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Apocalypse Now BD

ThrowgnCpr

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thats really cool, but the saturation looks insane on the new BD transfer. I know they wanted to get it close to the original technicolor idea, but to me, the '01 transfer's colors are a lot more visually pleasing. I'm not a huge fan of super saturation for any imaging.
 

theslime

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I've been to both 35mm and 70mm screenings of the original cut, and even though the only evidence is my faulty memory, I can say that the tone curve of the 2001 pictures looks way too dead and not at all how I remember the image quality. The intense colours are much closer to my memory of the film, even from the faded 70mm copy. (I have only seen Redux once, in a theatre, and I have never seen a DVD version of either cut, so I didn't realize it was that flat-looking.)

Also, this is the first-ever re-release of the film in its original aspect ratio since the original. Even the theatrical cut of Redux was cropped, as far as I know. That alone makes this a welcome release.

I'm more concerned about the brightness and contrast, to be honest. The image of Kurtz and the children doesn't even look like the same film as the 2001 version. Then again, that scene wasn't part of the 1979 original, so there's no "original" look to spoil. I don't care much about the Redux anyway. I just want the theatrical cut to look like the original.
 

Dwight Fry

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Looks good. At last a proper release (and not one in which the movie is cut in half to divide between two discs). Too bad I still don't have a BD player. :Yellow_Flash_Colorz
 

Captain Khajiit

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DwightFry78 said:
Too bad I still don't have a BD player. :Yellow_Flash_Colorz

You might be lucky. Very often there is a new DVD release when a BD transfer is made. (Studios want to extract as much money out of a new transfer as they can.) I haven't heard about a new DVD for this film, but it wouldn't surprise me if one were released, especially given the demand for OAR amongst fans of this film.
 

tranzor

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Captain Khajiit said:
You might be lucky. Very often there is a new DVD release when a BD transfer is made. (Studios want to extract as much money out of a new transfer as they can.) I haven't heard about a new DVD for this film, but it wouldn't surprise me if one were released, especially given the demand for OAR amongst fans of this film.

Not in the US, that practice has dropped considerably since they want to kill dvd and push for bluray

In my case this release is a very persuasive swing to get a booray player
 

reave

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tranzor said:
Not in the US, that practice has dropped considerably since they want to kill dvd and push for bluray

In my case this release is a very persuasive swing to get a booray player

I remember when people were upset that they had to change to DVD. BD taking over is inevitable. If you're looking to jump in, get a PS3 (whether you game or note), or wait until after the upcoming black friday. The rumored BD player prices are ridiculously low. Buying BD, if you're willing to wait for them to go on sale, is really not that expensive, esp considering the considerable picture quality gain (if you have a large, HD tv).
 

Frantic Canadian

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reave said:
I remember when people were upset that they had to change to DVD. BD taking over is inevitable. If you're looking to jump in, get a PS3 (whether you game or note), or wait until after the upcoming black friday. The rumored BD player prices are ridiculously low. Buying BD, if you're willing to wait for them to go on sale, is really not that expensive, esp considering the considerable picture quality gain (if you have a large, HD tv).

I don't game so I had no interest in getting a PS3. For the price I think it's only worth it if you are a gamer because you can get a standard BD player for much cheaper than you can a PS3. I bought mine, a Samsung BDP1500, almost 2 years ago for 200$, during Boxing Week, but now you can get the same model, and even some newer models, for less than 150$. I think I've even seen some brand name ones for around 130$.
 

Rogue-theX

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Can you run a BD player into the older tv sets? Pros/cons? And how do they look when using a home projector?

BTW, i definately favor the technicolor cc over the other more common cc for Apocalypse now, it just has class!
 

hebrides

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ThrowgnCpr said:
thats really cool, but the saturation looks insane on the new BD transfer. I know they wanted to get it close to the original technicolor idea, but to me, the '01 transfer's colors are a lot more visually pleasing. I'm not a huge fan of super saturation for any imaging.

I think I'm with you on this, Throw. I definitely see what they were trying to go for, but the yellows seem pushed much too far in that helicopter image. It's supposed to be mustard-colored, not saffron-colored, I think (forgive the culinary analogy -- I was just mixing up a batch of tandoori spice mix).

I have to agree about the image of Kurtz and the kids, too. I think the '01 looks far too muddy, but they've overcompensated here so that it looks quite fake. It looks almost like the terribly obvious fake of the original color correction for the sand pit in KOTCS -- and Apocalypse Now was genuinely filmed on location, so I'm a bit baffled by how set-like the new shot looks.

Still, I see how a great color correction could come out of the BD -- there's definitely a lot more color depth to work with. I'm just not 100% sold that the color correction they've done is quite right.
 

Frantic Canadian

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Rogue-theX said:
Can you run a BD player into the older tv sets? Pros/cons? And how do they look when using a home projector?

BTW, i definately favor the technicolor cc over the other more common cc for Apocalypse now, it just has class!

You can. I've still got a 27" Toshiba tube tv that I got for my birthday 7 years ago and I hooked it up to it no problem. It should, at least mine did, come with a pair of the old red/yellow/white cables. You can hook it up that way. When you first turn it on you have to go through a set-up stage and one of the categories is the type of tv you have it hooked up to. You can set it in there so that you can view your movies in letterbox format. This was actually my main concern when buying my player so I was very happy to find out that I'd be able to see the full picture instead of just seeing a zoomed in section of the picture. The picture quality, while obviously not the full 1080, is still a notch above standard DVD. I was amazed at how beautiful the colors in Punisher: War Zone looked on my tv.

I've no idea about how it'll look on a home projector though.
 

Rogue-theX

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Great! thanks Frantic, that is most helpful. : )
 

tranzor

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reave said:
I remember when people were upset that they had to change to DVD. BD taking over is inevitable. If you're looking to jump in, get a PS3 (whether you game or note), or wait until after the upcoming black friday. The rumored BD player prices are ridiculously low. Buying BD, if you're willing to wait for them to go on sale, is really not that expensive, esp considering the considerable picture quality gain (if you have a large, HD tv).

yeah but this me we are talking about. My player will have to be region free and lock code free (dvd and blu) along with being able to do pal 2 ntsc on the fly. I know of 2 players now that do this, one being the Oppo and the other a cheaper brand a friend of mine has. I will have to wait, but I might buy the disc ahead of time
 

reave

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Rogue-theX said:
Can you run a BD player into the older tv sets? Pros/cons? And how do they look when using a home projector?

It depends on the type of projector. Any HD projector (like mine) will look beautiful with BD. When your screen is 8 feet wide, the higher resolution of BD is VERY noticeable compared to DVD resolution.

If this is your projector, it may not work.
View attachment 262
 

theslime

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It's supposed to be mustard-colored, not saffron-colored, I think
I'm not so sure. Coppola wanted to play up the surrealism using colour. His love of Technicolor is well-known. This was never an earth tone thing like The Godfather, and like I said I'm pretty sure the 70mm print looks nothing like the two 2001 screenshots.

The problem is that the film has been released in all these weird permutations, and different processes have been used over time. In addition, the original negative was altered irrevocably when Redux was edited. Directors are sometimes untrustworthy when it comes to image quality on re-releases. Roy Andersson's "Giliap" was almost re-released (both theatrically and on DVD) in a director-approved version, but it was stopped at the last minute by the original photographer, who claimed it looked nothing like the original and that the colours had been retimed to look like Andersson's recent films. So usually you can call on the original photographer to straighten things out. This is what they did on Redux, the problem is that Storaro has been untrustworthy, to say the least. After cropping his own image so badly (seriously, what kind of photographer does that??), his 2001 colour timing doesn't exactly scream trust. And it looks just too earthy to me. Then again, Coppola's present Technicolor nostalgia may push him over the top in the other direction. I don't know. I prefer the new images, though.
 

Kevinicus

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You can get a blu-ray player for under $100. In fact, I'm pretty sure I saw one for like $78. Probably a crap player though.

I got both of my players as a consequence of purchases rather than purposely getting a player. Bought the PS3 as a gamer first (though about 90% of the use has been blu-ray). And my 3D player was free with my TV. Then there's the drive in my computer, but I don't count that.
 

yads

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Copy/pasted from an Amazon writeup of this new blu-ray:

"
If it's true that Coppola wanted to make the original version even more unusual, then I wonder why he chose to add the Plantation sequence and the Playboy Bunnies escapade. Having seen the Work Print, I know that there is a wealth of material Coppola could've used. Bizarre? Unusual? How about a scene in which Martin Sheen's Willard, trapped in a bamboo cage, writhes in pain as the montangnards (and Kurtz's American soldiers) dance and chant around him, as they sacrifice a pig? Or how about Willard, still in the cage, being questioned by Kurtz, who tells Willard that he's as weak as his "colleagues in Washington?" Or how about possibly the most bizarre scene of all: Dennis Hopper's Photojournalist being shotgunned to death by Scott Glenn's character Colby? "

It looks like these deleted scenes aren't included on the blu-ray; if they were I'd possibly be buying a BD player immediately, then putting together a 'disturbed' edit
 

theslime

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That makes no sense to me. I would definitely consider the second playboy bunnies scene "unusual". The mood of that scene is insane. What's "bizarre" about the photojournalist being shot? Colby has lost it, and the Hopper character is pretty much asking for it. I'm glad that scene was cut.
 

yads

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I haven't seen the work print, so I can't comment, but I certainly agree with the general sentiment that Redux is less 'weird' than the original - it's also IMO less good because of it
 

Frantic Canadian

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yads said:
I haven't seen the work print, so I can't comment, but I certainly agree with the general sentiment that Redux is less 'weird' than the original - it's also IMO less good because of it

What I found ruined Redux was the plantation scene. It just seems to go on forever.
 
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