Walter Murch, who won an Oscar for the ground-breaking sound editing of “Apocalypse Now” (he was also nominated for film editing) says Francis Ford Coppola originally wanted to film his Vietnam war epic in 3-D and Sensurround.
“He wanted to have it shown only in specially giant built theater in the center of the country, sort of like they eventually did with IMAX,” Murch recalls. “He wanted it to be this kind of Mount Rushmore-like attraction with people shaking in their seats that would run there for 20 years.”
That wasn’t practical in 1979, but Murch later collaborated with Coppola on “Captain EO,” a 3-D short with Michael Jackson that was shown at Disney theme parks beginning in 1986 and well into the 1990s. It was revived earlier this year.
Murch pioneered what is now known as the 5.1 sound format for “Apocalypse Now” — “WE audiences to feel immersed in the war, to feel the helicopters and explosions as well as hear them. It didn’t catch on until the early ’90s, when it became possible to put a digital soundtrack on the film.”
The first sound editor who described himself as a sound designer, Murch developed the film editing theory that “you can only change your camera position 14 times a minute. Any more than that and you lose the audience.”
Murch qualifies that this doesn’t apply to 3-D films, “where instead of your eyes focusing on the plane of the screen, which may be 100 feet away, you’re focusing on objects five feet in front of you or 50 feet behind the screen. This is something audiences have never had to deal with before. Your brain has to go into overdrive, and you can come out with a big headache.”
Now that it’s possible to convert an existing film into 3-D, does Murch think Coppola — who issued a longer cut that was called “Apocalypse Redux” — will offer a stereoscopic version as well? “Knowing Francis, I don’t think it will happen,” he says with a laugh.
Murch is very happy that “Apocalypse” is being issued today by Lionsgate in a beautiful Blu-ray edition — including both versions — presented in the originally theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 instead of the tighter 2.1 crop used for the earlier Paramount DVD.
The film is available in two and three-disc sets, both including a new conversation between Coppola and Martin Sheen, who replace Harvey Keitel as the film’s leading role as well as many features ported over from the previous DVD edition. The three-disc “Full Disclosure” edition includes the feature length documentary “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse” and 48-page booklet.
Also making its Blu-ray debut today in a pristine high-definition transfer is Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho.” The most notable difference is the newly constructed stereo soundtrack, which I wrote about when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this year. I also wrote about the film’s importance on the occasion of its 50th anniversary back in June.
The Blu-ray edition ports over the copious special features from the two-disc special DVD edition; the only notable addition is a featurette on the soundtrack.
It’s clear in the high-def transfer that “Psycho” was a low-budget production, quickly shot entirely on the Universal lot (except for the car-dealer sequence). In his effort to make a quality low-budget film with the crew from his TV show, Hitchcock focused on the famous shower scene, the opening aerial shot and detective Martin Balsam’s famous fall down the stairs. The Blu-ray is so sharp that you can see Balsam is wearing makeup in some shots.
William McGann’s legendary mystery-comedy “Sh! The Octopus” (1937) with Hugh Herbert and Allen Jenkins is one of six B movies from the ’30s and ’40s collected in “WB Horror Mystery Double Features,” a set debuting tomorrow at the manufacture-on-demand Warner Archive Collection.
As part of its copious Halloween offerings that will be discounted through the end of the month, the archive will offer the DVD debuts of six Lon Chaney Sr.: “The Unholy Three” (1925 silent and 1930 talkie remake), “The Monster,” “He Who Gets Slapped,” “Mr. Wu” and one I’ve never heard of that sounds fascinating — “Mockery,” a Russian Revolution drama directed by Swedish director Benjamin Christensen (“Haxan”) and co-starring Ricardo Cortez. They are available for pre-order individually or as a discounted set.
