Redux was necessary to tell entire story

Rating: 10/10 (7 December 2006)

I believe most if not all the extra scenes Coppola added were needed in Apocalypse Now Redux. Each scene I believe tells an important truth about life, death, and the horrors of war. The playboy camp is important, and it does not interfere with the the main story. The engine of the boat is broken, so they have to stop for a while to fix it. At that point, Willard makes the decision to trade fuel for sex. This is not out of Willard's character, because he seems rather charitable throughout most of the story. The scene between Lance and Chef with the girls is important because the viewer becomes those characters, and the scene itself is a game in which the girls are saying something important about exploitation, yet their naked bodies distract the viewer from this important enlightenment, just like Lance and Chef are oblivious to the same fact.
The french plantation is also important because it helps give the view of the Vietnam war from the perspective of a neutral party not involved in the war. The scene with Willard and the french woman was implored to somewhat help Willard find out who he really is on the inside. Which also explains why he's nice and brutal at the same time.
The Scene where Kurtz is reading Time magazine to Willard is meant to show the fallacy of propaganda. Despite the terrible outcome of the Vietnam War, the paper media was rather hesitant to show that. It is also parallel to today's ongoing war in Iraq, where there is a conflict between what is actually happening, and what is being told to the people what is happening.
Over all, Apocalypse Now is a story about how and why we lost the War. It is also a story about going down the river of life, and stopping at the horrors and happiness along the way. The entire movie is a metaphor and the movie itself it filled to the brim with philosophical lessons about life.