Apocalypse Now Redux

Rating: 10/10 (19 February 2002)

Francis Ford Coppola has taken a very good film and turned it into a great one. Adding nearly one hour of footage, Coppola turns up the insanity level, focusing not as much on the political commentary as on the surrealism of both Vietnam and his project. There's a greater emphasis on women this time around and Coppola's approach is surprisingly sympathetic: the USO Playmates have been driven mad by their surroundings (their pathetic sexual encounters take place at a forlorn, muddy outpost in a driving rainstorm) and Aurore Clement appears to the main character, Captain Willard (Martin Sheen), as an angel of mercy (in perhaps the most astonishing section, a lengthy visit to a hidden French plantation). The scenes concerning Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) have been fleshed out somewhat but remain ambiguous and calmly ruminative, welcome and almost another movie in itself. Still, it's in the journey that Willard undertakes where most of the value can be found and Coppola's identification with the vivid dreamscapes make this a harrowing personal vision that lingers long after the film is over.