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Apocalypse Now Redux

Apocalypse Now Redux

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $14.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A must see
Review: This is a definite, must-see DVD for those who enjoyed the original. Some people say that the added scenes were redundent or unnecessary. That is true, but this is why THEY WERE CUT FROM THE ORIGINAL MOVIE. This is NOT the original, it is for those of us who want the option to watch a few extra scenes that placate the unspeakable chaos which exists during war. Don't listen to the negative reviews, these people need to get their head out of you know what and realize that this is an extended version Not the original, and should be taken as so. But the option of watching the original still exists thanks to the beauty of DVD's.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Rent this, buy the original
Review: Apocalypse Now is undoubtedly one of the most memorable and powerful films ever made. However, the "Redux" version is completely unnecessary, with the extra footage greatly harming the finished product. As expected, the sound and video quality of the DVD is superb, but as for the movie itself, the original version is far superior. If you are looking for a much better companion to Apocalypse Now, try "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmakers Apocalypse", which is basically a "making-of" documentary of Apocalypse Now. Not only does it show you a great deal of the additional scenes in "Redux", but it's an absolutely fascinating exploration of the process of making the film.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Conrad vs. Coppola
Review: Before actually seeing it I had always thought that Apocalypse Now was one of those silly horror movies. This I can largely attribute to my first exposure to it in any way was a Mad TV spoof featuring Rudolf slaughtering Santa Claus mercilessly with a switchblade. Although funny, this askewed version of a timeless masterpiece made it look as unworthy of anybodies praise as the second Indiana Jones movie.
After I had seen Apocalyse Now I walked around school for months telling people that their lives would not be complete until they saw it. I wanted to absorb everything that was Apocolypse Now so that I could later radiate it. I decked my first period class' chalk board with scenes and quotes from the movie (and thankfully my teacher was also a fan of Coppola) and the words "Terminate with extreme prejudice" (or anthing else "with extreme prejudice") were uttered by me as often as I could find (or invent) an excuse. Yes, friends, this movie is THAT good. After I saw this movie I knew the secrets of life in general that can only be gained through certain mediums - the only other of which I can think of right now is Heller's Catch-22.
About a year after I had seen Apocolypse Now my obsessions with the film had still not died. One day while perusing through the American Modern Library's top 100 novels of the twentieth century when I discovered that one of the books therein was the bacsis for Apocalypse Now. I have recently finished Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. I had expected no more and no less from a book on this list than confusing and poetic verse that I can only pretend to follow fully... and that make me feel like an inferior underling. By the last words of the book I was genuinely pleased with the comparison between page and reel. While Conrad's book was thoughoughly impressing, it did not outshine Coppola's film. The mark of a masterpiece of the screen. In some ways Apocolypse Now outshined the book. Marlow and Kurtz exist in both book and movie. In the movie however, these two characters are far more powerful. Marlow is almost divinly perfect. He seems to be without human flaw. Kurtz in the movie does not appear to be out of his mind, as in the book. He seems to have realized something that he shares with Marlow. He sees the human fault that we all see to be normal and instead of adapting he tries to fight and even changing it - only to become something that he doesn't want to be.
I'm not going to dwell on the plot of the movie. If you want to know that (which you do) you can see it for yourself (which you should). Because of this movie my view of life has changed every so slightly subconciously. I think that this movie is an important movie for all people to see. Unless your parents decide that you are too young for the Playboy Bunnies.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: All about war; nothing about war. One of the greatest ever.
Review: "Apocalypse Now" I heard. "Apocalypse Now."
"Haven't you seen it? What? Omigod. That's blasphemy."

So I rented it.

Final opinion? One of the best I have ever seen.

Apocalypse Now (or AN as I will call it from this point onwards) is an interesting story that takes place during the Vietnam "Police Action" (that's another time), commonly known as the Vietnam War. Martin Sheen plays a soldier who has not received a new assignment in a very long time, and is getting the Major Payne twitch. His character is finally sent on a mission deep into the jungle to seek out and destroy a renegade officer, played geniusely by Marlon Brando, who has taken up natives and compiled a small empire in the Southeast Asian jungles. Sheen's job is to kill him before the madness goes any further.

The movie goes through many different phases, and at one point reminded me of "The African Queen" because of its boat scenes (Sheen's trip to Brando's 'empire' is by river). On the boat include future great Lawrence Fishburne(recently, the Matrix) who sadly is killed by Viet Cong snipers. Along the way the face toils and troubles--and that's only the first half of the film. Other notables include Robert Duvall(the surfing officer) and a young Harrison Ford, with a brief appearance. Duvall's scene with the helicopters playing "The Ride of the Valkyries" is genius. Ahh, this is what life is all about.

The second half is utterly amazing. I will try not to spoil it for the viewer. Sheen arrives at Brando's empire and stays for a few days until he decides what he is to do with Brando's character. He is eventually a little softened and realizes that his officer's descriptions of Brando's character being ruthless and bloodthirsty were wrong. Watch for the cinemetography, especially on the DVD version.

I won't detail the end, but I will leave you one question to ask yourself: "Was that last scene real? It could'nt have been. Wouldn't people be angry about that? Organizations and the like?" Have fun.

As for the DVD, it is stocked with extras that you won't find on the VHS, including some scenes that were left out, including the famous napalm scene which Coppola cut out originally and many other making of extras, et cetera, et cetera. Rivals "2001: A Space Odyssey", and "The Godfather: Part II", but not "The Thin Red Line"--THE greatest film ever made. See my review for it. Enjoy.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Two stars for redux five for the original
Review: Let me begin with saying that apocalypse now is one of my all time favorite movies so i was excited when i saw that they had rereleased it and then i saw in and now know why the scenes included in this version were deleted in the first place, because they take away from the continuity of the story line to me they became a destraction and towards the end were just plain annoying. You cannot improve on perfecton as this DVD proves so save some money and just buy the original.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Shouldn't have messed with perfection.
Review: This is my favorite film of all time. I've viewed it over a thousand times when I simply had a VHS copy of it. I received the Redux DVD with much excitement and anticipation. I've watched it once and not again. There are very good reasons for the orginal edit. It loses its focus and becomes an entirely different movie at points. The Centerfold footage and the French Plantation footage are particularly distracting from the orginal cohesive vision. Unless I can program my DVD player to automatically skip the added footage, I'll probably trade this version in for the original edit.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Somewhat flat and constrainted.
Review: I expected more from this movie. It tends to be slow and without any major surprise or twist. There are no conflicts that really standout. The combat scenes seems to be staged and locking depth. Overall: FAIR.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The new scenes don't add much. But it's still Apocalypse Now
Review: In one of the many classic in scenes in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. The PBR that Captain Willard (Martin Sheen)and the crew are heading up river on spot a boat with Vietnamese natives. The Chief (Albert Hall) decides it's necessary to take a look. Willard disagrees because his mission comes first (for those who don't know the mission is to head up river to kill a Green Beret Colonel who has gone insane)

The Chief orders Chef (Frederick Forrest) to board and search the boat. Chef reluctantly gets on and finds nothing but rice and mangos. Then one of the Vietnamese women on the boat runs to grab something and then all hell breaks loose. The entire crew of the boat is shot. Turns out all she was running for was a puppy. The woman is hurt but she's not dead. The Chief decides it would be a good idea to bring her on board and get her medical attention. Captain Willard walks over and shoots the woman. "I told you not to stop not let's go." he says.

There are many things that bother me about Apocalypse Now: Redux. The biggest one being. The added French Plantation scene. Which is Willard and the crew having dinner at a French plantation discussing various politics and the absurdity of the war. Well my question is if this man is willing to commit cold blooded murder to get on with his mission. Why is he having dinner with french people.

Another added scene is a scene with the Playboy bunnies where Willard trades sexual favors with the bunnies for some fuel. This scene truly has nothing to do with the overall plot. The fact that these guys are gonna have sex with some Playboy bunnies is completely irrelevent.

Two more problems are the changes in some characters. Colonel Bill Kilgore (Robert Duvall) is an indimidating, crazy and funny Air Cavalry officer in the original versio

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best Vietnam movie gets even better!
Review: The added 49 minutes of footage to Apocalypse Now helps to develope the characters more and give a better feeling to the movie. The movie is now less direct but explores the themes of insanity further.

The earlier added scene showing the soldiers stealing Kilgores surfboard shows Willard joking with the crew, and shows how normal they are at this point and how together. this makes the crews descendance into insanity more remarkable later on and more pronounced.

The French plantation sequence helps show the effects of war from a different viewpoint, and breaks away from the action for a while. It also shows a more caring side to Willard and makes his character more real.

Although the movie is now less of a straight action movie, that was never what it was about anyway. You could argue it is pretentious but it looks at the philosophy of war much more effectively than most all action Vietnam movies, and the extended scenes with Brando at the end really help to explain the film better.

In all, Apocalypse Now redux makes a movie which almost fits, work perfectly. Definately the best Vietnam movie ever made, and worth buying even if you have the original.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Incredible
Review: Apacalypse Now was already a great movie, with 49 minutes of additional footage, how can you go wrong?


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