalypse Now and Apocalypse Later 13

The “Redux” DVD was released a year later49, and in 2004, a deluxe 2-disc set, with the

original version of AN and the “Redux” was issued as “Apocalypse Now: The Complete

Dossier.” This release includes as an extra 22 minutes of deleted scenes, clearly from a

video source with time code overlaid,50 which seems to verify an edited version over 5

1/2 hours long.

THE LAST, BEST, AND FINAL CUT

The history of Coppola’s most famous and infamous film has enjoyed continued success

and controversy for 25 years, fed in large part by Coppola’s revisiting of it in a way not

possible by a filmmaker in previous generations. In 2000, Apocalypse Now was selected

for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress

as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

The final shape and scope of the film, never set in stone, was an unusually public process

which Coppola himself engendered through the post-production process, and would be

documented extensively by insiders, the press, and through Coppola’s comments himself,

as the film never entirely left the public eye.

The most recent “Dossier” DVD release offers the original version of the film as released

in 35mm (with credits) as well as the most recent extended version, with the same audio

commentary copied on both, clearly privileging neither.51 While part of this revisiting

may be attributed to the fact that Coppola was able to keep ownership of the film through

his financial troubles in the ‘80s,52 he clearly considers the film an open text.

As our relationship to the film – and to the Vietnam War – changes, so the film is

“remade” by Coppola to reflect a new context, a new cultural outlook. None of these
Brown/Apocalypse Now and Apocalypse Later 14

versions have “supremacy” - the restorations and original elements all exist. Previous

versions have not become obsolete.

Since Redux, Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema have released both theatrical versions

and “extended editions” of the three The Lord of the Rings films in 2002, 2003 and 2004

about 4 months apart from each other. The extended releases were announced ahead of

time, and did not render the theatrical versions obsolete or inferior – each version has a

unique set of extras, to reward buyers of both. Michael Mann released both the theatrical

and “director’s cut” of Miami Vice (2006) in one multi-disc package, acknowledging

supremacy of neither.

How we should preserve, present, and consider these versions in the future must take into

account the specific cultural and financial contexts by which they were created. The rise

of cable broadcasts and DVDs allow increased access to all versions. Reflecting on the

shifting form of AN, Coppola said:

…this film gradually made itself, and curiously, the process of making the film

became very much like the story of the film.53

The shifting identity of the film has become its legacy, and manifested itself in the

changing environment and definitions of what a preservation should consider in a new

age of media consumption.

As the after-theatrical marketplace adapts to support the organic nature of films, with a

continuum of versions, the concerns of restorers will have to embrace a changing concept

of “original” and our relationships to the films as texts, rather than palimpsests, reflecting
Brown/Apocalypse Now and Apocalypse Later 15

the culture by which they are created, and they are re-created. They’re organic

documents, growing with and for their reception in the larger sphere of culture.

Only with the context of the culture by which it was created, and created for, does a

“restoration” of a film have meaning.


























































1
Coppola, audio commentary. “Apocalypse Now: The Complete Dossier” DVD
(Zoetrope, 2001).
2
Pye, Michael and Linda Myles. The Movie Brats: How The Film Generation Took Over
Hollywood. (Henry Holt & Co. 1984).
3
Schumacher, pg. 240
4
Cowie offers the best narrative.
5
This isn’t the usual case – most films have multiple “official” releases because of some
level of studio or marketing interference.
6
Hereafter, when referring to the film as the conceptual work in toto, as AN. Distinct
titled versions, such as the “Redux” will be referred to specifically.
7
Chown, pg. 126
8
Cowie, pg. 117
9
Details of Blade Runner’s versions from Darroch Greer, “Exclusive: The Real Deal:
Digital film restoration and a final cut reveal the true Blade Runner,”
DigitalContentProducer.com (online) Penton Media Inc. (07/01/2007)
<http://digitalcontentproducer.com/mil/features/video_real_deal_2/index.html> (accessed
11/12/2008).
10
George Lucas is notorious for revisiting his earlier films, adding computer-generated
effects with the explanation that the originals would have looked that way if only he had
the resources. Many fans of Star Wars and his early THX 1138 strongly disagree with
his tampering of his early, “primitive” films.
11
Lucas would later use this cinematic device for the sequel More American Graffiti
(1979, directed by B.L. Norton) in the Vietnam sequences featuring Charles Martin
Smith.
12
Quoted from the program booklet giving out during the original 1979 70mm release.
13
Chown, pg. 52.
14
Coppola, audio commentary.
15
ibid.
16
Schumacher, pg. 236.
17
ibid, pg. 232.
Brown/Apocalypse Now and Apocalypse Later 16


























































18
Cowie, pg. 106
19
Kurtz paraphrases the poem, and Dennis Hopper’s journalist also makes passing
reference to the poem. In an inadvertent example of literature’s circular influences on
other works, Elliot’s original poem ends with the epitaph, “Mistah Kurtz – he dead,” a
direct reference to Conrad’s original novel of “Heart of Darkness,” which Jakob may
have decided to use for just that reason.
20
Jakob also worked on editing the initial version of Brando’s improvised scenes for the
last quarter of the film, apparently turning in a 4-hour rough cut of the final scenes. Jakob
received the credit “Creative Consultant” on the final film.
21
Author of the book on Vietnam, Dispatches (1977).
22
Rona Barrett, after the sneak in Westwood in 1978, published a pre-review calling it a
“disappointing failure.” Cowie, pg. 117.
23
Schumacher, pg. 240.
24
Ironically, Coppola, still deep in the (by that time) 2-year editing process of AN
presented Cimino with his Best Director award for 1978 at the Oscar for “The Deer
Hunter.”
25
Cowie, pg. 116. Later he would insist, “This is my ending. This is my version. That’s
it. There are no other versions, just things people would like to see me do. But this is my
version, my ending and my film. “ (As reported by Dale Pollack in “A Full Array of
Never-Was-Befores,” in Variety May 16, 1979.)
26
These theatres handed out a “deluxe” 16-page glossy playbill-style booklet to the
audience members with all the credits and a short essay by Coppola.
27
According to IMDB.com.
28
With an eventual gross in the first 6 months of release of $37,000,000, divided by the
average ticket price of $2.51 (per Boxofficemojo.com), that works out to about
13,500,000 tickets sold.
29
Mary Alice, bookkeeper at Zoetrope in 1980, as quoted by Cowie, pg. 124.
30
It won two, for Best Cinematography and Best Sound.
31
Coppola planned at one point recutting the film into a 4-hour “television event” similar
to his “Godfather Saga,” yet another “authorized” variant, but nothing came of this.
32
Chiu, Tony. Interview. New York Times. August 12, 1979.
33
Schumacher, pg. 263.
34
As of the 1999 DVD, Coppola has added the surreal airstrike footage with the original
electronic music, but without the credits laid over it, as an extra on the DVD issues, along
with a commentary explaining why it was changed.
35
These prints were recycled for television and cable showings through the ‘80s. This
version has never been commercially available. An anonymous viewer taped AN off
television sometime in the ’80 and posted this link on YouTube, the only documentation
I’ve found of the airstrike sequence, with credits:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDGx3bNGJQo> (accessed October 31, 2008).
36
1983 and 1986, respectively.
37
Coppola’s director’s commentary, “Apocalypse Now: The Complete Dossier”
38
ibid.
39
In spite of “Kramer Vs. Kramer” winning best picture for 1979 over AN.
40
Coppola, press conference, Cannes Film Festival, 2001, as documented on “Dossier”
DVD.
Brown/Apocalypse Now and Apocalypse Later 17


























































41
Internet review Doug Savant on his “DVD Savant” site discusses having seen the
bootleg print in 1999 <http://www.dvdsavant.com/s63apocaly.html> (accessed Oct. 30,
2008).
42
Murch, interview on DVD, “Dossier.”
43
ibid.
44
Storaro, press conference, Cannes 2001.
45
This was not a popular decision with most fans of the film. Storaro has advocated for a
“standard” in widescreen compositions and transfers, calling it “Univision” (then
“Univisiom”), since 1998. He first discussed it in an interview in American
Cinematographer, June 1998.
46
It’s worth noting that while the original release was shot and intended for 2.35:1, the
original 1979 70mm prints had the 6-track magnetic soundtrack added, which ran inside
the sprocket holes and reduced the image to approximately 2.21:1.
47
180 Technicolor dye-transfer prints were struck for the “Redux” theatrical run. From
Technical notes, “Dossier.”
48
From IMDB.
49
In what was perhaps a printing error, the first release of “Redux” on DVD had a 1.85:1
aspect ratio, a ratio the film had never appeared with. The “Dossier” release restored
Storaro’s new preferred 2.0:1 aspect ratio.
50
Showing a running time past 5 hours by the time Willard is in the compound.
51
Filmmakers such as Spielberg (for E.T.) and Lucas (for Star Wars: A New Beginning
included an “earlier” version of their films in a non-mastered, bare-bones version as the
barest of “extras.”
52
Although he did sign away his future earnings for the two Godfather pictures during
the period. Coppola may also be revisiting past glories in the decline of a career that
arguably peaked over a decade before.
53
Coppola’s commentary, “Dossier.”
Brown/Apocalypse Now and Apocalypse Later 18


























































BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bahr, Fax with George Hickenlooper. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.
(Zaloom-Mayfield Productions/American Zoetrope, 1991).
Bach, Stephen. Final Cut. (New American Library, New York, 1985).
Chiu, Tony. Interview. New York Times. (August 12, 1979).
Chown, Jeffrey. Hollywood Auteur: Francis Coppola. (Praeger, New York, 1988).
Coppola, Eleanor. Notes: On The Making of Apocalypse Now. (Faber and Faber, New
York, 1995).
Coppola, Francis. Audio commentary. “Apocalypse Now Redux” DVD (Miramax, 2001).
Cowie, Peter. The Apocalypse Now Book. (Faber And Faber, New York, 2000).
French, Karl. Karl French on Apocalypse Now. Bloombury Movie Guide No. 1,
(Bloomsbury Publishing, New York. 1999).
Phillips, Gene D. and Rodney Hill eds. Francis Ford Coppola: Interviews. (University
Press of Mississippi, 2004).
Pollock, Dale. Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas. (Da Capo Press, New
York, updated ed. 1999).
Roeg, Nicolas, director. Heart of Darkness. (Chris/Rose Productions, Inc., 1994)
Sragow, Michael. “Brilliant Careers” Salon (online) October 19, 1999
<http://www.salon.com/people/bc/1999/10/19/coppola/index.html> (accessed
11/10/2008).