‘Apocalypse’ Again

Francis Ford Coppola’s surreal Vietnam War epic, “Apocalypse Now,” is strikingly contemporary even 20 years after its release. The Oscar-winning director of “The Godfather” and “The Godfather: Part II” believes that audiences’ tastes have finally caught up with the sophisticated adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” which, he says, people found a bit “far out” when it came out in 1979.

Paramount has just released the DVD version ($30) of the epic, which stars Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall and a very young Harrison Ford.

This collector’s edition features a beautiful, wide-screen print of the film, the theatrical trailer, excerpts from the original theatrical program and scenes from the destruction of the Kurtz compound that initially were shown under the end credits but later deleted. For the past two decades, this haunting sequence was considered the alternate ending to the film. Coppola sets the record straight in the commentary that accompanies the five-minute sequence.

Earlier this week, Coppola spoke about producing the DVD of “Apocalypse Now” and his plans for his other films.

Question: Is “Apocalypse Now” your first film to be released on DVD?

Answer: No. There have been a few already. I think “Dracula” is on DVD and “Rumble Fish.”

Q: How involved were you in the production of this DVD?

A: Paramount is the company that handles “Apocalypse Now,” but my company [American Zoetrope] owns it. We were able to say that “Apocalypse Now” was a very important laserdisc because it has a great soundtrack and we would like to do an exceptionally high-quality DVD. We would like to do what they call the “authoring” ourselves. So we had a little bit of influence on the title.

We were hoping that if we did an exceptional job on it, [Paramount] would allow us to do it for my other films which we don’t control. Do you understand the authoring process? Even though it is a technical process, it involves some artistry and decision to try to optimize the experience. So we wanted to be involved in it.

There is a lot in the process if you are motivated to optimize the whole thing. Clearly, we wanted to do it for that reason and, hopefully, we’ll get a chance to do “The Godfathers” and also other filmmakers’ work. Anyone who is concerned with making sure their movie is transferred to DVD would maybe look at who did “Apocalypse Now.”

We had to invest in a facility to do [the DVD]. We sort of took a risk, I think a good risk, that DVD was really going to take off. We built a facility to do them. It takes a while to author a DVD.

Q: Do you like the DVD format?

A: Well, as it is going to replace the videotape, I think it is incredible for both filmmakers [and viewers], realizing that most people are going to see movies on their home television sets, not in the theaters. The DVD represents a huge plus. When you are talking about the laserdisc, that was great for the aficionados. But ultimately, it has nothing to do with what the DVD is doing, which is going to replace videotape.

Q: Why did you decide to include what you did in the DVD, and not, like so many other filmmakers, provide audio commentary for the entire film?

A: Once we started to look at the extras we could give with “Apocalypse Now,” I decided to focus on the quality of the film itself, and then a few extras we included to make it fun. We included the original program, and there had been some controversy over the ending--the idea there had been two endings--I wanted to show what that other so-called ending was and to comment on that. When we started to look at other extras beyond that, I could add 30 minutes to the movies and I could do all kinds of things.

Maybe one day we will, but for now, and for this particular edition, we thought it was better to focus on the quality of the actual movie and some interesting extras. Not the moment-by-moment [commentary]. It is a film of the past. I don’t particularly want to tell all the stories [about the film] at this point.