APOCALYPSE NOW: FINAL CUT
Best Buy Exclusive Steelbook
Label: Lionsgate
Rating: R
Region Code: Region-Free
Duration: 183 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Atmos, DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English, Spanish, French Subtitles
Video: 2160p Ultra High Definition (2.35:1) Dolby Vision HDR10, 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast: Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen
There's not a lot I can add to the decades of praise that's been heaped upon Francis Ford Coppola's surreal Vietnam war masterpiece, based on the Joseph Conrad novella Heart of Darkness, it follows the journey of U.S. Army Special Ops officer Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen, Badlands) who has been tasked with assassinating a demented Special Forces Colonel Kurtz (Marlin Brando, Island of Dr. Moreau) who’s gone rogue in the jungles of Cambodia during the Vietnam War. It's truly a stunning masterwork that even eclipses Coppola's Godfather trilogy in my eyes, a spiraling descent into madness set against the hallucinatory backdrop of the war in Vietnam with a mesmerizing
performance from Sheen and a defining turn from Brando.
Audio/Video: Apocalypse Now: Final Cut (2019) arrives on 2-disc Blu-ray + 4K UltraHD in spectacular 2160p UHD framed in the original 2.39:1 aspect ratio. This is scanned from the original camera negative in native 4K, restored and finished as a 4K Digital Intermediate, with the added benefit of HDR10 and Dolby Vision high dynamic range color-grading. Fine grain levels are superior looking throughout and the bump in resolution ramps up fine detail and texturing in uniforms and textures. The uptick in resolution is absolutely appreciable, even compared to the Blu-ray, but the HDR color-grading is the real star here. The HDR offers deeper more saturated colors that highlight cinematographer
Vittorio Storaro (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage) magnificent cinematography, this is a film where every frame would look fantastic hanging on your wall, from start to finish just one eye-propping visual after another. The heavy ordinance explosions, plumes of colored smoke, and napalm sunsets all looks glorious, this is definitely the best the film has ever looked on home video, and probably ever will - but I said that about the previous Blu-ray set as well!
Audio comes by way of a bombastic and atmospheric English Dolby Atmos mix that is enhanced by a Meyer Sound’s new “Sensual Sound” technology which offers a deep, resonating and impactful low-end experience to the certain bombastic scenes. The mix is also quite immersive, utilizing all the channels to put you right in the middle of it all, whether it's the snap of gunfire or the thwip of arrows cutting through the air, helicopter blades whirling, rustling leaves and the sounds of birds in the jungle, it's quite an impressive auditory experience.
The only extras on this Best Buy Steelbook edition is a 5-minute introduction from Coppola that appears on both the Blu-ray and the 4K UHD disc. If you already own the 6-Disc 40tyh Anniversary Edition UHD/BD set from Lionsgate there's nothing new or exclusive to this release aside from the sexy limited edition steelbook packaging with what I'd call a napalm sunset motif highlighting Willard and Kurtz, and it includes cool translucent plastic slipcover that adds another layer of artwork to the whole thing. The discs inside have separate artworks, the same that adorn the Steelbook, but the menus are the same as the 40th Anniversary UHD/BD set disc, with that cool image of Willard emerging from the water.
Special Features:
- Final Cut Intro by Francis Ford Coppola (5 min)
I've always been partial to the theatrical cut of Apocalypse Now, and while I enjoyed the Redux version as a curio that expanded the story I think that this Final Cut version has grown on me quite a bit since I first saw it in 2019, and it might be my go-to version for future viewings, as a very happy medium between the two previously available versions. If you're a fan of the film I assume you already own the six-disc 40th Anniversary UHD/Blu-ray set, and there's no "need" to own this version, you already have the same gorgeous audio/video restoration unless, However, if you're a packaging collector, and a Steelbook collector in particular, this is a beautifully packaged edition worth owning. These Best Buy exclusives tend to disappear so fast, so if you're eager to get it you'd best snatch it up quick!
