Apocalypse Now Redux
Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola.
Written by: John Milius and Francis Ford Coppola, based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
Actors: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Sam Bottoms, Albert Hall, Laurence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper, Harrison Ford, G.D. Spradlin.
“Released”: 2001.
MPAA Rating: R.
Length: 202 min.
War.

Brief outline (no spoilers):
Captain Benjamin Willard (Sheen) is an army officer who gets assigned a special mission. This mission involves crossing over into Cambodia, locate Colonel Kurtz (Brando) and then terminate him. Colonel Kurtz is a highly decorated officer, but he has gotten on the wrong side of the army by starting to conduct military operations without his superior’s approval. This loss of control of one of their high ranking officers is an embarrassment for the Army and he must be eliminated. In the movie we get to follow Capt. Willard on the mission up the river to Cambodia in a patrol boat. On the way up this river we get to experience insanity of the war and the people fighting in it.

Personal opinions
This (Redux) is a re-cut of the original Apocalypse Now epic war movie from Coppola. Coppola had his fair amount of things to deal with, first he had to fire Harvey Keitel who was playing Capt. Willard after less than two week, then the budget and time got out of control. The movie was budgeted to $10 million dollars, but ended up costing $30 million dollars.

(Possible spoiler)
The redux version includes two scenes that Coppola originally left out, the stranded Playboy models and the French colony. The Playboy scene is OK; it shows the lust for women in young men that have been only next to other men for a long time. The colonist scene is not so great, it is weird. You get out of the war rhythm, first you get the feeling of the men being in this hellish jungle war, and then suddenly they are sort of in the civilization again. Eating good food and being inside a house.

The movie most of all is a soul searching movie. It is about what is considered sane and insane combined with being in an insane war situation. (Possible spoiler) For example it is considered sane to when Killgore orders people to surf the waves while they are ordering aircrafts to strike the tree lines with Napalm. On the other side it is insane to setup military operations and kill the enemy inside the jungle without permission.

Good
The movie gives a more unbiased story of the Vietnam War. It is not a political statement in any direction and it is one of the most influential movies about the Vietnam War. It is more of insanity of men. The movie has a sort of voyage feeling of it, like the 2001: A Space Odyssey, sort of a war road movie.

Bad
Making a movie that is 202 min is a bit insane in itself. It is very long, you almost have to set aside a day to see it. The extra scenes in the Redux version contribute to this, and at least the Colonist scenes do not justify the extra time.

Bottom Line
It is not a typically shooter war movie, but it gives a good look into the insanity, madness and horrors of war.
Rating: 7/10 (where 10 is the best).