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****1/2 of only ****
Redux is better than the original
Rated: R
Length: 153 minutes original, 200 minutes for Redux
Credits:
Writers:
Joseph Conrad (novel: Heart of Darkness)
Francis Ford Coppola
John Milius
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast:
Martin Sheen: Captain Benjamin L. Willard
Marlon Brando: Colonel Walter E. Kurtz
Robert Duvall: Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore
Frederic Forrest: Chef (Hicks)
Albert Hall: Chief Phillips
Sam Bottoms: Lance Johnson
Laurence Fishburne: Mr. Clean (Miller)
Dennis Hopper: The Photojournalist
Willard needed a little more depth to him in the original version to satisfy the audience's need to know why he feels a kinship to Kurtz, and Redux solves that. The extended surfing shots at the end of the village attack effectively demonstrated that theater command had an unsound definition of what is sound, and more clearly separates Willard from the regular army. The plantation scene may throw a few people because of it's lack of apparent violence and continuity, but in it's French view of Indochina, it is the muse by which all the other pieces of the story truly take place. The extended dialog between Kurtz & Willard helps to clarify motivations.This print had the same flickering bars on the top & bottom of the screen at the beginning of Kurtz's camp as other people across the country have stated, but they only last a couple minutes. Redux succeeds in adding to the masterpiece, and is to be seen by everyone old enough. Visit the rest room before you sit down because you don't want to miss a frame. The audience loved it.
Captain Willard's narrative "There is no way to tell his story without telling my own. And if his story really is a confession, then so is mine." "Everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted a mission, and for my sins, they gave me one." The commander states to Captain Willard, "Your mission is to proceed up the Nung River in a Navy patrol boat. Pick up Colonel Kurtz's path at Nu Mung Ba, follow it and learn what you can along the way. When you find the Colonel, infiltrate his team by whatever means available and terminate the Colonel's command."
This film is based on Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness. Captain Willard journeys eventfully along a river ever deeper into the jungle and away from civilization on his mission into Cambodia. He is to assassinate a renegade Green Beret, Colonel Kurtz, who has become a god to his following army of tribesmen. Willard hypnotically descends into the jungle, paralleling a decent from humanity, and is gradually influenced by the the insane battles which are encountered on the journey. As Willard continues his journey, he begins to recognize elements of the mad man in himself, and that sanity is only a matter of perspective.
In the emptiness, in the madness, in the horror, in the confusion, in the terror, there is perfect clarity. Coppola makes a statement not of the Vietnam War, but of the American involvement with that country. It is rare that any film can reach the scope, depth, and power of this film.
Although some may want to call this controversial production "an overblown piece of self-indulgent film-making," Francis Ford Coppola's story really is a masterpiece. The huge budget over runs alienated many studio executives, but the final product was worth it. This is not a war movie. It is set against the Vietnam War as a background for the animalistic basis of our nature. It is a masterpiece because it translates the novel into the contemporary era so that the audience is completely drawn into the descent, chapter by chapter event by event.
The horrors of war are effectively used to reduce the human heart to a most basic instinctive level. The strange sights along the way are taken from really stories of those who had the misfortune of being there. The long start of the film absorbs you into the environment of tropical boredom. The drunken Captain Willard has a history of assassination. Willard needs a little more depth to him to satisfy the audience's need to know why he feels a kinship to Kurtz, and Redux solves that. The mission plan forms as best it can, and our journey continues. The air calvary is used as the village guarding a river entrance is defeated. The village battle scene is very involved and packed with action. The building of the village is one of the reasons that the film was far over budget. Once the village is passed, Captain Willard is on the Patrol Boat with it's very small crew. The varying degrees of innocence of the crew effectively contrast Willard as we see them all decline. Every event on the journey becomes less human, or more animal. Battling without organization to keep a bridge on a map open is a chapter exemplifying the simplest human need for some predictable order in one's world.
The passing under the tail section of a downed B-52 symbolizes the passage away from the last claims of humanity. From there on it was Kurtz's jungle, and the events are for the story, not based on anything real.
The camp of the unsound Colonel Kurtz is found, and the horror of Willard's experience increases. The accumulated violence by this point has left you nearly oblivious to the mutilated corpses hanging from the trees, and the heads and limbs strewn about the camp. Kurtz may be officially unsound, but he gets better results than his now former commanders, and this leaves a dilemma for Willard and the audience. The overall insanity of war is no different than this mad man. The issue is who is in control, which parallels our own conception of self identity. The dialog interspersed with philosophical quotes is hard for some people to follow, but it shows Kurtz to be brilliant, insane, yet functional. The essence of what it is to be human can never be put into words, so the loss of his humanity is buried in peripheral statements which still bring a firmer clarity to this story.
-Horror has a face, and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies.
The power of Apocalypse Now has not been reduced by time. When the film let out, the audience left this psychedelic trip slowly and quietly.
-Did you know that "if" is the middle of the word "life"?
The documentary made by Mrs. Coppola that details the extreme difficulties in making this film, and also helps to clarify some of the meaning in the story is Hearts of Darkness: the making of Apocalypse Now This is one of the best making of documentaries made.
Originally distributed on 70mm Widescreen There were no credits on the print, so they were on a theater handbill which is now a collectible item.
Apocalypse Now has a rare uncut workprint that is a 288 minute two VHS tape set. It is unauthorized, but there are copies floating around. Ebay would be one of those places for example.
Soundtrack:
The End by The Doors
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones
Love Me, And Let Me Love You by Robert Duvall
The Ride of the Valkyries by Richard Wagner, The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Let The Good Times Roll by Leonard Lee
Suzie Q by Flash Cadillac
Excerpts from "Mnong Gar Music from Vietnam" OCORA Radio France
TIGER!