Avoid the "Redux" version at all costs

Rating: 9/10 (12 November 2005)

It includes added footage that absolutely wreaks havoc with the original story line and, more crucially, character development. That said, the original (which I saw in 1979 in what was then a rare widescreen cinema,) is still the best Vietnam movie of all time. I've always considered the trip up river, and the way events get more and more surreal and insane the further up the river they go, as a metaphor for the the entire American experience in Southeast Asia. Every performance is a gem -- it's especially cool to see a very young Lawrence Fishburne in his debut role. Coppola was never this good again.