Apocalypse Now - Home Video Release Aspect Ratio Issues

Home Video Release Aspect Ratio Issues

The first home video releases of Apocalypse Now were pan-and-scan versions of the original 35 mm Technovision anamorphic 2.35:1 print, and the closing credits, white on black background, were presented in compressed 1.33:1 full-frame format to allow all credit information to be seen on standard televisions. The first letterboxed appearance (on laserdisc on December 29, 1991) cropped the film to a 2:1 aspect ratio (conforming to the Univisium spec created by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro), featuring a small degree of pan-and-scan processing — notably in the opening shots in Willard's hotel room, featuring a composite montage — at the insistence of Coppola and Storaro. The end credits, from a videotape source rather than a film print, were still crushed for 1.33:1 and zoomed to fit the anamorphic video frame. All DVD releases have maintained this aspect ratio in anamorphic widescreen, but present the film without the end credits, which were treated as a separate feature. As a DVD extra, the footage of the explosion of the Kurtz compound was featured without text credits but included a commentary by director Coppola explaining the various endings based on how the film was screened. On the cover of the Redux DVD, Willard is erroneously listed as "Lieutenant Willard". The Blu-ray releases of Apocalypse Now restore the film to a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, making it the first home video release to display the film in effectively its true aspect ratio; the theatrical release had an aspect ratio of 2.39:1.

Read more about this topic:  Apocalypse Now

Famous quotes containing the words home, video, release, aspect, ratio and/or issues:

    Huw: Bron, would you have me to live in this house, and have my wages?
    Bronwen: Your home is with your mother.
    Huw: It was she who sent me.
    Bronwen: From pity.
    Huw: No, from sense. If you put clothes on night and morning, let them be my clothes.
    Bronwen: Good old man.
    Philip Dunne (1908–1992)

    These people figured video was the Lord’s preferred means of communicating, the screen itself a kind of perpetually burning bush. “He’s in the de-tails,” Sublett had said once. “You gotta watch for Him close.”
    William Gibson (b. 1948)

    Come, thou long-expected Jesus,
    born to set thy people free;
    from our fears and sins release us,
    let us find our rest in thee.
    Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

    Cleopatra’s nose: had it been shorter, the whole aspect of the world would have been altered.
    Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)

    Official dignity tends to increase in inverse ratio to the importance of the country in which the office is held.
    Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)

    The “universal moments” of child rearing are in fact nothing less than a confrontation with the most basic problems of living in society: a facing through one’s children of all the conflicts inherent in human relationships, a clarification of issues that were unresolved in one’s own growing up. The experience of child rearing not only can strengthen one as an individual but also presents the opportunity to shape human relationships of the future.
    Elaine Heffner (20th century)