Shit, still in Saigon.

December 23, 2006 10:50 AM

Who holds copyright to Hearts of Darkness^, and why did they block inclusion of the documentary in the recently-released Apocalypse Now: The Complete Dossier DVD set?
posted by mwhybark to media & arts (10 comments total)

Why do you say its inclusion was "blocked"? What makes you think the producers of the DVD set sought to have it included?
posted by jjg at 10:56 AM on December 23, 2006

That's what the notes in the package say.
posted by mwhybark at 11:29 AM on December 23, 2006

Hearts of Darkness is an excellent film. I, too, wish it was included in The Complete Dossier. Thankfully I do have a VHS version which I watch every few months. Maybe a DVD version is in the works. Not an answer to your question, but hopeful speculation.

Oh, and regarding the ^, I thought everyone signed off on my definitive list in MeTa. No? OK, sorry. :)
posted by The Deej at 12:53 PM on December 23, 2006

Noted, Deej. Will deploy in future.
posted by mwhybark at 1:01 PM on December 23, 2006

Here's what Coppola had to say when the disc was coming out. I'd definitely be interested to see the doc with a Coppola commentary, so long as it was released uncut.
posted by Nathaniel W at 1:23 PM on December 23, 2006

Upon poking around a bit more, it looks like here is a thread on IMDB where co-director George Hickenlooper weighs in on the difficulties getting the doc released now. Outside of whatever issues there are with Coppola's involvement, I'd suspect that any rights issues would just be working out something satisfactory between the producers of the film (looks like that's Showtime) and whoever's got the video rights (Paramount?).
posted by Nathaniel W at 1:36 PM on December 23, 2006

Dag, that was what i was kinda feared of.
posted by mwhybark at 2:17 PM on December 23, 2006

Sort of off-topic, but I didn't know until now that my well-maintained VHS copy is worth a pretty penny. Thanks for bringing up the subject.
posted by solid-one-love at 2:53 PM on December 23, 2006

Very late to thread, but I downloaded a good copy of Hearts of Darkness from Usenet recently and I imagine it's available on some of the P2P apps as well. The release title (to search on) is "Hearts.of.Darkness.NTSC.by.TiT0" and the following is an extract from the .nfo file of that release:

The movie was never available on DVD... it exists only in out-of-print VHS editions, as well as an elusive LD version. Legal entanglements apparently prevent an official DVD release.

We are proud to present you with a digitally-cleaned and remastered DVD made from a LD transfer, enhanced by the addition of an EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY track by our media critic Piter de Vries, offering additional insights into the making of what remains the most haunting Vietnam War film ever made by an American artist. "Hearts" may be the best behind-the-scenes documentary, ever.
posted by Onanist at 7:37 AM on December 26, 2006

I found this interesting in Nathaniel W's posted link: "(Coppola) also mentioned that not everything in the documentary was accurate or fair to him; some of the footage was taken out of context. He wished that he could do a commentary track on the documentary to correct the misimpressions."

It's odd because even though his wife is not listed as a writer or director, she narrated it, and filmed much, if not most of it. I always thought that something his wife had so much involvement in would be pretty accurate.

In any case, it is an excellent film. If you can find a VHS copy, snap it up. I'll have to dust off my copy and watch it this week.
posted by The Deej at 10:13 AM on December 26, 2006