More to watch, but not more to experience

Rating: Null/10 (29 December 2002)

This is a review of the DVD version of 'Apocalypse Now Redux', but there's not much added to the DVD of any consequence . The movie has a peculiar balance with the mayhem of the first half set against the almost spiritual journey of the second, but Willard is even at the start having some psychological difficulty with fighting the war so there is unity overall. (Even the stress of making the movie gave Martin Sheen a heart attack.) Coppola certainly succeeded in making an anti-war movie; there is little difference in the tactics of surfin' Bill Kilgore than those of Colonel Kurtz further up the river. Kilgore, however, has not (yet) been disowned by his side.
As to the 40 or so minutes added, the French plantation episode is interesting but out of sympathy with the rest of the film; you can see why it was cut originally. The rest doesn't add much; the Playboy bunnies in the mud just pile on the agony. As for the Marlon bits, Brando as Kurtz certainly fits the image of the old bull waiting to be put out of his misery, and we see a bit more of him in this version, but he doesn't fit the script very well (Kurtz is meant to be a very active 40) and ultimately there is no really credible explanation of how he became master of his personal hell-hole ('the horror, the horror'). Conrad in the book this film is derived from, 'Heart of Darkness' didn't do much better, so I suppose we shouldn't be too critical.
Perhaps this movie is best seen rather than analysed. Visually it is terrific, even if, as Coppola explains, the pyrotechnics at the end occurred in an effort to clear the site. We are by Willard's side the whole time (he is in almost every scene) and at the end feel we understand. This and 'Full Metal Jacket' will probably be the two American movies most associated with the Vietnam War and neither can be said to be in praise of war. It's interesting to compare 'Apocalyse' with 'Thin Red Line.' In the latter, the enemy, the Japanese on Guadacanal are purely military, but the fear, chaos and ultimate pointlessness are similar.
'Apocalypse' was lucky in its timing Â– by 1979 Americans were ready to re-examine their role in Vietnam. No studio would have released it in 1969, the year it is set. Twenty years later, it stands up as a piece of bravura film-making and is almost hypnotic to watch. I hope Coppola is still around to do 'Destination Bagdad' when the American public are ready to face up to the consequences of the next bit of military lunacy their politicians and generals are planning.