Once OK, Redux is brilliant

Rating: 10/10 (21 July 2002)

I didn't care for Apocalypse Now (1979) when I first saw it. Too anti-American and simple-minded concerning the Vietnamese War, I thought. Something compelled me to see the re-edited and lengthened version, Apocalypse Now/Redux (2001), however, and I'm very glad I did.
Apocaplyse Now is the story of Captain Willard (Martin Sheen), who we first meet as a tightly wound Army intelligence agent awaiting a new assignment in Saigon in 1968. He is sent on a mission to find and assassinate a Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who is holed up in a compound upriver just over the Vietnamese border in Cambodia, waging his own war. It is assumed that Kurtz has gone insane.
Willard takes a small but interesting crew along: Chief (Sam Bottoms), Chef (Frederic Forrest), Lance (a famous California surfer dude), and Clean (Laurence Fishburn). Battles and boredom beset them, and as they travel the outposts of civilization become less and less civilized, as do they. Kurtz's domain is the paradoxical archetype of this anarchic hell.
The major plot differences from the original movie include a salacious visit with some Playboy bunnies sent to entertain the troops and a visit to a French plantation, stubbornly holding on to the colonial ways.
The new movie is stunning from a visual and sound aspect. Small segments have been added to bring out the characters more fully. Scenes like the famous helicopter assault on a small village, led by a testosterone fueled Col. Kilgore (Robert Duvall), still have power but seem more balanced in the overall content of the film.
Despite it's 3-1/2-hour length, I was mesmerized throughout. This, finally, is the film Francis Ford Coppola meant to make.
Apocalyse Now/Redux (2001) - 10/10