There is no bigger artistic roll of the dice.

Rating: Null/10 (31 August 2002)

I've made it a point to watch this film every seven or eight years
since it came out. I was all of twelve the first time around. Just tonight I was treated to the Redux.
What a humongous scope! To coherently cram this many resources in such an unforgiving environment is a testament to
Coppola's crazed ego, stubborness and sheer flawed brilliance. No major studio today would touch this material with a ten foot
pole. It would be watered down beyond recognition, to ensure
some targeted blah blah segments blah blah demographic.
About the Redux: Every single restored scene adds, as opposed to distracts.
Certain plot gaps, little ones, are now fulfilled. I don't mind
watching this film for an extra hour, nor do I mind a discourse from
the french perspective of Indochina, over a good dinner and wine. And thank you, Coppola, for jettisoning your alternate mom-and- apple-pie ending.
But one thing I find unforgivable every single time around, and that
is the slaughter of the cow. No sentient animal should EVER be
killed or made to suffer for art's sake, in the same way that
bullfighting goes against my every single principle. Yet bullfighting exists against my will, and Apocalypse Now makes
me face that fact head-on, as a member of the human race, of
which I am often dismayed. Most probably this is a reflection of Coppola's disintegrating sanity
approaching the end of filming. Apocalypse Now reflects the
same madness and hell that both cast and crew endured during
filming. One and the same skewed sense of integrity that flaws
this film so deeply but also makes it one of the monoliths by which
twentieth century filmmaking will be regarded. Forever.