Interesting Redux

Rating: Null/10 (12 September 2003)

Believe it or not, I have only just seen the redux.
What's interesting is what the redux adds: For one thing, it better highlights the idea that if Kurtz didn't have a method, he did have (or had had) a goal: "Winning" in Vietnam. And this dovetails with another image from the original, nicely paired with a new image in the redux. Image one, from the Playmate USO show: While the Americans had myriad choices, the Vietnam had a choice between victory or death. Image two, from the French plantation, reminding us that the French had actually built something there in Vietnam. What did the Americans have? The Dominoe Theory. In other words, we didn't have s**t, and the redux drives this home a little better.
I love this movie because it's still a bit of a Rorschach. It's a mystery wrapped in an enigma, or some f**kin' thing. To wit: Are we ever given a satisfactory picture of the meaning behind Kurtz? The redux seems a little better at conveying the feel of approaching an event horizon, where morality and reality becomes more chaotic and splintered, and it would not be meet and right to expect to be able to walk away "resolved." The movie resolves by resolutely evading a clear resolution. But there are mirror shards whipping by our heads at 400mph, bearing fleeting perspectives. Maybe Kurtz *is* "America in Vietnam." Maybe we won't understand the meaning of the Vietnam War until we understand that the best picture we'll ever get of that is Kurtz. Which is to say that we simply engineered, to the tune of $400B (which, I heard, only *just* got paid off), a horror show to fulfill our Daily Minimum Requirement for The Horror.
All that said, there were still a few bits that maybe should have been left out. The scene with the Bunnies meeting and greeting the crew was unnecessary. Specifically, Willard engineers the deal--2 tins of diesel for a couple hours with the bunnies--and this is distinctly out of character for the spartan Willard. The scenes at the French Plantation were a mix 'n' match; Clean's burial; good. Explanation of prior French integration into Viet society; good. Opium and sex; again, glaringly out of character for Willard. Any time Willard cracks a smile or otherwise distracts from his own proto-Kurtz philosophy has to remain suspect.
This was a great movie and remains a great movie. See it.