Whats different?
********SPOLIERS**********
Apologies for the extreme length (my girlfriend never gets tired of hearing that :D)
(from the Montreal Gazettte) - *spoilers*!)
"Apocolypse Now - Redux
A great movie, like a great song, thrives on change. You can make it
longer or shorter, change the editing or arrangement, and what you get
will always be interesting. The altered work may not be any better
than the original, and some might judge it to be inferior. But the
essence of it, the power of it to move us, remains undiminished.
Such is the case with Apocalypse Now Redux, the revamped version of
Francis Ford Coppola`s 1979 Vietnam War epic that has unexpectedly -
and deservedly -- become one of the event movies of summer 2001. It
assumes this position almost by default, since there has been so
little else of fascination at movie theatres of late.
There`s also been no small amount of revisionist history in the
critical fanfare greeting the film`s re-release, which began with a
special presentation in May at the Cannes Film Festival. When
Apocalypse Now was first released in August `79, having won that
year`s Palme d`Or at Cannes, many critics damned it as
incomprehensible and behind the times. It had been beaten to the box
office - and to Oscar glory - by two other Vietnam-themed movies,
Michael Cimino`s The Deer Hunter and Hal Ashby`s Coming Home.
Back then, a besieged Coppola had already endured an Old Testament`s
worth of production delays: a typhoon on the Philippines set, star
troubles (Martin Sheen`s heart attack, Marlon Brando`s bloating and
belligerence) and the threat of personal bankruptcy. A hostile
reaction from the press finally moved Coppola to wonder aloud if he
had just made "the world`s first $30-million surrealistic movie."
Apocalypse Now Redux represents sweet victory for Coppola. No matter
what people thought of it 22 years ago, their views coloured by the
still-simmering politics of Vietnam`s impossible situation, the movie
has stood the test of time and created a legend all its own. The
film`s jungle river quest in search of "a soul gone mad" - to use the
words of Joseph Conrad`s Heart Of Darkness, the source novel - has
come to represent the insanity of all wars, and not just the Vietnam
conflict.
Many of the movie`s macho lines - the talk of "terminating with
extreme prejudice," or how the stench of defoliating napalm "smells
like victory" - has entered the popular lexicon, often heard in
references to business, sports or politics. The rock soundtrack that
seemed so daring at the time, such as the use of The Doors` haunting
"The End" for the film`s unsettling prologue, has been copied many
times since, but never equalled.
Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro`s Oscar-winning Technicolor images
and hypnotic fades - such as a hotel ceiling fan transforming into
helicopter blades - became the stuff of film-school discussions. The
last 22 years have been kinder to Apocalypse Now than they have to
Coppola`s career, which never again soared to such heights.
The remastered and recut movie, now nearly three hours long with its
additional 53 minutes of footage, has more to offer than just a chance
for Coppola to settle scores or to remind us of his capacity for
greatness.
Apocalypse Now Redux provides richer insight into the personalities of
the men involved in the film`s lethal quest, in which former CIA
operative Capt. Benjamin Willard (Sheen) is summoned by his U.S.
military masters to lead a river journey into darkest Cambodia.
Willard`s assignment, unbeknownst to his four companions (including a
youthful Laurence Fishburne, in his first film role), is to terminate
the command of rogue U.S. Col. Walter E. Kurtz (Brando), who has been
committing "unspeakable acts" in Cambodia with a tribe of Montagnard
warriors.
The restored scenes had been cut from the original for reasons of
censorship (too much sex) and feared audience fatigue (the film was
deemed to be too long). Editor Walter Murch carefully reinserted them,
prompting a radical reassessment of major characters: Willard is
revealed to have both a sense of humour and a libido, while the
soulless Kurtz is seen getting angry about his press coverage.
The transformation in Willard`s character is the most significant. At
the end of the famous "Charlie don`t surf" scene, the one where flashy
warmonger Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore (Robert Duvall, in top form) uses
napalm, rockets and Wagner`s fearsome "Ride Of The Valkyries" to clear
a Viet Cong beach, Willard and his men no longer leave quietly. They
steal Kilgore`s prized surfboard, just for the hell of it, and then
play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse while an enraged Kilgore tries
to get it back.
The incident binds Willard to the members of his crew: young black
draftee Clean (Fishburne), surfer dude Lance Johnson (Sam Bottoms),
kitchen warrior Chef Hicks (Frederic Forrest) and taciturn patrol boat
pilot Chief Phillips (Albert Hall).
Male bonding of a different kind happens in another reclaimed scene,
in which Willard trades needed diesel fuel for the sexual favours of
Playboy Bunnies (glimpsed earlier in the decadent USO show portion of
the film), whose helicopter has been stranded in a monsoon by lack of
fuel.
"Captain, are you giving away our fuel for the Playmate of the Month?"
an astonished Phillips asks.
"No, the Playmate of the Year," Willard replies. The humour is as grim
as the look on the faces of the women, who are almost incoherent from
fear and desperation.
Willard`s complicity in the evils of war is more obvious in the recut
film, making him more human and less of a killing machine. Kurtz is
also made more real, in a prison scene after Williard finally reaches
the colonel`s Cambodia stronghold. After mocking his pursuer as "a
grocery clerk sent to collect a bill," Kurtz cages him. As Willard
struggles to hold on to what remains of his sanity, Kurtz stands over
him, reading aloud what the colonel deems to be inaccurate accounts of
the war by Time magazine. Kurtz is seen as no longer just the mad
philosopher; he`s obviously an intelligent man whose attitude toward
human conflict has changed from imperialism and pragmatism into a
warped sense of vigilante justice.
The one scene in Redux that doesn`t add to the film`s appreciation is
the lengthy French Plantation segment, long discussed by Apocalypse
Now buffs.
Willard and his crew leave the patrol boat and visit the rubber
plantation of a French landowner (the late Christian Marquand) who has
refused to surrender ground won during France`s early involvement with
Vietnam. The scene includes more sex for Willard - he enjoys a
misty-lensed tryst with a widow played by the mesmerizing Aurore
Clément - but it`s mostly just a windy exercise in exposition for
Coppola and co-screenwriter John Milius, who labour to equate French
and American forms of imperialism.
The scene really does slow down the movie, but it should satisfy the
curious, and it does clear up a mystery about the ultimate fate of one
of Willard`s crew.
Should we consider Apocalypse Now Redux the ultimate and final version
of this great movie? Coppola has said that it is, but don`t believe
it. He and Murch also confirm that hours of deleted footage still
remain, including a controversial final air strike scene that has
appeared in previous versions, but not this one.
This movie, like all wars, never really ends. It`s one last thing to
ponder regarding a film that continues to challenge and fascinate,
even as the conflicts that led to its creation retreat into memory. "
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