Disdain

The posting of this just-released Apocalypse Now Bluray trailer affords an opportunity to bitch about a clear lack of interest on the part of Francis Coppola‘s Zoetrope as well as Paramount Home Video (which sub-licensed the AN elements to Lionsgate for the Bluray) in presenting George Hickenlooper and Fax Bahr‘s Hearts of Darkness, an award-winning 1991 documentary about the making of Apocalypse Now, in a respectful fashion within the three-disc AN “Full Disclosure” package.

It’s great that HOD is being included, mind, but it’s not going to look all that terrific, apparently, because it appears — emphasis on that word — that Paramount Home Video provided the same one-inch tape master that was used for the 2007 DVD, which looked so-so at best but could have looked better if the HOD negative had been digitally scanned.

It’s allegedly stated on the Apocalypse Now Bluray website that “original elements” were used in creating an HD master of Hearts of Darkness. The wording of this term seems needlessly vague and is probably misleading. I haven’t been able to persuade anyone from Lionsgate, American Zoetrope or Paramount Home Video to be more specific.

It makes basic visual sense to use higher-grade elements for a Bluray rendering, but apparently nobody wanted to spend the $10 grand (more?) it would have cost to scan the HOD negative. This is understandable from a nickel-and-dime perspective, but disrespectful to perhaps the best making-of documentary ever made. It is certainly the most intimate look at the travails of an anguished big-budget filmmaker ever seen. What’s right is right. Hearts of Darkness isn’t an EPK reel — it’s a highly revered film with its own legend.

It’s already been discussed how Paramount and/or Lionsgate had no interest in including a commentary track from Hickenlooper/Bahr on the HOD Bluray. Hickenlooper told me this morning he’s planning to record a commentary but lacks the geek expertise to do it correctly himself. If anyone in Los Angeles can lend a hand (i.e., provide a recording opportunity, edit the commentary, upload the master), please get in touch.

Late last month I spent too many hours emailing and calling people at Zoetrope, Lionsgate and Paramount Home Video to ask about if better HOD materials had been used for the Bluray, or not. I got totally stonewalled and shilly-shallied by everyone I wrote and spoke to. To this day nobody has ever confirmed or denied that the one-inch tape used for the 2007 DVD was used or not. Despite repeated requests Zoetrope attorney George Hayum wouldn’t even tell me if access to the HOD negative had been requested by Paramount Home Video. It was ridiculous.

It seems to me that this lack of interest and respect originates with Coppola, who owns the Hearts of Darkness elements. Hickenlooper has long believed that Coppola is fundamentally uncomfortable with the doc. “I think it makes him feel as if somebody had rummaged through his underwear drawer,” Hickenlooper says.

Coppola was willing to permit the release of the 2007 HOD DVD, yes, but that, Hickenlooper believes, was primarily a ruse to get promotional materials sent out for his then-upcoming Youth Without Youth and a doc that Eleanor Coppola, his wife, made about the filming of YWY, called Coda.

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26 thoughts on “Disdain”

  2. Is this the theatrical release of AN or the “Redux” version with the French rubber plantation (hadn’t really thought of the implications of “French rubber plantation” before) sequence?

    Much prefer non-Redux release of AN. The plantation visitation breaks the flow, is poorly written and the music is ludicrous. Officially a hater of AN-Redux.

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  3. I absolutely understand that this is going to be a minority opinion, but I like the idea of that continuing to be the version of “Hearts of Darkness” that we see for a few more years. I actually think it looks pretty great, but anything prettier might take away from that stolen quality. I like that it’s controversial, I like that it looks like something that’s been passed around that not everyone wants you to see. If it was pretty and proudly presented alongside “Apocalypse Now” in the same fashion as the film, it almost feels like revisionist history. This is the documentary that tells you it was Hell. The studio keeping it down just adds to that feeling of authenticity.

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  5. Jeff – It’s very cute that you think it would only cost $10K to do an HD transfer of a feature-length film. And why would anyone want a commentary track on a documentary? Unless he wants to badmouth the production in hindsight, I would think Hickenlooper was able to get his points across pretty well with the basic allowances of interviews, editing and narration.

    Duke – both versions are presented in this collection.

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  6. I have to agree with SJRubenstein above. The lower quality for HOD lends it a certain gritty journalists-on-the-ground-in-a-warzone aspect that is most fitting given the nature of AN’s production.

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  7. Coppola’s busy prepping the 2 disc, Blu-ray, commentary included, director’s cut of “Jack”. He’ll get around to HOD when he’s good and damn ready. Which will most likely happen as soon as he’s finished with the director’s cut of “Tucker: The Man And His Dream”.

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  10. The gritty journalistic quality is already inherent in the film. It was shot on grainy 16mm. My problem is that the film was mastered on 1″ magnetic tape back in 1991 and the quality of that tape has deteriorated significantly. So the gritty effect is affect of disintegrating 3M tape and not the intention of this filmmaker.

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  11. I wasn’t even aware that this Blu was going to have HoD (or both versions of AN), but now I’m even more excited. Having just watched Godfather II and The Conversation again the other day, I’ve decided that if I could choose only one director to magically return to the heights of his/her powers, there’s no one even close to FFC….

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  12. George – unless they actively HATE you, someone at Paramount/Lionsgate/Zoetrope has long since (and probably more than once) archived that 1″ magnetic to something more durable (a D1 or DigiBeta, at least) over the past 19 years. And since tech nerds usually call the shots on this sort of thing, I’m sure some actual care was taken. Everybody loves your doc.

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  13. Thedigitalbits ran this story on the 28th if July:

    “here’s something that hasn’t been revealed anywhere yet but we’ve officially confirmed it here at The Bits: Hearts of Darkness, which was originally filmed in 16mm, has been scanned in HD and will be presented in full 1080p on Blu-ray! (Look for it to appear in its original 1.33 aspect ratio.)”

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  15. Wells to lens darkly: Yes, it’s understood that Hearts of Darkness has been “scanned in HD and will be presented in full 1080p on Blu-ray” The question is did the mastering of the HD version involve a better element than the 1″ tape used for the 2007 DVD? I haven’t been able to get an answer to that simple question for weeks.

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  16. Jeffrey Wells to James Mockwoski, American Zoetrope archivist:

    James,

    This morning you told Tom Luddy that the Hearts of Darkness Bluray that will appear in the Apocalypse Now three-disc package is taken from “original film elements.” I’m sorry, James, but that’s not a very specific statement.

    That means it could have come from a duplicate element, from a negative, an internegative or from that one-inch tape we spoke of a few weeks ago — i.e., the one that served as the master for the 2007 Paramount Home Video DVD.

    So I’ll ask you again: What does “original film elements” mean exactly in this case?

    Does it mean that the HD version of HOD on the forthcoming Bluray is based on a scan of the HOD negative? If so, great — but why didn’t you and George Hayum [i.e., Coppola's L.A.-based attorney] simply say that instead of putting on your Fred Astaire shoes and dancing all over the gymnasium floor in a frantic effort to say as little as possible?

    What precise element was used as the basis for the Bluray transfer? I’ve already written and called Hayum, and he too, like you, isn’t picking up the phone. You told Luddy but you weren’t man enough to call and explain directly to me? Or at least write me what you specifically meant to say?

    And please explain also why it says on the Amazon.com page that the AN Bluray contains “Eleanor Coppola’s Hearts of Darkness“? What is that about, James?

    Eleanor Coppola didn’t direct Hearts of Darkness — George Hickenlooper and Fax Bahr did. She shot 16mm footage and recorded audio tapes, and then provided these elements to Hickenlooper and Bahr and, I’m told, visited their editing facility a couple of times but had very little to do with shaping the film.

    I don’t know if this possessory claim appears on the AN Bluray package, but I don’t believe it would have been sent to Amazon if it hadn’t been signed off on by someone fairly senior at Zoetrope. It’s blatant misrepresentation.

    Regards,

    Jeffrey Wells

    Hollywood Elsewhere

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  17. It has been transferred from celluloid — probably an interpositive. Video tape is not “film element,” so I’m not sure where the confusion stems from.

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  18. Once you’ve seen HOD it becomes inseparable from Apocalypse Now nostalgia. That’s a feat. Overnight is vastly superior to Boondock Saints. This is not the same push & pull. Hearts & Apocalypse continuously add to one another. Using an old oneinch master for any movie whose negative is known to exist is crazy regardless of business savvy. It’s not like a new Apocalypse or HOD is coming out the next year or two. Could be five or who knows how many more years before another chance.

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