Item #: 3120DVD Category: COPPOLA, FRANCIS FORD Format: DVD MPAA Rating: R

Woolly Rating: 5/10 (67 votes)

MEMBER COMMENTS ON THIS VIDEO

Kevin Rayburn

Dec 21, 2005 @ 10:44:26

Monday-morning quarterbacking
I haven't read any backstory on why Coppola decided to redo his great but flawed Vietnam epic. I don't know if he--as an artiste--stewed and obsessed over these "lost" sequences or bits of footage, or if fans were clamoring for all this stuff, or if Coppola thought there was more cash to be had with an 'enhanced' reissue, or if he simply succumbed to a "me-too" mentality--what with so many of his junior directorial colleagues having the luxury of issuing allegedly definitive "director's cuts" immediately after initial theatrical releases. Or, all of the above. For me, almost every second of the newly added footage here was best left on the cutting room floor. None of it adds to the narrative flow or thematic concerns of the picture. This added stuff nearly ruins "Apocalypse Now," as far as I'm concerned. The first cut was the right one. This is just a curio for obsessed A.N. fans only. There are attempts to humanize characters (Kilgore and Willard, especially) that don't really require it. The "napalm in the morning" scene is even diluted by an extended bit showing Kilgore helping a mother and her injured baby. A grand bombastic caricature like Kilgore doesn't need this kind of "dimension." It just waters down the blunt satire for the sake of unwarranted sentimentality. Why is Coppola afraid of the characters he and Milius created? Likewise, in other added footage, Willard is shown laughing and joshing around with his boatmates. I never had any problem with Willard being a serious, focused, conflicted character. No need for "lightening up" things here. None of the footage really addresses the much repeated critique that the film fails to tell Willard's story, as he promises at the film's start ("I can't tell Kurtz's story without telling my own"). Most of the film is intact in its original cut until the famous helicopter village attack scene. Here some additional battle footage is inserted, but it doen't substantially harm the thrust of the scene. Neither, though, does it add anything narratively or to the pacing. The 'naplam in the morning' and surfing stuff is extended. It's nothing but padding. A scene of Kilgore trying to find the boat crew and recover his lost favorite surfboard is odd and unfunny. It harms the mystique of Kilgore's character. Pure cutting-room floor stuff. The Playboy show in the jungle scene is extended without damaging the flow, but adds no illumating dimension either. The worst addition to the film is a scene in which several of the boatmates have sexual encounters with the bunnies stranded in the jungle. It's completely gratuitous and hurts the movie's credibilty. It's also sexist in the worst "male-gaze" sort of way. Any woman watching this part of the film would be right to scoff at this absurd male fantasy. The whole point is that the characters on the boat are separated from the comforts of their lives. This added sequence punctures that whole conceit. If it were presented as a "dream" it might have worked better. The new footage preceding it, showing a rain-soaked abandoned camp populated by almost appartition-like lunatic soldiers, is actually pretty good, adding a sense of "MASH"-like and Fellini-esque absurdity. Still, its consignment to the cutting room floor was no major loss for the film. The Do-Lung bridge sequence plays out mostly as before, fortunately. The French Plantation scene is a complete bore. Poorly conceived and written. There are added scenes in Kurtz's camp, including one where Brando as the mad colonel reads an ironically optimistic article from 'Time' magazine about the progress of the Vietnam War. It's interesting, but again unnecessary. The fact that so little new Brando stuff is added here indicates how little of this footage was salvageable. You get a pretty good idea of this watching the 1991 documentary on the making of A.N., "Hearts of Darkness, A Filmmaker's Apocalyse." A finally (and perhaps a spoiler, so read on at your own risk), Coppola has Willard in the boat not responding to the radioman's air strike request. Instead of the rainbow-hued airstrike on Kurtz's camp traditionally seen over the credits, we simply see white on black credits. No airstrike. I suppose this is meant to suggest that Willard decides to stay in the camp and become a god like Kurtz. Whatever. As the photojournalist had said, it ends with a whimper, not a bang. I have no problem with that. But I never had a problem with the original film either. The original had a certain imperative, dour poetic mood that is watered down by all the newly added incident. I actually bought this DVD and was so disenchanted with the added stuff that I sold it the next day. The problem is that the studio is charging twice as much for the DVD of the movie's original cut as for the "Redux" DVD! Why? It's clearly a gouge to sucker fans of the film. Unfortunately, I'll end up paying more because I love the original. This redux is just a big 200-minute yawn. ** Apocalypse Now Redux review c. 2005 Kevin Rayburn

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