The Tribeca Film Festival is starting this weekend, the big event is, of course, a showing of the 4K “Apocalypse Now: Final Cut,” with Francis Ford Coppola in attendance. As Jeffrey Wells just pointed out on Hollywood-Elsewhere, the runtime of this new cut has been changed on Tribeca’s official site, drastically might I add, from the original 147 minutes to now a much heavier 183 minutes. WTF!?
TFF spokesperson Tammie Rosen informed Wells that “we had the wrong time on the site, but once we received the final forms we updated. No different than any other film. Simple as that.”
Wells goes on by quoting a trust-worthy source who told him that at: “183 minutes means Final Cut is 19 minutes shorter than the 202-minute “Apocalypse Now: Redux” and 36 minutes longer than the original 70mm Ziegfeld version that ran 147 minutes. So Final Cut will include the French plantation sequence — just not as much. And the rescuing the Playboy bunnies sequence — just not as much. And so on.”
Hm. I’ve long maintained that this latest version of Coppola’s masterpiece, which seems unnecesary on-paper, might be an excuse for him to start flexing his muscles again because he is about to embark on his first big studio venture since 1997’s “The Rainmaker” by finally shooting “Megalopolis” later this year, at least that’s what he announced earlier this month.
Coppola’s film will celebrate its 40th Anniversary at the Festival. It is, in my opinion, one of the 10 greatest movies ever made.