If there's film subject concerning war that is carefully talked about in film, it was Vietnam. In the 1970s, there were great Vietnam films like Hal Ashby's Coming Home and Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter and in the 80s; there was Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket and Oliver Stone's Platoon. Through out the past thirty years, Vietnam has often debated whether as a war against Communism or a risk Americans shouldn't have been involved in which was recently talked about Errol Morris' documentary The Fog of War about Kennedy/Johnson Secretary of Defense chief Robert S. McNamara. Then, there was one Vietnam film that stood out among many others from one of the most legendary filmmakers of the 1970s, Francis Ford Coppola and in 1979, he released one of the most harrowing war films based on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness entitled Apocalypse Now.

Prior to Apocalypse Now, Coppola was a revered, acclaimed filmmaker who made such noted small early films like You're a Big Boy Now and The Rain People to such masterpieces as The Conversation and the always noted Mafia-story of The Godfather Pt. 1 & 2. After making The Godfather Pt. 2, Coppola focused on making edits for a mini-series like TV thing for the two Godfather films with additional footage from the film. After that, he went on to work on his most ambitious project date by making a modern-day adaptation on Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness set in Cambodia during the Vietnam war as an American war captain goes through rivers to stop a renegade colonel entitled Apocalypse Now.

Years in the making, Apocalypse Now originally was budgeted at $10 million that ballooned to $30 million which at the time, was dangerous for auteur directors after Coppola and his peers like Peter Bogdonavich, Martin Scorsese, and William Friedkin made colossal big-budget bombs. The money wasn't the only problem for Coppola as he struggled with his emotions and mentality while he had to endure loads of production problems, weather, and everything in the process. Making things worse during production was when film star Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack and nearly died delaying production further. After months of filming and editing with nearly timed at over 200 minutes of footage in which, Coppola cut the film to 153 minutes for release at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival where he won a second Golden Palm award. When it was released later in the U.S., it received mixed reviews and barely survived in the box office.

After Apocalypse Now, Coppola's film legacy was never the same. In 1982 and on his own with his American Zoetrope studios, he worked on an experimental musical with state-of-the-art digital technology that spiraled out of control. The resulting film One from the Heart was a disaster and nearly derailed Coppola's career (though recently, he re-released and re-edited One from the Heart to some newfound acclaim). He then went on to make a few good films like Rumble Fish, The Rainmaker, The Outsiders, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Peggy Sue Got Married to box-office disasters like The Cotton Club (with The Godfather producer Robert Evans), Tucker: The Man and his Dreams, and the widely-disgusted The Godfather Part 3 to the what-the-f*ck family film Jack.

Recently, Francis Ford Coppola has slowed down a bit in his film career focusing on developing projects for other filmmakers with most recently gaining success from the work of his son Roman for CQ and his daughter Sofia for The Virgin Suicides and her 2003 masterpiece Lost in Translation. With American Zoetrope rebuilt and his children becoming acclaimed filmmakers, Coppola decided to heal some wounds by re-releasing Apocalypse Now in an expanded, re-edited version that he titled Apocalypse Now Redux.

For those who have not seen the original Apocalypse Now (you should be hanging your head in shame for that), the film is about a war captain and his crew riding through the heart of the Cambodian rivers as the captain is trying to stop a renegade colonel on the verge of madness. A psychological war film with anti-war messages, Apocalypse Now definitely has the tone of an anti-war film displaying its madness and carelessness around the people in the war. Playing the central protagonist in the film is Martin Sheen as the brooding Captain Willard as he goes on the search for the renegade Colonel Kurtz, played by Marlon Brando. Along the way, Willard meets up with a crazy colonel with a penchant for napalm and surfing, a Playboy party gone wild and Vietnamese battles as he reaches Kurtz and the madness surrounding him.

Adapted from Conrad's novel by Coppola, John Milius, and Michael Herr, the film is indeed a psychological anti-war film like Conrad's cerebral novel. Coppola brings a harrowing, uneasy war film that sends chills to its audience. In the 2001 Redux version, Coppola restores a few scenes that adds humor and intelligence to the film like a rendezvous between Willard's soldiers and Playboy playmates and a much-talked about French plantation scene. The end result makes the film much clearer and more superior. Why? Well, here are five reasons:

1. The pacing of the film is much faster and more consistent.
2. It's the version Coppola wanted to see (for all of you art-film geeks).
3. It presents the characters in a clearer, more human light.
4. There's more humor, thought-provoking scenes, and harrowing war scenes.
5. The film's ending is presented in a much clearer view than in the original 1979 version.

Whether or not people enjoyed Coppola's Vietnam masterpiece, the Redux version does improves on its flaws a bit while replacing it with other flaws for those that liked the original movie. The end result of Apocalypse Now Reduxis that whatever wounds Coppola had when he made that film, are now healed. With a cast led by Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper, Harrison Ford, G.D. Spradlin, Frederic Forrest, Sam Bottoms, Albert Hall, Laurence Fishburne (at age 14-15 when he made the film), Colleen Camp, Scott Glenn, and in the Redux version, Christian Marquand and Aurore Clement. Apocalypse Now Redux is a classic film reborn and made better in one of the greatest Vietnam films ever presented.

The film begins with a shot of the Vietnamese jungle being blown up to a crisp in a very harrowing mood to the Doors' Oedipal song "The End". The film begins with a very harrowing view of the Vietnam War as a burned out American captain named Willard (Martin Sheen). Willard has just been divorced and is living in Saigon as he is awaiting his next mission as he becomes unstable due to his disconnection with his life in the past and is more entranced by his duty as a soldier. Finally after a drunken rage, he gets called up for a mission. He goes to the base camp home of a general (G.D. Spradlin) and a colonel (Harrison Ford) about a classified mission he's to take part of. After discussing his background, Willard is given his mission where he has to go into the heart of the Cambodian river to kill an American renegade colonel named Kurtz (Marlon Brando) whose methods have become unsound. The general felt that Kurtz had finally gone insane after killing Vietnamese agents from both camps while some American soldiers including an agent named Colby (Scott Glenn) were missing.

Willard takes the mission as he decides to be accompanied by a Navy boat ship up to get a briefing about his mission in his first stop. In the boat, he’s joined by a young 17-year old kid from the Bronx named Clean (Laurence Fishburne), a famous surfer named Lance (Sam Bottoms), a New Orleans chef named Chef (Frederic Forest), and the boat's disciplined chief named Chief (Albert Hall). They go upriver as Willard reads the background of Kurtz, who has an impressive war background with several medals and he couldn't believe they wanted him dead because of his unsound methods. Willard and crew finally stop at a Vietnamese village where he encounters fighting and a film crew (the director played by Francis Ford Coppola) where he finally meets a crazy, wild-eyed colonel named Kilgore (Robert Duvall).

Kilgore's methods were unorthodox since he has a penchant for napalm bombing and surfing. He then recognizes Lance as he gives Willard a briefing on the Cambodian river. Willard and his gang later join Kilgore for an air cavalry strike against a Vietnamese village where the strike was successful as they end the mission for surfing but because of the waves, Kilgore wasn’t happy that it wasn't good enough for Lance. He orders more napalm bombings on the ocean as Willard's crew leave for their boat with Willard stealing Kilgore's surfboard. Later in the night, Willard and Chef look for Mangos but are chased by a tiger as Willard goes further into the psyche of Kurtz. They later stop for some fuel where there's a USO show for the soldiers of Vietnam. Willard and his crew decide to watch where all the soldiers are being entertained by a trio of Playboy playmates (Colleen Camp, Linda Carpenter, and Cynthia Wood), which gets out of control due to the wild behavior of the horny troops.

Willard continues his journey into the Cambodian river as Chief asks why he's going upriver but Willard says it is classified. Upon their journey, the darkness of war is in the way as they stop for more fuel where there's a battle going on as Willard leaves plus helicopters engulfed in flames. Finally during a stop in a base during a rainy river, Willard asks for more fuel but he doesn't get any but for his crew, he told them that the Playboy Playmates are in the base. Chef and Lance get intimate with the Playmates as one of them found a dead body while Clean wanted to get some. While going upriver, the behavior of the Willard's crew changes after they inspected a boat and killed a few people. Lance becomes hazier while Chief is the only one taking his role seriously. When Lance lights up some purple smoke as they get attacked and the first part of tragedy emerges.

Willard feels guilty as he continues on as they stop in a foggy area where it's he and his crew is confronted by a group of French plantation owners. Chef talks to them in French as Willard and his men are welcomed to the plantation for some rest as Willard gets into a heavy conversation with the plantation owner named Hubert de Marais (Christian Marquand) about the Vietnam War and France's bad luck. He and his men refuse to leave the plantation, as they will fight to the death for it. Willard then gets an apology from Roxanne Sarrault (Aurore Clement) as she sees Willard looking for hope, as he gets infatuated with her beauty.

With the trip upriver mounting, Willard realizes he's getting closer into the heart of Cambodia and Kurtz as he decides to tell the crew what he was sent to do. The crew decides to accompany him further as they meet a group of tribesmen and savages on the river as they see an American photographer (Dennis Hopper). He accompanies Willard to the Kurtz's place as he sees Colby in a trance-like state as Willard realizes these people including the photographer are treating Kurtz like a glorified messiah. Willard then tells Chef if anything goes wrong; call in the air strike as Willard confronts the complex Kurtz. Kurtz tells Willard about what he already knows and says, that he's nothing but an errand boy for the grocery stores picking up a bill. Willard is imprisoned as he discovers the madness of Kurtz and on one occasion, read articles about the war. Willard wonders what happened to Kurtz's state of mind as he wonders if he is going to descend into Kurtz's unsound methods.

What makes Apocalypse Nowand the Redux version compelling is in its complexity. The film doesn't bring in easy answers of wars and the psychological aspects of the film. What Francis Ford Coppola achieves with this film is that he goes into the underbelly of the Vietnam War at its maddening state. Particularly the horror of the war as Brando's Kurtz keeps saying, "the horror" repeatedly. In the Redux version, things definitely come across clearer, notably the behavior of Kurtz, Kilgore, Willard, and the crew. Coppola definitely brought a film that isn't easy to watch with each scene although he makes sure the intensity and drama keeps you watching and doesn't get boring. The film's script is also filled with moments that are uncomforting, especially since it plays to the maddening tone of the original Joseph Conrad novel of Heart of Darkness. Coppola makes sure the film also has the cerebral tone that Conrad put in Heart of Darkness while updating it for the post-Vietnam era.

One great aspect in Apocalypse Nowis the way the film looked from cinematographer Vittorio Storaro. His use of color in the film's cinematography is exquisite in the tone of the film. From the lush tone of the French plantation scene to the more harrowing, orange-colored tone of the darker, fighting scenes and Willard's arrival at Kurtz's camp. Storaro doesn't make sure the film looks good but brings elements of life and death through the eyes of the audience. Even the film's special effects in the fighting scenes are amazing as we see helicopters, villages, and bridges get blown up in horrifying ways that is disturbing to watch. Not the way Michael Bay does it just for bland entertainment, the war effects in Apocalypse Now are used to give the tone of the film. Especially with the film's production design look from Alex Tavoularis and the nicely-paced editing of Walter Murch.

Another great element to the film's dark tone is its use of music, notably the use of the Doors' Oedipal classic "The End"that conveys the darkness and horror of war. Even in the film's final moments as the film intensifies in its climax. While "The End" was originally a song about killing the father to be with the mother in the harrowing lyrics of Jim Morrison, Coppola used the song to set the mood of Vietnam and the inhuman aspects of it. In the original and Redux version of the score by Carmine Coppola, the film's score features elements of atmospheric, dense textures from longtime Coppola contributor Richard Beggs on sound design as well as the Grateful Dead's Mickey Hart and Phil Lesh with some ominous percussion music to set the mood of darkness of the film.

Finally, we go to the film's cast which is one of the best assembled casting ever done thanks in large part to Coppola and its casting agents (including American Rhapsody director Eva Gardos, who would meet her producing partner Colleen Camp in the set of the film). While the roles of Harrison Ford and G.D. Spradlin were small in the film's first act, they were well executed in their roles, notably Ford who plays his small performance with a rare subtly some hadn't seen at the time since he was known by this point as Han Solo.

In the two Playboy Playmates sequences, Cynthia Wood, Linda Carpenter, and Colleen Camp each stand out in their respective scenes, notably the rendezvous scene were one of them found a dead body. In the French plantation scene that included a great array of French actors (including Francis' son Roman in a very poignant scene as one of the kids who reads a very powerful poem in French) that represents the viewpoint of the world about the American's involvement in the Vietnam War. Standing out the most is Christian Marquand in an intense performance as the plantation owner and Aurore Clement as the lost purity and love in Willard's dark life. In the more profiled supporting front, the biggest standout in the film is easily Dennis Hopper as the American photographer. Playing the role in a hilarious, hippie-like language, Hopper conveys the idiocy as a court jester for Kurtz as the says, "He's like a God man" while trying to tell Willard not to mess with his mind in one of Hopper's most memorable performances.

In the performances of Willard's boat crew, the four actors all standout individually and in their scenes with Martin Sheen. While Laurence Fishburne was only 14-years old when he began making the film in 1976, he gave an outstanding performance as the young Clean, who represents the overlooked innocence of young men being sent into Vietnam who hadn't even reached the age of 18. Sam Bottoms is another of the film's comic relief as the stoned surfer Lance who often plays the role tripping on acid and all sorts of stuff (and Bottoms really did that) as Lance really represents the soldiers' yearning for escapism and the refusal to serve the war. Frederic Forest's performance as Chef is another of the film's more enlightening performances as he plays a crazy soldier who ends up going on the ride to help Willard in Kurtz's confrontation while showing the duality of man in its innocence and horror in the film's tragic and harrowing scenes. Of all the men in Willard's crew, Albert Hall's performance as Chief is one of the most spellbinding performances as Hall plays the central conscience of the film. While his character may takes his duties seriously, Chief's role is one of the most important characters who knows the idea of right and wrong as he doesn't want to see anyone getting killed.

Then there are the three most crucial performances of the film. First is Robert Duvall as Colonel Kilgore, the crazed air cavalry colonel. Duvall's performance is wide mix of humor, intensity, and humanism as he represents the craziness of the Vietnam War while having a desire to have some fun. Duvall's performance is a huge standout with his use of a great orchestral piece to fight a huge battle and his famous line of "I love the smell of napalm in the morning". One really great scene he does is save a child and a mother and his orders to take them to the hospital which shows that while Kilgore is crazy, he doesn't descend to the madness of Kurtz. Another important scene is where Kilgore gives water to an enemy solider who is trying to live showing that anyone who was brave enough to fight, good or bad, can drink some water out of his canteen.

The second crucial performance and probably the most brooding is Marlon Brando as Kurtz. Brando's masterful, subtle performance as Kurtz is played with a restraint many wouldn't have seen as well as an intelligence many wouldn't think about. The character of Kurtz is very complex in its madness and humanism. While his methods were unsound, the scene were he reads the articles in a great sunlight scene shows his humanity as he cares for children and villagers refusing to play part of the war for any team. Even in one intense scene near the end as he discusses the horrors of war shows in a very psychological scene that requires a lot of thinking. Brando brought in a performance that lives up to his legacy though sadly, this was the last great performance of his career as he descended into mediocrity with his own unsound methods till his death in 2004.

The third and final performance that is the most crucial is from Martin Sheen as Captain Willard, the film's protagonist. While Sheen's career hasn't been one of the greatest, he is one of the most compelling actors in front of the camera. He brought in a complex performance as the tortured robot of Willard in the film's beginning as ironically like what Kurtz said is really an errand boy. Sheen plays the role with intelligence, a sense of broodiness, and humanity that displays the tortured mentality of Willard. We see a few funnier moments from Sheen when he steals Duvall's surfboard and a subtler scene with Aurore Clement in the French plantation scene where we see the lost goodness of him as he feels he no longer has a home. In his confrontational scene with Kurtz, his character evolves into something darker as Sheen makes sure his character makes a decision whether or not to be the madness of Kurtz. Sheen's narration (with a bit from Sheen's brother Joe Estevez, who filled for him during Sheen's recuperation during his heart attack) is exquisite in its subtly and calm as he wonders himself if he descends into madness. This is by far Martin Sheen's best performance overall as he continues to perform well with the TV drama The West Wing.

In the end, Apocalypse Now is one of the greatest war films of all-time thanks to the brutal, intense directing of Francis Ford Coppola. The Redux version makes the film better than before although some people might not like the additions Coppola brought, hence, if he had released the original version in its entirety, it wouldn't have really mattered. With a top-notch cast led by the enigmatic performances of Sheen, Brando, and Duvall, Apocalypse Now is a film every one must see, especially in these troubled times of war. It's suggested to watch the original 1979 version of the film first then see the 2001 Redux version. In the end, Apocalypse Now Redux is a classic American film re-introduced to the masses that encompasses the legacy of one of the greatest filmmakers of our time.

Coppola Reviews:

The Godfather Pt. 1 (1972):

http://www.epinions.com/content_146198793860

The Conversation (1974):

http://www.epinions.com/content_171118595716

The Godfather Pt. 2 (1974):

http://www.epinions.com/content_225686818436

One from the Heart (1982):

(Coming Soon)

Peggy Sue Got Married (1986):

(Coming Soon)

The Virgin Suicides (1999):

http://www.epinions.com/content_113280716420

CQ (2002):

http://www.epinions.com/content_130100989572

Lost in Translation (2003):

http://www.epinions.com/content_113414475396

Related Reviews:

Platoon (1986):

(Coming Soon)

Full Metal Jacket (1987):

(Coming Soon)

The Fog of War (2003):

(Coming in February)


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age