Well it shows Coppola assholeness a bit, I'm not sure why anyone expected Hearts of Darkness to be stuffed on this yet again less-adquete dvd release. I think hes holding out because he walks into this thing:

Rear cover art has been posted.

^Classic

Will the Apocalypse Now discs be flippers? Are the transfers improved?

According to Amazon it's 2 discs (and only 14 bucks!). I can't recall Paramount ever releasing a flipper.

The back cover states "two-disc".

Kitchen sink my butt. I have and will continue to refuse to purchase this title until Hearts of Darkness is included with the film. Come on - if you're not going to include it in THIS release, why not just f-ing release it as a separate title?

It still sounds like a pretty good set. I just wish the word "complete" wasn't in the title.

So the Apocalypse Now set has been reviewed:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=22951

I'm just trying to get this straight. Instead of presenting each version of the film in its entirety on a separate disc, they've used seamless branching and split the movie to 2 discs no matter which version you want to watch? And the bonus features are also divided up between the discs? That's just about the worst disc layout I've ever heard of!

That's what it sounds like. Dumb, dumb, dumb! I'm also disappointed that the extras from the first two DVD releases are not on this "Complete" release.

And the Disc producer chimed in on the exclusion of Hearts of Darkness:

Ouch. I think I'll be skipping this edition. I don't like the wording in the review where it states that the aspect ratio has been "opened up" to 2.20:1. It's been cropped to that ratio and that's why it presents a problem. I guess the real complete dossier is still deemed classified.

Jeebus! Thanks for making up my mind to wait for the HD DVD...

Giving each version its own disc might've been preferable, but they still would have to divide the bonus features between discs -- otherwise you would have about five hours of video on one disc and that would send the bitrate through the floor. A 3-disc set probably would've been best.

I wouldn't assume the HD DVD will be any different. A dual-layer HD DVD holds roughly the same amount of video as a dual-layer DVD; it's just that one's HD (natch) and the other isn't.

Any other reviews yet for this, that more specifically detail the differences in the actual quality compared to the previous DVDs? That review linked above wasn't the most informative...I already know how great the film is.

Content looks a tad underwhelming from the review, but for 15 bucks it's certainly worth it.

I realize the aspect ratio is going be a bone of contention for practically everyone but in one of the "Technical FAQ" questions included in the bonus materials, it's laid out as to why the film isn't presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic for home video. I eyeballed the "Complete Dossier" ARs and they weren't 2.35:1, but neither were they 1.85:1 ... they sit at around 2.0:1 (I've corrected my typo), much like the two previous DVD releases. AN does look ever so slightly sharper and cleaner, but it's not the drastic, shocking visual overhaul you might expect. On the whole, it's a pretty great set, content-wise, but I know that fans are going to hate switching out discs to get to the second half of the movie, as well as accessing more bonus features. I haven't a clue why this wasn't a three-disc set, but it seems beggars can't be choosers when it comes to AN.

The previous DVDs were 2:1.

Yup, I know - I just caught my typo and have corrected my review accordingly.

Personally, I don't care what Copolla or Vittorio Storaro say about the aspect ratio now. The movie was clearly composed for 2.35:1 and looks painfully cropped on DVD.

Another problem with using seamless branching for the two versions of the movie is this means that now the theatrical cut footage is derived from the Redux color transfer. Storaro has been tinkering with this movie's colors for years, and his ideas for what Redux should look like are very different from the way the movie originally played theatrically. If you compare the original and Redux DVDs, they don't look anything like one another. The theatrical cut is much warmer, while Redux is much cooler and sterile.

However, you still say that the frame has been "opened up." It hasn't. It has been cropped down, eliminating part of the image.

Very true, but it's clear that neither Storaro or Coppola plan to release a 2.35:1 transfer of this film any time soon, since they went so far as to explain in the FAQ bonus feature why they've continually cropped the film with each DVD release ... I agree that Storaro's fixation with colors is far more distracting in ANR ... but the theatrical cut here didn't exactly look cooler, it just looked a little more saturated than its '99 version.

I'm going to hold onto my 1-disc of the original cut after reading the way they've chosen to present this set.

Same here. Although I rarely watch Redux, I will probably hold onto that version as well. The only reason I will be getting the "complete" dossier is for the extras.

Very dissapointed to hear both versions are spread out onto 2 discs especially since this was one of my most anticipated releases of the year and i dont even buy that many dvds.Maybe i will just pick up the regular version since i hadnt got around to it and mainly cuz i had been waiting on this one.

Here. I made these a while back and posted them at Home Theater Forum. I just layed the cropped video on top of the full 2.35:1 frames from the trailers the best I could. I think it demonstrates what the issue is here.