FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA’S exhilarating masterpiece returns to the big screen this month in all its cinematic glory with a striking 4K, Dolby Atmos©, Dolby Vision © version. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Oscar-winning Vietnam cult war epic, Gravel Road Distribution Group will release a special, never-before-seen cut, restored with breathtaking realism by Coppola himself, to the highest and finest audio and visual standards, for a truly visceral cinematic experience.
Forty years after its original release, South African audiences will get the chance to experience Apocalypse Now: Final Cut, a never-before-seen and newly restored cut of Coppola’s spectacular cinematic masterpiece in a way which the director believes “looks better than it has ever looked and sounds better than it has ever sounded”. Coppola said he is “thrilled beyond measure to present the best version of the film to the world.”
Restored from the original negative for the first time, Apocalypse Now: Final Cut is Coppola’s most complete version of his multi-awarded classic, a haunting journey into madness that fascinated generations of movie lovers and now feels even more monumentally alive than ever before. Ranked as one of the best films of all time, the film stars Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Albert Hall, Laurence Fishburne, Harrison Ford, G.D. Spradlin, Dennis Hopper, Sam Bottoms and Frederic Forrest.
The film follows Army Captain Willard (Sheen), a troubled man sent on a dangerous and mesmerising odyssey into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade American colonel named Kurtz (Brando), who has succumbed to the horrors of war and barricaded himself in a remote outpost.
Apocalypse Now was nominated for eight Academy Awards® (including Best Picture) and won two Academy Awards® for Best Cinematography and Best Sound, two BAFTAs for Best Direction and Best Supporting Actor, and the Palme d’Or in Cannes.
The best visual and sound technologies have been used to present Coppola’s true vision of the film: one that delivers deep, visceral visual and auditory impact. “The audience will be able to see, hear and feel this film how I always hoped it could be—from the first ‘bang’ to the final whimper,” said Coppola.
This is the first time the original negative have been scanned and more than 11 months and 2 700 hours were spent on cleaning and restoring the film’s 300 173 frames. The Apocalypse Now: Final Cut restoration has been brought to life through ultra-vivid picture quality with Dolby Vision®, delivering spectacular colours, with highlights up to 40 times brighter, and blacks 10 times darker.
Apocalypse Now Final Cut has been mixed in Dolby Atmos® to offer a truly immersive sound experience and it has been enhanced Meyer Sound Laboratories’ newly developed Sensual SoundTM, a technology engineered to output audio below the limits of human hearing.
It will release in all seven IMAX theatres in Gauteng, Western Cape and Kwa-Zulu Natal, from August 23, 2019.