Rating: 
Summary: The Butchering Of A Masterpiece
Review: This newfangled and longer version of APOCALYPSE NOW, hyped up by the director and the press, raised a lot of expectations but is a less satisfying experience than the original version. TONS of footage was shot for this film.....there is a 5 and a half hour version on the bootleg market that features even more footage than REDUX, all of it interesting, but none of it important to the film. The accomplishment of the original APOCALYPSE was narrowing down this plethora of footage into a tight, straightforward, 2 hour and 20 minute narrative that I consider one of the best films ever made. REDUX, however, ruins the narrative flow of the film by re-inserting scenes that distract from the plotline and change the mood of the film with negative results. Especially awful is the much-celebrated "French Plantation" scene, which stops the movie dead in its tracks for 20 minutes so a French colonist can rant at his dinner table about politics and Martin Sheen can smoke opium and have sex with a French widow. Coppola thought this scene was terrible when he shot it (check out the documentary "Hearts Of Darkness") and rightly dropped it from the film, so why the hell is it back in? It's especially annoying to have this once-classic movie padded out with pointless scenes when there are quite a few deleted scenes involving Dennis Hopper, Scott Glenn, and Brando that are more relevant to the plot but weren't reinserted. Overall, REDUX smells of a money deal.....Coppola trying to restart his currently flatlined career by revamping and re-releasing his old classic work. If you're a fan of the original APOCALYPSE, then REDUX is worth a rental to check out the new scenes....but I strongly recommend any newcomers to watch the original APOCALYPSE first before checking out this inferior version.
Rating: 
Summary: "Redux" version mars this film
Review: Film is an artform. And people tend to forget that the pacing has as much to do with the art and effectiveness of a great movie as its cinematography. When you add 49 minutes of footage to an already long movie (153 min), you seriously alter the pacing. Unwatchable. The original version was an effective work of art, if sometimes borderlining on antisocial (and I don't mean the story). Absolutely for mature viewers only (and try to get the original version).
Rating:
Summary: Ruined a classic!
Review: I absolutly wish to God they had not relesed this version of the classic "Apocalypse Now". The basic story is still the same; Cpt Willard (Martin Sheen) is send up river to find and assasinate Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) after he acts against regulor Army rules of conduct. Now instead of two hours and twenty minutes that is perfectly paced and feels tight, we now have a well over three hour opus that is wildly and out of control. For the most part, all the scenes deserved to be cut in the first place. While leaving Kilgore's (Robert Duvall) battle, Willard steals a surf board, and Kilgore chases after him for while. It is a funny sequence, but useless. Another is where Willard arranges to have his boat crew have sex with Playboy bunnies in exchange for a couple of drums of fuel. Absolutly pointless. There is a very long sequence where Willard stops in a French plantation/outpost where he meets a woman, falls in lust with some woman with a little heroin. Once again, pointless. Then the end, Willard's time with Kurtz is fleshed out. Now this part is interesting, where Kurtz reads Time Life issues about American involvment in Vietnam. That was pretty good. All in all, it was a bad idea to relese this movie with all the scens included. Just watch the original, it is so mush better.
Rating:
Summary: Colonel Kurtz was a fine World War II Artillery Commander
Review: Dear Reader:
Anyone wanting to know the "real story" of Colonel Kurtz should know that he was a fine Division Artillery Commander in the U.S 14th "Blunt Dirstig"("Blood Thirsty")Armored Division in World War II and famed in the movie "Armored Command". He came from Lake Hamilton, Florida.
Rating: 
Summary: Proof that editing is a good thing
Review: I had high hopes for Redux. I loved the original, so I decided to save Redux for a time when I could watch it without distraction. I just wanted to be able to sit back and enjoy it. Too bad the extra content completely ruined it for me. Don't get me wrong, it is/was a great movie, but if you have to remind yourself what the main character is doing two hours into it, its a bad thing. I've seen the original many times, and after watching Redux, all I could think was: "wtf does this have to do with the story?" Isn't it about him facing the Col.? Hell, the stuff that is added doesn't even really feel that authentic. This is solid proof that editing is a good thing. Go rent/buy the original, its a much better movie (I feel bad for the ppl that bought this Redux POS).
Rating: 
Summary: Great
Review: I won't bother going into a outline, as it's been covered countless times. I definitly feel that this movie is one of the greatest of all time. While I love the film and additions, it probobly isn't for everyone. If you loved Apocalypse Now, you will no doubt enjoy Redux, but if you were only a passive observer, or just didn't connect with it, I would recommend skipping on this.
Rating:
Summary: Classic monologue
Review: Great war period drama/action thriller that was a huge sucess in the box office. Best lineup of hollywood star actors, award winning director and a huge winning movie worldwide. A definite classic.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely brilliant
Review: When I watched the original movie 20 years ago I was
very impressed (for all the wrong reasons like Duvall's swaggering Kilgore).
Watching the additional footage in Redux,
I can say I had no idea then what this movie is about, or
it's literary complexities. The Plantation scene is absolutely
brilliant, fundamental to the Heart of Darkness book theme, also
like the end scene where we see Kurtz's copy of the 'Golden Bough'. It's so easy to sell the violent scenes to the movie audience, but you try to
show a loving scene in the movie the critics will say 'its too drawn out' in
the Plantation scene, or 'cheap' in the Bunny scene. That's the American
psyche still at work today, violence is embraced for over 3 hours,
but 3 minutes of love is way too long. There is no elegance in violence
but the movie love scene always has to be elegant
(like some airbrushed Playboy perfection) , if not, it's tawdry and shameful
to the movie critics. On a historical note, the film seems to blend the various War
myths of Poshepny's Hmong army, II/47's operation at the Memot
rubber plantation, and SOG's Operation Tailwind. Martin Sheen
wonders aloud in Apocalpyse Now why they really want Kurtz dead. When I saw the opium scene at the Plantation (US-backed
Warlords ran drug operations near Memot in war time) it seems to me
real-life military operations in the area were designed to keep the trade flourishing.
If the CIA wanted control of the area, an
out of control rogue like Kurtz (Poshepny?), had to go.
Rating:
Summary: The four horsemen...
Review: Back before Charlie Sheen had made it to Vietnam in his own film and before Martin Sheen became President, there was this film, Apocalypse Now. The history of the film is as fascinating as the characters who comprise the film (both on and off screen), as is also true of the subject matter -- the controversial and star-crossed venture of America into the dense jungles of southeast Asia. While the director, Francis Ford Coppola, will be remembered for his involvement in many major films (such as American Grafitti, the Godfather series), this film will most likely be the most enduring not only of his works, but also of American war films. There is a darkness, an eerie mystery that is woven throughout the tale of Captain Willard (Sheen) going into the jungle on a mission he can't tell anyone about, and as we come to learn, this is not merely because he is sworn to secrecy, but discovers that he himself doesn't know what is happening much of the time. Even as confused and mysterious as the war seemed to the American people (and, as it turns out, the American government), it was no more clear to the soldiers in-country, many of whom developed their own sense of loyalty, community and hierarchies of significance quite independent of the leadership's intentions or the overall war strategies. Colonel Kurtz has taken off in deep inland areas, and set himself up as a tribal leader and godlike figure for the indigenous peoples, over and against the invaders, who were more the Americans than anyone else. Willard task was to eliminate Kurtz, but falls under the spell of both the jungle and Kurtz's megalomanical personality. The crew accompanying Willard gets killled off one by one during the journey and at the camp, until it becomes an epic battle of the spirit, as confused and as ferocious as the Vietnam war itself. This is a film full of stars in minor roles -- Harrison Ford, Robert Duvall (whose line 'I love the smell of napalm in the morning' is perhaps the quintessential quotable-quote of the film), Dennis Hopper, Laurence Fishburn -- even an uncredited R. Lee Ermey ('Full Metal Jacket') appears, as does a cameo by Coppola himself. Of course, virtually every role in the film is minor save two, that of Sheen (as Captain Williard) and Marlon Brando (as the prey, or is it hunter, Colonel Kurtz). The Redux version is nearly an hour longer than the 'original' cut, already a long film at 2 1/2 hours. This one comes in a hour longer, with footage that fills the gaps in the plot of the original, including an important section at a country villa that the original colonials, the French, never gave up in the generla retreat from the country. The effects are dark and foreboding, spectacular without being overdone or unrealistic. From the relentless trip up river to the blowing of the bridge and the air strikes, everything seems both real and unreal, as is often reported about actual combat from experienced soldiers. That the film won best Oscars for cinematography and sound attests to the quality here, which the DVD experience enhances. The film was also nominated for best film, best supporting actor (Duvall), and director (among other categories), and won numerous awards around the world in other venues. The inspiration from Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' is clear -- the war's absurdity has driven everyone mad -- the French villa's inhabitants demonstrate a gentle and sad insanity, Kurtz exhibits the rebellious dictatorial insanity, Willard the establishment insanity, and all around are mad in their own rights. This is a journey into hell, but one discovers that hell was also the starting point. There is no redemption here, and the ending, while more clear and explicit in this Redux version, still leaves the viewer wanting explanations that, much like those for the war itself, simply do not exist. The horsemen of the apocalypse, bringing disease and war and death, virtually gallop through this film. To watch this film is not to understand the war, but perhaps one will appreciate it better. Every war is an apocalypse; every war represents the end to peace and hope. Yet there is a world on the other side for those who will survive -- the question becomes, who wants to survive to remember?
Rating: 
Summary: Redux: Is It Worth the Trip?
Review: Director Francis Ford Coppola shot some two hundred hours of film to create APOCALYPSE NOW, and even though the 1979 version clocked in at just short of three hours at 153 minutes Coppola complained that it did not fully present the film as he himself saw it. APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX adds 49 minutes of previously cut footage, giving the film a final running time of just over three and a half hours at 202 minutes. According to DVD notes, the additions involve fourteen never-before-seen scenes. But does this make for a better movie than the original cut? Loosely based on the famous Joseph Conrad novella "The Heart of Darkness," APOCALYPSE NOW was both widely praised and widely condemned in 1979. Transposing the Conrad tale from Colonial Africa to the height of the American war in Vietnam, it offered the story of a Special Ops captain (Martin Sheen) who is sent upriver into Cambodia to assassinate a general (Marlon Brando) who has gone insane and created a savage personal fiefdom in the midst of the jungle. The additional footage does not undercut the original film's highly praised assets, but neither do they actually resolve any of the original film's flaws. All the sequences are interesting (and the scenes with the French Colonials most particularly so) but they do not change the tone or clarify the intent of the film. This is a particular disappointment re a scene with Marlon Brando near the end of the film: although it does give you a better idea of the character's motivations, it does not cast Brando's performance (which is extremely weak) in a better light nor does it resolve what many have called an extremely awkward and very anticlimactic conclusion. It comes down to this, really. If you are a great fan of APOCALYPSE NOW, you will certainly want to add REDUX to your collection. If you like the film, you may be interested, but you're likely to watch the film--but you're also likely to find it overlong. And if you never liked it to begin with, this re-cut won't change your opinion. A further word of caution: with the exception of a trailer, there are no extras of any kind, and you may want to hold out for a possible future multi-disk release. GFT, Amazon Reviewer
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