DVD Review HTF Review: Apocalypse Now: The Complete Dossier (1 Viewer)

[Andrew-V]

No. I don't think so. There is a laserdisc though.

I remember a thread a few months ago where there were rumors of it being released on DVD in another region, but they were probably false.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Sadly, it seems you were right.

At the time, I bookmarked the link, but when I went back there, I found it was actually a box-set of 3 films, and not a single documentary about the making of AN.

Curses.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I had "Hearts of Darkness" on VHS, and after this new release and discussion, I really wanted to watch it. To my dismay, it seems to have disappeared from my collection somewhere along the way. I ordered a used copy online so I'll be seeing it by the end of this week or next week, but man, bummer. I hate when my stuff disappears, especially things I would consider to be on the rare or collectable side. As I remember it, it was a damn good documentary and I can't wait to see it again.

 

[JohnRice]

I guess luck is a bit on my side. I decided to stop by CC and see if they had any copies left with the bonus disc. Not only did they have 1 copy, it is still on sale through 9/5. Of course, it still rings up at the wrong price (when the girl was checking the price, someone else told her "that's been ringing up wring since it came out"). Apparently it is impossible to correct a pricing error, even after 1.5 weeks. Then again, why should they?

Anyway, I have never been a fan of this film, and have only seen each version once, the original when it was in theaters and Redux a few years ago. For $13 to get both versions, I can give it a chance.

BTW, sometimes I have to wonder what people are thinking. Both versions are split over 2 discs. How could you ever even believe for a moment that branching isn't used? It doesn't make sense to me anyway that they didn't just put one version on each disc and spread out the extras between them, since not all DVD players handle branching well. Or just do 3 discs. Also, these "stacker" cases (which are getting more common) kind of suck.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Dude. . .DO NOT reproduce. You are describing child abuse!

 

[Steve Christou]

I'm still waiting for "The (in)Complete Dossier" of my favorite Vietnam film, only £9.99 from CDWow but unfortunately there was a delay in shipping, so for me it's a matter of Apocalypse When?

 

[Stephen_J_H]

IMO, I think it's better to watch Redux first, then the 1979 version. I did this recently with the Special Edition and the Theatrical Cut of both T2 and Aliens, and found that I appreciated the decisions Cameron made when it came to shortening the films for theatrical release much more than previous times when I watched the films the other way around.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

I picked it up early this afternoon... and for only $9 with retail points that I had accumulated at a local store!


But I'm afraid I might have gotten a bum disc. I'm not sure if it's the player I'm viewing on, but I've been experiening very quick and subtle "jumps" in the soundtrack. Almost as though the audio skips ever so slightly, but at random intervals throughout the movie.

Has anyone else experienced this, and could it be the result of the edited branching of the films?

Again, the audio glitches are very subtle but definitely present and enough to distract me. I hope this isn't an issue with the release of this new edition. I'll try it out on my Panny Elite when I get homw tonight to see if I'm experiencing the same problems and report back.

But in the meantime, if anyone could please let me know if theyve experienced similar, Id appreciate it.

I'll try to post again soon with chapter and timecode details for exactly where these audio synch issues are occuring.

 

[JohnRice]

Usually a good way to find out if you are experiencing problems with branching is to play the DVD on a suitably fast computer. If the glitches go away, it is most likely the other player not handling the branching smoothly.

 

[CraigF]

I'm glad somebody finally said it! Of course it has branching. I understand WHY they did it, and the price is cheap, so what do you expect? I'm slightly disappointed it's not separate discs, but will probably pick it up anyway to add to my AN collection.

BTW, I did see AN in a theater in Toronto, but it was one of the (four?) pre-release versions that each had a different ending and they were gauging audience reaction to choose the release ending. I still have the ticket! They did not choose the "Toronto" ending. I remember two friends and I came out of the theater and didn't even speak for many minutes, like most of the audience. Very powerful in the full-blown theatrical experience.

 

[JohnRice]

I watched the original version yesterday. Sorry to say, it completely locked up in 4 or 5 places on my Malata dvp-580, which surprised me. This player has always been reliable. In only have 4 or 5 branching discs and I'm not sure I've ever played any of them on the Malata. I guess I'll try a couple of them and see if it locks up with them as well.

BTW, I checked it on both my computer DVD drives, just to be sure it wasn't the disc, but they played fine, without the slightest glitch.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Thanks for the feedback John.

So I guess it's not a problem with the discs than. I wish Paramount didn't go this route. I'm almost not sure whether to get rid of my old AP + Redux DVD's now...

When you say "lockup" - did the image freeze or was it more of a slight jumpcut in the movie?

For me, as far as I could tell, only the audio was affected, But I noticed at least 4 "skips" in the soundtrack watching Act One alone. They probably lasted one second or less, but they were quite obvious to me and distracting.

I personally hate this seemleas branching method that studios have been using for DVDs of recent such as this and Stripes (which I still havent bought for the same reason). Paramount seems to be pushing this practice more than others and I wish they would put the proper money in to offer seperate cuts like every other studio when releasing multiple versions of a film like this. I'd feel much better spending an extra $10 and not having to be concerned about quality issues like this.

I just hope it doesn't pick up on my Pio Elie 59-Avi. If anyone else has screened the new disc on the same player - please let me know how it went!

 

[JohnRice]

It stuttered, the audio went off for a second or two while the image froze, then it just locked up completely or kept stuttering for a minute. On one, I was able to stop and start again, but on one 14 minutes into the second disc (1979 version) right after someone is killed (avoiding spoilers) as the camera closes in on the face of the captain, it locked hard and nothing I could do would get me past it. I just had to skip to the next chapter.

I have never had problems with branching discs with my Toshiba SD-3750, which is at least 3 years older than the Malata. I'll give it a shot.

 

[JohnRice]

I tried a couple of the problem scenes on the Toshiba, and it played them with no problem. Unfortunately, I also tried the UE of T2 at one point I know there is a branch, at the end of the theatrical version, when it simply goes to Sarah's final monologue instead of the extended scenes in the other versions, and the Malata played it perfectly. Not even the slightest glitch, so it seems the AN disc is problematic on some players that other branching discs don't make a problem for.

 

[Vincent-P]

I believe these discs DO NOT use seamless branching. I have watched both versions and seen no indication of branching activity. The transfers of both versions do not match either. Here is a scene that is in both versions, but the image is different in both. The first image is from the original version, the second is from Redux. Both come from the new Complete Dossier disc.

[url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/8/8d/htf_imgcache_709.jpeg] [/url]

[url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/a/af/htf_imgcache_710.jpeg] [/url]

The print damage you see in the Redux cap does not appear in the transfer of the original version, however the original version has a lot of other print damage that doesn't appear in the Redux transfer. The color timing of both sequences is slightly different, and the framing is different. There is a tall palm tree that is always on the left side of the frame in the original version that is cut off in Redux because the framing is shifted to the right.

 

[Jay Pennington]

There would be a certain amount of repeated but identical footage even with branching...as the ideal branching point isn't always going to be one frame before a difference in the movie takes place. Sometimes you have to go back a few shots or maybe even a minute or two, to find a nice quiet shot where nothing much is happening--just in case.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Yeah, I think at this point with what we know and with the problems myself and Jay have experienced, there's not much question as to whether branching was used here.

 

[JohnRice]

Oh yeah, it most definitely uses branching. I don't think that would be a bad thing, except that players don't always seem to enable that feature consistently or fully. I've always wondered why it is so rare for them to have a buffer, not only to give error free branching, but also eliminate layer changes. I know there have been some, but they seem to be incredibly rare.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

It bothers me, considering I paid top price for the best player on the market and my cheaper hacked JVC which was the first player I bought for a few hundred dollars handles layer changes and such better...

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I've noticed another - and much worse - problem playing AN using my Philips 963...

No matter which version of AN that I select, only the AN Redux version plays. I've gone in there and manually selected the original AN, but the drive keeps playing the Redux version. Has anyone else noticed this?