Apocalypse Now Redux on Bravo

[SilasSoule]

Directors cut with an hour of extra footage.

Apocalypse Now Redux
205 mins.

One of the best war movies ever made is now even better with the addition of nearly an hour of new footage in this 2001 director's cut.

Here's where I'll be for the next three hours.

[DrWeird]

1. A great film.

Fans of the original say the new footage bogs it down. Redux is the only version I've seen and it's one of my all time favorite movies.

I can clearly remember wanting to rent the original and my mom not letting me.

[CanuckAmok]

2. I remember a few years ago...

Film Threat magazine got ahold of the original scropt pages for the deleted scenes. They published a synopsis of the missing scenes years before "Redux" was released. I was so excited to see them, and even joined the letter writing campaign to have them released.

But...after seeing them, I can see why Coppola deleted them. They don't fit. Whether that's a result of being 'used' to the original version, or because they don't work thematically, is something I don't know, but I am not a fan for "Redux".

Just my $0.02

[fairfaxvadem]

3. the movie fascinates me, period....

I've seen the original countless times and have the director's cut on DVD, and either way, I just get sucked in from the first minute...

It's brilliant. Makes me sad and anxious too.

[_Wayne_]

4. BOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRINNNNNNNGGGGGG

The theatrical version was long enough, and required a specific cinematic taste to appreciate the film. Now, with an extended DVD version, it's a dreadful experience all around- one of the worst "added scenes" movie I've ever seen.

[BigDaddyLove]

8. I agree............

I could never get into that film, though I really wish I was able to.

[mitchum]

5. I prefer the editor's cut to the director's cut

the extra footage does bog the movie down

[Journeyman]

6. The book was better. . .

but what's new? Movies rarely match the power or subtlety of the written word, especially when they change the book's era, locale, and intent.

[hellhathnofury]

7. All of the extra footage bog's it down except the French plantation scene.

That gives some political commentary and is good at giving some historical context. The other thing the French scence does is make the role of women more central in the film. In Conrad's Heart of Darkness the women characters are extremely important.

[Impeach_Bush]

9. Extra footage bogs it down

Not the greatest flick anyway, I prefer "The Deer Hunter" or "The Killing fields" for a Vietman War-era movie.

[TexasMexican]

10. I prefer Redux.

[Kamika]

11. I also think the original was better

The only good new scene was the french plantation, the other scenes makes the movie "happier". The orig cut was MUCH darker.


You know there's a TOTALLY uncut movie out there where dennis hopper gets shot?

And when Martin Sheen is going to Marlon to kill him a guard tries to stop him and they fight, the guard takes a small girl as protection and Martin klls the guard with his knife THROUGH the small girl.

Now those are scenes I'd like to see.

Anyway Redux is awesome aswell.

[Intelsucks]

12. I liked 'Redux' as well... I was only 10 when the original was released.

I'm indifferent about the extra footage, because I can hardly remember the original version. In my opinion, the French plantation scene was long and worthless. It is the first scene I would scrap if it were up to me.

I love the narratives by Martin Sheen in this movie. I think that is a major ingredient of what makes this an outstanding film.



...Oh, yeah... One more thing...



"CHARLIE DON'T SURF!"

[tishaLA]

13. You're an errand boy

sent by grocery clerks. To collect a bill.

I adore Redux. I can't believe some prefer the original: redux seems much darker, more complex, and brazen than the original to me.

Some day, I hope to be able to sit down and watch Apocalypse Now (original), then Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypise, then Apocalypse Now Redux in succession.

[CanuckAmok]

14. "They pay young men to drop fire on people...

...but they won't let them write "FUCK" on their aeroplanes, because it's obscene"

Whew, great script. Even Brando's unscripted rambling is incredible.

[Kamika]

15. hardly darker

Charlie, steals the surf board.. buys his men those playboy bunnies.. (which makes him very human)


The original made him out to be very dark

[CanuckAmok]

16. I agree. that's one of the things I don't like about Redux.

Too much comedy relief, and too much humanizing Willard. It messes with the pace. As the PBR heads up river, drawing Willard into Kurtz, he's supposed to become less human. The plantation is a blip in his slow degenration--it shouldn't be there.

[Intelsucks]

17. Outstanding! We'll get you a case of beer for that one.

on edit: case, not 12 pack!

[Kamika]

18. I thought the plantation fit pretty well

He seems very degenerated smoking that opium

[tishaLA]

20. It's funny cause I think

trafficing in women--hiring the bunnies as whores and the guys having them play dress-up--makes Sheen's character, especially, less human. The exchange is for gas, IIRC, and it's an uterly dehumanmizing statement to think of women and gasoline as equally fungible products. JMHO.

[Intelsucks]

21. If I recall correctly, Sheen was propositioned because they needed

gasoline. Remember when he was called into the tent? The way I see it, they didn't hire the bunnies, the bunnies were sold, and Sheen obliged the offer.

[jmowreader]

22. I didn't much like the surfboard stealing scene

For my money, my two favorite players were LTC Kilgore and Chef.

Chef was probably too human to be in Vietnam, and especially as a brownwater sailor. He was raised to be a saucier, joined the Navy to work as a messman and transferred to engineman after he learned a famous Navy cooking technique: boiling prime beef.

Kilgore we all know about: the cavalry squadron commander who finished operations early so he and his troops could surf. Just the disappointment he felt after losing the opportunity to surf with the champion surfer Lance Johnson was enough; I felt that his losing his favorite surfboard was adding insult to injury. I felt bad for the guy.

[CanuckAmok]

23. Symbolism of the PBR crew in Apocalypse now:

Mr. Clean. "from some South Bronx shithole". He traveled all the way to Vietnam just to be gunned-down, South Bronx style. No escape from his destiny.

Chief. The civilized Black man. All his struggle, through educating himself and suffering the hardship of attending a military college in the 60s, rising to the level of the 'white man', only to be killed by a spear, just as he would have been in Africa, a thousand years earlier.

Chef. The man who wanted to avoid conflict at all costs, who "only wanted to fuckin' cook". Didn't want to use his head, so he loses it.

Lance. He doesn't die, but he fries his mind on halucenogens. The all-American youth, lost forever. His transformation represents the US's evolution through the 60s, and the disillusionment with the 'reality' of the Vietnam War era

[m-jean03]

19. I've been trying to watch it this afternoon...

But it hurt way too much ..so I give up. Maybe I'm too sensitive for my own good, but every muscle in my body felt tense from wanting to run away. I can't imagine how people could have sat through it in the _cinema_ no less.
Ouch. Way too sad for this girl.