{"id":45071,"date":"2024-09-27T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T12:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=45071"},"modified":"2024-09-26T20:09:05","modified_gmt":"2024-09-27T00:09:05","slug":"the-bootleg-files-the-apocalypse-now-workprint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2024\/09\/27\/the-bootleg-files-the-apocalypse-now-workprint\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: The Apocalypse Now Workprint"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 880: <\/strong>\u201cThe Apocalypse Now Workprint\u201d (five-hour version of Francis Ford Coppola\u2019s 1979 classic). <\/p>\n

LAST SEEN:<\/strong> On Internet Archive and YouTube. <\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> None.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: <\/strong>Coppola doesn\u2019t want this to be commercially released.<\/p>\n

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> Nope.<\/p>\n

I have a confession to make: I never liked \u201cApocalypse Now.\u201d I\u2019ve seen it several times, and with each new viewing I wished that my indifference to the film would be replaced with a sudden awakening of belated appreciation. I was hopeful that the longer \u201cApocalypse Now Redux\u201d would trigger a positive response, but I found that more annoying than the original.
\n<\/p>\n

More recently, I watched the five-hour workprint version of the film that\u2019s been floating around bootleg video channels for years. In concept, this should have been the most annoying version for me \u2013 but, incredibly, this was the version I came to love. I freely admit this makes no sense, as the copies of this version have a terrible visual quality \u2013 third-generation video dupes, some with annoying time codes \u2013 and the sound quality often feels like the movie was recorded from a speaker phone.<\/p>\n

Even more baffling is why I would embrace a much, much longer version of \u201cApocalypse Now.\u201d After all, the content of the workprint is sprawling and sloppy, with scenes that drag on for too long and other scenes that feel pointless. But that\u2019s the beauty of the workprint version. Francis Ford Coppola intended \u201cApocalypse Now\u201d as an epic, but it is only in the five-hour workprint that there is a genuine sense of an epic achievement. It is a chaotic, overwhelming, maddening portrait of conflicted souls thrown into a maelstrom of brutality and stupidity. In its bloated imperfection, the scruffy workprint comes closer to the full horror of the Vietnam War than the polished theatrical versions of Coppola\u2019s production.<\/p>\n

From a filmmaking perspective, one can appreciate how Coppola decided to edit his work. The sequences here are much longer than what audiences saw. But in some cases, such as the opening montage and the “Ride of Valkyrie” attack scene, the extended workprint sequences are more thrilling and devastating in how they were conceived and executed. <\/p>\n

The workprint version also gives more time to experience Marlon Brando\u2019s Kurtz and Dennis Hopper\u2019s photojournalist. When the film came out in 1979, almost every critic panned Brando\u2019s performance and character \u2013 I think Time Magazine referred to him as \u201cMarlon Buddha.\u201d In the workprint, Brando\u2019s Kurtz is not a mad mystical being but a more fully-textured and complex individual. And Hopper\u2019s character has a deeper connection to the film\u2019s climax \u2013 he\u2019s not just a motormouthed gadfly, but someone who plays an integral part in the connection between Kurtz and Martin Sheen\u2019s Willard. I always felt that Brando and Hopper lacked dimension in the commercially available versions \u2013 in the workprint, they were characters, not caricatures.<\/p>\n

There is also Scott Glenn\u2019s character of Colby, who has a significant part in the workprint compared to the fleeting presence in the commercially released versions. Colby\u2019s near-disappearance from the commercially released versions is a credit to Coppola\u2019s editing and storytelling skills, but in the workprint Glenn\u2019s performance is solid and it would have been a strong counterbalance to the excesses from Brando and Hopper\u2019s heavily dramatic performances.<\/p>\n

The workprint is missing Carmine Coppola\u2019s score, although I can\u2019t say that I was sad for its absence. It also carries muffled dialogue in some of the noisier and frenetic segments, but that\u2019s fine since no one goes through a war zone hearing every syllable spoken clearly.<\/p>\n

It is easy to understand why Coppola scissored \u201cApocalypse Now\u201d down from his five-hour workprint \u2013 he shot enough footage for two films and he needed to put forth something that United Artists would release as a commercially viable offering. <\/p>\n

I assume that Coppola still has the original copy of the workprint, but to date he will not release it. I believe the best version of the bootlegged workprint is the multi-chapter posting on the Internet Archive<\/a><\/strong>. Seriously, set aside five hours to enjoy it \u2013 in viewing the workprint, one can truly appreciate what Coppola set out to achieve.<\/p>\n

IMPORTANT NOTICE: While this weekly column acknowledges the presence of rare film and television productions through the so-called collector-to-collector market, this should not be seen as encouraging or condoning the unauthorized duplication and distribution of copyright-protected material, either through DVDs or Blu-ray discs or through postings on Internet video sites.<\/p>\n

Listen to Phil Hall\u2019s award-winning podcast \u201cThe Online Movie Show with Phil Hall<\/a>\u201d on SoundCloud and his radio show \u201cNutmeg Chatter<\/a>\u201d on WAPJ-FM in Torrington, Connecticut, with a new episode every Sunday. His new book \u201c100 Years of Wall Street Crooks<\/a>\u201d is now in release through Bicep Books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 880: \u201cThe Apocalypse Now Workprint\u201d (five-hour version of Francis Ford Coppola\u2019s 1979 classic). LAST SEEN: On Internet Archive and YouTube. AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None. REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Coppola doesn\u2019t want this to be commercially released. CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Nope. I have a confession to make: I never liked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":45072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1513],"tags":[3465,3467,1296,1445,3468,2965,1159,3466],"class_list":["post-45071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bootleg-files","tag-apocalypse-now","tag-dennis-hopper","tag-francis-ford-coppola","tag-marlon-brando","tag-martin-sheen","tag-scott-glenn","tag-vietnam-war","tag-workprint"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45071"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45078,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45071\/revisions\/45078"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}