Ebert was Right!!!

Rating: 10/10 (6 May 2002)

As a Cinema Studies major, I'm forced to constantly rely on video tapes and DVDs to study movies I have to write about in more detail. There are HUGE conveniences to these media: the ability to move forward and backwards within the film with ease, the low cost, the lack of a need to get myself a large screen and a projectionist, etc. I've always been a big lover of watching movies on the big screen for the enhanced size of the image, thus making it easier to catch small nuances in shot composition, and because of the ever increasing awe of modern sound systems. I don't think films like "Black Hawk Down" would work without massive, multidirectional audio. Well, Apocalypse Now Redux proved something further to me... film projection makes everything just look better.
When I caught the Redux at an Oberlin Film Series screening, I was absolutely FLOORED by the depth and variety of color and light at work in this film. I'll admit to not particularly liking some of the added scenes. The dialogue in the plantation sequence was VERY heavy-handed and not in the poetic manner of much of the dialogue in other parts of the film. But the images... I was drawn into the film on the pure power of seeing film as a medium in its most powerful form. From the opening explosions to the haunting sound of the Doors, to the scene of Martin Sheen rising from the mud, the film was as textured and palpable as a Van Gogh painting. I've never once had any kind of illegal substance, let alone hallucinogens in my life, but I felt out of body watching this movie. I was awestruck at the sheer power of a film's imagery. Watching this film, I fell in love with movies again. Thank you, Mr. Coppola.

10/10