APOCALYPSE NOW Redux

[RCMerchant]

gee-This has always been one of my favorite films-so I thought-"This sis gonna be great.
No.-I can see why these scenes were cut. There is a totally out of context scene with French people that have some kinda mansion in the jungle that makes no sense at all-and the actor who babbles -on and on and on-you cant understand a word he says.
A scene with Marlon Brando reading Time magazine to Martin Sheen is -worthless. The playboy bunny scene-so stupid.
I can see why these things were cut-It's a tighter film without these drawn out meandering pointless episodes.
I dont know why any of this s**t was put back in the film-interesting extras on an extra disc-but it doesnt help the original movie at all.

[zelmo73]

I don't know, I kinda like the Redux version because there are smatterings of extra scenes throughout the film, not just in the big portions that you pointed out. Like extra scenes during the Ride of the Valkyries helicopter raid on the village that I thought were cool. I can't name any of them off the top of my head, but I know that there were extra bits in that segment and in plenty of other ones. The Playboy bunny scene was great for a couple of good reasons, mainly Colleen Camp's exposed tits, which were excellent back then! 

Yeah, the French villa scene was long and boring, but if you can understand that dude's dialogue then there is a lot about it that is also fascinating, and makes sense when you consider the history of Vietnam before the Americans arrived. I liked Francis Ford Coppola's vision for the movie; 1970s drugs were much cooler than the poison that they have today. 

[Neville]

I think I prefer it to the regular cut. The only problem is that it brings the overall running time over three hours, and then it' hard to watch the whole thing in one sitting.

I actually believe the added scenes make sense. Specially the French plantation bits. They turn a very trippy film into one that's more anchored to the historical events around the Vietnam war. And the playmates bit, together with other bits, now make the relationship between Willard and the sailors more interesting. When he gets them laid -and with playmates, no less- and steals Kilgore's surf table they take to liking him, but the whole thing quickly deteriorates when he forces them up river and they star dropping like flies.

These scenes here and there also slow down the pace of the film quite a bit, and I think that's beneficial. I watched the theatrical cut not long ago and for some reason I found it was moving way too fast. Until they make it to Kurtz's compound, that is.

[Josso]

You guys seen this? I believe I was recommended it from here. For me the film became a lot more special since I saw that, strangely the vibe of the film and everything make a lot more sense to me now

[zelmo73]

It is the equivalent to comparing the Lord Of The Rings Extended Editions (2001-2003) to the theatrical versions. Of course they will be longer, but also better because you are getting a more complete story. Kingdom Of Heaven (2005) also benefited from a longer cut such as this.

[RCMerchant]

I aint convinced.
I know the history of the French in Vietnam-I don't need a long drawn out incomprehensible monolouge that adds nothing to the film.
There ARE little bits I did like-the extended time on the beach with Duvall was cool. But I think the film is much tighter in its cinematic release.

[rebel_1812]

I liked both.  The condensed version was more like pow-pow just kept hitting great scene after great scene.  The extended version had some slow time to it.  It spaced out the movie some.  I think on the whole they added alot especially the scene where brando asks him how it smells in vietnam.