Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse 4K UHD (1991) (StudioCanal)

[Hedrox]

Three discs is waaaay overkill for something like this, I'm sure everything would've fit on a single BD100. In fact odds are that everything already is on the 4K disc.

[Marv Inc.]

I'm tempted.

[PonyoBellanote]

Originally Posted by Hedrox

Three discs is waaaay overkill for something like this, I'm sure everything would've fit on a single BD100. In fact odds are that everything already is on the 4K disc.

Please tell me you're trolling.

[Yautja_Warrior]

Nice but I think I'll pass on this one. Great doc but I don't need it in 4k. I have the 6 disc Apocalypse Now 4k set, which is more than enough for me.

[Hedrox]

Originally Posted by PonyoBellanote

Please tell me you're trolling.

Huh? mind providing a bit more detail into why you say that?

The doc is 96 min and I don't think it carries any dubs.The Making of Hearts of Darkness and Eleanor Coppola: Art is All Around Us are both 2025 featurettes that come in at about an hour. So unless all those shorts were restored in 4K and presented that way, there's no reason to believe all of that can't fit on a BD100.

Interestingly, this site lists extras in a different way and claims there are more actually:

Feature UHD + Feature BD [Disc 1 + Disc 2]

NEW – The Making of Hearts of Darkness
NEW – Eleanor Coppola: Art is All Around Us
Eleanor & Francis Coppola Audio Commentary​
Eleanor Coppola’s Notes – On the Making of Apocalypse Now, reprinted exclusively for this edition
2 x posters (original and new artwork)

Bonus BD [Disc 3]

Peeling a Potato is a Work of Art (1976, Eleanor Coppola short)​
Victorian House (1976, Eleanor Coppola short)​
Joyce Goldstein (1976, Eleanor Coppola short)
Refrigerator (1976, Eleanor Coppola short)​
Coda – Eleanor Coppola introduction
Coda: Thirty Years Later (2007)
Making of Marie Antoinette (2007)​
FFC directs The Rainmaker (2007)​
On the set of CQ (2002)​
Making of The Virgin Suicides (1998)​
A Visit to China’s Miao Country (1996)​
2025 Trailer

Feels like the bonus disc might be something they drop on future pressings, seeing as a big chunk of its content has nothing to do with Hearts of Darkness.

[Steedeel]

Thought about it, and nah, I’m good with the doc on my 4K disc. This is just overkill.

[badfingerboogie]

Originally Posted by Hedrox

Huh? mind providing a bit more detail into why you say that?

The doc is 96 min and I don't think it carries any dubs.The Making of Hearts of Darkness and Eleanor Coppola: Art is All Around Us are both 2025 featurettes that come in at about an hour. So unless all those shorts were restored in 4K and presented that way, there's no reason to believe all of that can't fit on a BD100.

Interestingly, this site lists extras in a different way and claims there are more actually:



Feels like the bonus disc might be something they drop on future pressings, seeing as a big chunk of its content has nothing to do with Hearts of Darkness.

Feels like a lot of that stuff on the additional disc is basically "Coppola apocrypha" - "Oh hey, how do we add value to this?" "Well, we've got a bunch of odds and ends related to Sophia's films that haven't been released on disc ever/in ages... let's use that!"

That being said, love the film, love the doco, and it does look like a great release.

[PonyoBellanote]

Originally Posted by Hedrox

Huh? mind providing a bit more detail into why you say that?

Because, I don't understand why you'd want everything squeezed on a disc. No, I don't think you understand you could theoretically squeeze everything on the bonus disc on the 4K disc itself, but everything would be compressed, including the documentary itself, too. Like I'm not getting where this is coming from. I'd understand if your argument is that you don't wanna miss the bonus disc on later reissues, which then I'd agree with you entirely (I love bonus discs and extras) but that doesn't excuse wanting to squeeze everything hastily on one disc just to not have the issue. I'd rather the movie get properly encoded and get the most of it.

[Hedrox]

Originally Posted by PonyoBellanote

Because, I don't understand why you'd want everything squeezed on a disc. No, I don't think you understand you could theoretically squeeze everything on the bonus disc on the 4K disc itself, but everything would be compressed, including the documentary itself, too. Like I'm not getting where this is coming from. I'd understand if your argument is that you don't wanna miss the bonus disc on later reissues, which then I'd agree with you entirely (I love bonus discs and extras) but that doesn't excuse wanting to squeeze everything hastily on one disc just to not have the issue. I'd rather the movie get properly encoded and get the most of it.

It just depends on how well the encoding is, Arrow crams everything on a single disc all the time and I don't think you'd complain that anything appears overly compressed. Prince of Thieves, as a random example, is two and a half hours long, with two cuts seamlessly branched as well as over two hours of HD extras, and it's perfectly fine.

At the end of the day it's still StudioCanal, they could probably encode it at 100mbps and it still wouldn't be great.
Maybe they got FiM to do it, we'll see, but using multiple discs is not a guarantee of quality.

[PonyoBellanote]

Originally Posted by Hedrox

It just depends on how well the encoding is, Arrow crams everything on a single disc all the time and I don't think you'd complain that anything appears overly compressed. Prince of Thieves, as a random example, is two and a half hours long, with two cuts seamlessly branched as well as over two hours of HD extras, and it's perfectly fine.

At the end of the day it's still StudioCanal, they could probably encode it at 100mbps and it still wouldn't be great.
Maybe they got FiM to do it, we'll see, but using multiple discs is not a guarantee of quality.

You make good points, but personally I'd prefer if discs aren't squeezed that hard with content unless you're VERY efficient with it.

Except when it's Paramount making a 4K disc only, because then that means the extras we were missing on the european BD discs get on that 4K disc. Since it forces Paramount to have to add the extras to the disc and since they tend to make only one disc for the entire world for catalogue releases. In that case, I don't complain, but most of the times it tends to be SD content so it's nothing at all.

[GasmaskAvenger]

This is kinda a weird release but i'm totally on board with it.

[postmodel]

I can’t help but wonder if Coppola himself helped make this happen after the passing of his wife. Like a legacy love letter to her especially with all those short films.

[Rayjg]

Originally Posted by postmodel

I can’t help but wonder if Coppola himself helped make this happen after the passing of his wife. Like a legacy love letter to her especially with all those short films.

This is what I'm thinking too.

[PonyoBellanote]

I think so as well. Which is very sweet, too. We don't have a confirmation but it's very probable. I don't think Studiocanal can do this without his company's involvement anyway.

[Deciazulado]

arthaus in Germany is offering it too.

Hearts of Darkness 4K Blu-ray

[DeadDogsEye]

Can't believe we get this while the theatrical cut of the actual film is largely OOP.

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by DeadDogsEye

Can't believe we get this while the theatrical cut of the actual film is largely OOP.

Didn't Lionsgate re-release it not long ago? Okay, you can make the argument that a film as important as Apocalypse Now should always be in print (and not restricted to expensive limited editions, cough), but it's not exactly hard to get hold of. It's not like Star Wars where the last official re-release of the OG versions was agggges ago.

[Filmmaker]

Haven’t been able to get a reply from Atomic Movie Store yet on whether they’re going to carry it or not.

[DeadDogsEye]

Originally Posted by dallywhitty

Didn't Lionsgate re-release it not long ago? Okay, you can make the argument that a film as important as Apocalypse Now should always be in print (and not restricted to expensive limited editions, cough), but it's not exactly hard to get hold of. It's not like Star Wars where the last official re-release of the OG versions was agggges ago.

I just think it's a bit of travesty that the bloated final cut is becoming the default version. Even the BBC won't broadcast the original cut anymore!

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by DeadDogsEye

I just think it's a bit of travesty that the bloated final cut is becoming the default version. Even the BBC won't broadcast the original cut anymore!

I feel that. I watched the film in IMAX a few years back and while it was obviously a holy experience, that plantation scene can get in the bin.