Apocalypse Now Redux: the masterpiece of epic proportion

Rating: 10/10 (29 September 2001)

Words could not adequately describe the power of experiencing Apocalypse Now Redux screened in 70mm on the gigantic screen at Jordon Commons in Sandy, Utah with the audience who drove tens of miles to attend - young and old alike. Awe-inspiring, mind-blowing, astonishing.
Apocalypse Now Redux is a vast improvement upon the original, albeit with a radically different political viewpoint. I consider myself a fan of the original (as the owner of the 1991 reissue laserdisc), but I was stunned by the "restored" version. There are footages that are legendary for being missing from the original, most famously the French plantation sequence (which, before the re-release, could only be seen in the making-of documentary Hearts of Darkness). The wait is worth 22 years for the re-release. Francis Ford Coppola commissioned his last great film in the restored, expanded and remastered version because the viewers of Apocalypse Now 5-hour bootleg video wrote the letters requesting restoration. The result is Mr. Coppola giving back to the cinema fans as a compliment. Without film lovers' enthusiastic support, the re-edited and restored re-release wouldn't be possible and the lost footages would stay missing in the vault.
The film exemplifies the madness of war and violence. Francis said regarding the underlying metaphor of war and insanity in the film at a press conference at Cannes 1979: "It is NOT about Vietnam War. It IS Vietnam War". That's well said by watching the horror of the war and madness in Apocalypse Now Redux and Terrence Malick's (equally flawed as the original theatrical cut of Apocalypse Now) World War II film The Thin Red Line.
It's worth the time and energy watching the 3 1/4 hour film. Apocalypse Now Redux is quite possibly one of the greatest films ever made, but that's my opinion. I hope the film gets nominated again for the Oscars.
I give my gratitude to Francis Ford Coppola, Bob Weinstein and the Redux restoration crew for the masterpiece that will remain undelible in the epic proportion of vision, sound and politics in the history of film for years.