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APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX Send This Review to a Friend
Everything great about Francis Ford Coppola's original release of "Apocalypse Now" is still great and the problems that existed are still basically there, but the political background has been enhanced in this revised new three hour and sixteen minute version. By inserting a previously cut section involving Martin Sheen as Captain Willard, on an assassination mission, in discussions with French plantation owners doggedly holding on during the Vietnam War, further insight is provided into the disastrous, no-win situation that the United States inherited from the French.
The spectacular re-creation of the crazy, brutal and senseless Vietnam War remains there in force, and the toll on Vietnamese and Americans alike is accentuated by the insertion of an added sexual sequence involving U.S. soldiers hungry for human contact with exploited American dancers sent to entertain the troops in the midst of garish battle surroundings. The slaughter of civilians and the crazed desire to water-surf by Robert Duvall as the combat-hardened Colonel Kilgore are chilling reminders of the horrors that took place, and the fabulous use of roaring helicopters still has a thunderous effect. The added ethereal, seductive drug-enhanced encounter on the plantation between Willard and a French woman (Aurore Clement) seems forced but does contribute further to depicting the human toll the war has taken.
"Apocalypse Now Redux" is also important to see now, whether again or for the first time. It is a needed slap in the face to the revisionists who are pressing the contention that this was an honorable war after all, made necessary by the conditions that prevailed at the time. The film can help scuttle the claims of those trying to soften the U.S. defeat and reverse the perception of what a fiasco the war was. In its way the film, if widely seen, can serve as a reminder that may help forestall future misadventures from being sold to the public.
An initial problem--and it is still there--is the blending of the Vietnam experience with the craziness of military renegade Kurtz, portrayed by Marlon Brando, who has established a murderous colony of slavish followers and is targeted for elimination by Willard. The story-line stems from the inspiration of writer Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness." The idea as applied to the film apparently is to further emphasize the lunacy of the war by showing the insanity arising from Kurtz's disillusionment--the horror of it all. It is an artistic going for broke, but I feel now as I felt originally, that everything shown about the war itself is so horrific that moving into the realm of Kurtz undercuts the rest of the film by injecting unnecessary improbabilities. Given what Kurtz has become and the support he has built, there is no way that Willard could have carried out the assassination and walked free despite Kurtz's fatalism. Frankly, the fanciful ending has an absurd quality to it no matter how brilliant the filming or the acting. I understand that it is supposed to reinforce the examination of the war on a further level, but for me at least, the section still detracts.
Such reservations aside, there is admirable greatness in Coppola's ambitious, creative and dynamic filmmaking and "Apocalypse Now," redux or otherwise, stands the test of time as a major achievement that cries out to be seen anew, and the excess is the sort that stems from an artist's vision, which must be seen and judged as a whole. Coppola should be proud of his work and has performed a fresh service in reshuffling and expanding it. A Miramax release.
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