REDUX reward ! !

Rating: 10/10 (17 August 2001)

I was amazed at just how good the new footage was. Premiering at Cannes early in 2001, Coppola introduced us to a three hour plus version entitled 'Apocalypse Now Redux'. I wasn't disappointed with any of it and actually prefer the new footage added to the old version. It basically gives us a more towering introduction to Kilgore's character, his surfing antics gone awry, the mission boat's passengers meeting up with the Playboy bunnies later on down the river when their helicopter runs out of fuel and a scene of war politics discussed at a French plantation where Willard and his men land. Little extra pieces appear at other points as well and 'Apocalypse Now', the most surreal film about Vietnam ever made, shows that with the problems that plagued its production, it probably turned out better since the people involved in the production went through hell, just as the men who fought there did. Truly one of the top five war films of the 20th century.