Seattle cinephiles are about to be spoiled.

This month, Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam War opus Apocalypse Now is getting a wide release of a new definitive cut, Apocalypse Now Final Cut, timed with the film's 40th anniversary.

Days after that opens, Seattle's newest cinema the Beacon will screen The Virgin Suicides, the feature-length directing debut from Sofia Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola's daughter. While it's not as explicitly gory as her father's tragedy porn, The Virgin Suicides will screen as part of the Beacon's August programming on the "unburied violence of suburbia" (along with John Waters's Serial Mom and Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist).

Sofia's suburbia is a distant world from Francis's Vietnam War, but there's one thing that stands out to me when it comes to both Apocalypse Now and The Virgin Suicides: the sound.

It's difficult to think about The Virgin Suicides without considering the French band Air. The band's sexy, chilled-out, down-tempo score to Virgin Suicides is arguably the best part of the film. Often appearing when tragedy occurs, the spacey, solemn music estranges the viewer from the film's violence. When a little girl is dramatically impaled early on, Air kicks in with its moodiness, softly protecting viewers from the gore. It's music for dysphoria. My partner describes the score as feeling like an antidepressant.

Also of note: The Virgin Suicide's sound design. As the film's gang of boys flips through the pages of the girls' diaries, trying to learn more about them after their suicides, the rustling of the pages seems to thunder. It's like ASMR for books. I've always loved this detail. It's as if the girls' words are literally heavy. And maybe they are.

Apocalypse Now is also interested in sound. It won the Academy Award for Best Sound Design when it was originally released in 1979.

Its opening scene immediately sets up the lush sound design: We start off looking at a silent, tropical field. Then comes the distant whir of choppers. Then a tambourine. Slowly, "The End" by the Doors edges into clarity. The noise of the choppers builds alongside the vocals of Jim Morrison. They crash on top of each other as the viewer watches a field in Vietnam get bombed. The screen sets on fire, then Morrison's voice sings: "This is the end." And it really feels like it.

Apocalypse Now Final Cut, along with being remastered in 4K Ultra HD, has made its sound even more impressive. In collaboration with Meyer Sound Laboratories, Coppola's film company American Zoetrope has developed what they're calling "Sensual Sound."

Hailed as a "breakthrough" by Meyer Sound, Sensual Sound creates an infrasonic, ultra-low frequency impact that hits audiences in the gut. It apparently emits noises that reach viewers on a deeper physical level, making Apocalypse Now's helicopters, spears, and bombs feel like an immediate threat.

All these details—the Sensual Sound, Air's soundtrack, the rustle of the girls' diaries—deserve to be heard and felt in a theater. You'll feel those choppers before you even hear them. It sounds like artistic sonic warfare.