The greatest film ever made, but not "Redux"

Rating: 10/10 (14 March 2014)

The original "Apocalypse Now" is an awe-inspiring masterpiece and is my all-time favorite film. Memorable scenes abound, starting with the mind-blowing opening with Willard (Martin Sheen) having a mental breakdown in his sweltering Saigon hotel room to the tune of The Doors' "The End."
Speaking of Sheen, people overlook the fact that he expertly carries the film. His haunting narration is one of the most effective narrations in cinematic history and hooks the viewer into the nightmare-adventure.
I could go on and on about the noteworthy scenes, but I'll resist, except to comment on Col. Kurtz: Was he really insane or actually an unrecognized genius? General Corman informs Willard: "He's out there operating without any decent restraint, totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct. And he is still in the field commanding troops." And, yet, Kurtz was accomplishing what the US military couldn't or wouldn't do because of political complications and niceties. I bring this up because, as I've aged, I've come to see that I'M Col. Kurtz in some ways -- operating "out there" beyond the parameters and restrictions typically linked to my work.
The script was written by John Milius with alterations by Coppola as he shot the film whilst the narration was written by Michael Herr. The meaning of the story is obvious: The trip up the river led by Capt. Willard exposes him to two extreme viewpoints of war represented by the two colonels he encounters on his long journey, both of whose names start with 'K,' which is no accident:
COL. KILGORE (Duvall) is a romantic who embraces war as a lifestyle and even feeds off it, i.e. glorifies it. The fact that he's a romantic can be observed in the air-raid on the village where he literally plays Wagner as a prologue. He feeds off the war to the extent that he "loves the smell of napalm in the morning." War is just another day to him so why not go surfing? Since he lives off of the war there's no way it can kill him or even give him a scratch. Kilgore naturally has the support of the top brass because he's part of the system and plays the game of war.
COL. KURTZ (Brando), by contrast, sees through this hypocrisy. He realizes that being in a state of war is humanity gone mad. It's horror itself and therefore must be ended through the quickest means possible at whatever cost. He refuses to play the game of war as he expertly takes out double agents, etc. Of course the brass can't have this so they put out a hit on Kurtz via Willard. The existential Kurtz becomes increasingly disillusioned -- even crazy -- after jumping ship from the system and now has no sanctuary. Death is the only way out. His consolation is that Willard will tell his son the truth.
The "Redux" version was put together by Coppola and released in 2001 with the addition of 53 minutes of material that he originally cut. Very little of the added footage improves the film. Most of it simply drags it down; the rest is either boring and unnecessary or adds a dimension of silliness, not to mention being dubiously scripted and acted.
The first let down of "Redux" is revealed when Captain Willard hooks up with the boat & crew who are to escort him up the river to find Colonel Kurtz. In the original there's a water-skiing scene on the river which dynamically introduces us to the absurdities of every-day life in the field in Nam (with the Rolling Stone's "Satisfaction" blaring). In "Redux" this part is cut-and-pasted to an hour LATER in the film, horribly muting the original's introduction to life-in-the-field. (I realize WHY Coppola did this -- because the scene was originally intended to be shown AFTER the boat crew steal Kilgore's surfboard -- but he made the right decision to omit the board-theft scene and place the water-skiing scene near the beginning).
The introduction of Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall) in "Redux" is good. The charisma of this air cavalry colonel in all his swaggering glory is perfectly showcased in this brief snippet; but the scene's so brief it's unessential.
Four main new sequences definitely DON'T work: The scenes involving the theft of Kilgore's surfboard are silly, badly scripted and unnecessary. In fact, they ruin Kilgore's perfect swan song in the original. Moreover these scenes reveal a goofy side to Willard that mar his grim mystique in the original.
The additional bunny sequence during the rain storm is also silly and unnecessary; it's a huge letdown even if your sole desire is to see some more skin.
The longest added sequence involves the French plantation mentioned in the 1991 documentary "Hearts of Darkness - A Filmmaker's Apocalypse." Small bits of this piece work and enrich the film (like the ghostly discovery of the plantation), but on a whole it's too long & talky (where it's impossible to understand the heavily-accented dialogue without subtitles) and simply bogs the film down.
The final added scene that is unnecessary and arguably reduces the potency of the original film is the sequence involving Kurtz reading a couple of underwhelming Time magazine articles to the caged Willard. While it could be argued that this sequence destroys the great mystique of Kurtz since it's the FIRST and ONLY time we get to see him CLEARLY in broad daylight, it could also be argued that it's the key scene showing that Kurtz ISN'T insane at all, just trapped in the remote jungle with no place to go because he "got off the boat."
So Coppola made the right decisions with his original 1979 edit of the film. The new footage of "Redux" should've simply been relegated to the "deleted scenes" section of the DVD. Not every idea that is birthed during the creative process is worthy of the final product and "Redux" proves it.
GRADE: Original version: A+ , Redux: C+