DVD details for
Apocalypse Now (1979) More at IMDbPro »

(1979/2001) Drawing from Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” Francis Ford Coppola turns Vietnam into a war as drug-addled theme park ride: Pirates of the South Seas with real tigers, exploding sets, and a bald, bloated, philosophy spouting Disney who’d as soon cut your throat as talk to you. This 2-disc set features both Coppola's original 2 ½ hour version released in 1979 and the 2001 Apocalypse Now Redux, recut and expanded by 50 minutes by Coppola and editor/sound designer Walter Murch. Martin Sheen stars with Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, and Laurence Fishburne as his shipmates. Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper have memorable scenes and Marlon Brando is the enigmatic Kurtz.

Michel Hafner (15 January 2002):
The legendary Apocalypse Now (1979) is available on DVD in two versions so far. The original cut and the new longer director's cut. The transfers are not the same.
The film master used is in both cases very clean and steady.
Contrast rendition is pretty much the same for both versions and good.
Color rendition is better on the new DVD. Colors are more saturated and more neutral. The old version has a yellowish cast that's missing on the new version. Some scenes have pretty different colors suggesting that the new transfer has been completely retimed from the originals and the look was changed on purpose. The DVD does not say if the transfer used one of the new dye transfer prints or not, but the result looks very good.
Image sharpness is good but here a difference to today's films is clearly visible. The crisp images of a contemporary film from a top transfer are not available. The longer version is a bit sharper.
The noise and grain level is quite high on the old DVD, but considerably less so on the new where it's hardly ever distracting.
Video artifacts in the form of edge enhancement are on both versions, on the old more pronounced than on the new.
Compression is good.
Image composition is the same except that the old DVD has the image somewhat panned to the left so there's more picture on the right and less on the left.
The new version looks clearly better than the old version, the reduced grain level and improved color are quite noticeable.
It's the preferred version to buy on DVD.
The DD 5.1 sound is excellent, the helicopter attack demonstration material.

Michel Hafner (14 January 2002):
See review for longer version (Redux).