Rating: 
Summary: Just another classic film for the purists!
Review: Having only recently seen the orignal cut of this movie, then picking up the Redux version of it, I can't help but rave about the techncal accomplishments, not the mention the superb editing job done on the DVD.None of the addes scenes detract much from the film, and they add a little bit more balance to certain segments--the French Plantation scene being perhaps the most jarring. I was mostly amazed while watching it that I didn't find the extra length had me looking at my watch. This would actually be a 6-star rating if only they would have included the superb documentary "Hearts Of Darkness", which is as good as the film itself, really. It's also missing a commentary track, which is a sin, but Coppola would have his work stand for itself, and thankfully, this is a film that does exactly that.
Rating: 
Summary: Up the river without a paddle
Review: One advantage to being perhaps the last person on Earth to see any version of APOCALYPSE NOW is that I can compare it to more recent war epics from a perspective almost 30 years distant from the Vietnam era. At this late date, a synopsis of the plot is so redundant as to be almost silly. So, I'll make it a two-sentence snippet. During the Vietnam War, Army Captain Ben Willard (Martin Sheen) is ordered to seek out and terminate with prejudice Green Beret Colonel Walter Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who's gone rogue and set himself up as a minor warlord across the border in Cambodia. To reach the colonel's encampment, Willard must travel far upriver on a Navy patrol boat.
The essence and artistic merit of APOCALYPSE NOW are embodied in its surrealism. The premise is that the war is unreal even in Saigon, and becomes only more irrational the closer one gets to the margins of the conflict until, in Kurtz's camp, all contact with reality is lost. The fascination of the film is observing through Willard's eyes the gradient of madness the further upriver he travels. For me, the elegance of the story was in the journey, not the arrival. Not having seen the original release, another exercise afforded to me by the this "redux" version was to guess which 49 minutes had been added, i.e. edited out of the original. I suspect they included the lengthy (sometimes unintelligible) sequence at the French plantation in Cambodia, and the, um, interlude with the Playboy Bunnies in their stranded helicopter. Both of these interrupted the flow of the plot like large boulders in a river. They are best left on the cutting room floor. APOCALYPSE NOW is, of course, an anti-war film that focused on the Vietnam conflict. (With the exception of John Wayne's embarrassingly gung-ho THE GREEN BERETS, I can't think of any movie that has given the Vietnam fiasco a favorable slant. Even Mel Gibson's WE WERE SOLDIERS, while depicting an American triumph of sorts, stopped short of feeling good about our Asian misadventure.) But as an anti-war exercise in a more general sense, how does APOCALYPSE NOW stand up to, say, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, DAS BOOT, BLACKHAWK DOWN, or BAND OF BROTHERS - four of the very best combat films in my memory? While the impact of APOCALYPSE NOW resides in its surrealism, that of the more recent four is in their awful realism. DAS BOOT has the added advantage of a perspective from the side opposite the victors', which demonstrates the fact that war's horrors are universal regardless of which trench you're in. Personally, I think that realism is a more powerful instructive tool, and would be less apt to recommend APOCALYPSE NOW for that reason. But it is mesmerizing to watch.
Rating:
Summary: The director got "Apocalpyse Now" right with the first cut
Review: "Apocalypse Now" is a brilliant film, but the question here is whether "Apocalypse Now Redux" is an improvement on the original. My answer is no, it is not. I would rather have seen most of the extra footage treated as deleted scenes in a deluxe DVD edition that could have included commentary and perhaps even the "Heart of Darkness" documentary. That way these scenes could have seen the light of day without intruding upon the integrity of the original film. A Director's Cut is usually validated by the studio's insistence on the original vision of the film being altered, and that is not the case with Francis Ford Coppola and "Apocalypse Now." When I first saw "Apocalypse" now I found the ending rather anti-climactic, although I certainly appreciate it better today than I did the first time through. My initial reaction was premised on the fact that the trip up the river to see Kurtz (Marlon Brando) was such a descent into hell that probably nothing they could have discovered at the end of the journey would have been as good as the set up. For years I said my favorite part of the movie was from the time Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) got on the boat until they arrived at Kurtz's camp. Most of the added footage of "Apocalypse Now Redux" comes during the journey and, for me anyway, consists of two extended segments that dispel the whole idea of descending into the metaphorical heart of darkness. The first has Chef (Frederic Forrest) and Lance (Sam Bottoms) both hooking up with a couple of Playboy Playmates. Having these rather bizarre sexual encounters undoes the whole scene of the sex-starved troops leering over the USO show and dispels the ever enveloping gloom that afflicts the group on their trip upriver. The second has Willard at a bizarre dinner on a French plantation where he is lectured on the folly of American Imperialism by the owner (Hubert de Marais) and a beautiful woman (Roxanne Sarrault) walks around naked while spouting existential bon mots and tucking the captain in for the night. Again, the additional scene alters the tone of the film and regresses the accumulating horror. Those who consider "Apocalypse Now" now to be a cinematic masterpiece will certainly want to check this version out sooner or later. You can always better appreciate the film by seeing the road's not taken, especially since "Apocalypse Now Redux" proves that all of the cuts improved the film. But if you have never seen the film, then you owe it to yourself to see the original version and pass on this one.
Rating:
Summary: Like seeing a whole other film
Review: I saw original in theater when released years ago. This uncut version has surprises around every corner... Like seeing a whole new film
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not great
Review: If you appreciate Coppola's journey into the Heart of Darkness in the original Apocalypse Now, get this DVD. If you're not a fan, this won't change your mind.
The additional scenes stretch the running time to the point where you'd best not make any plans for the day. Some do little to enhance the story, but some give fascinating glimpses into the environment and the characters that live in it.
If you plan on adding either version of this movie to your collection, get this one. The sound is better. The extras are good and the additional scenes don't really detract from the overall production.
Rating:
Summary: what am i supposed to say?
Review: This is one of the greatest films ever made. When I first saw it, i was blown away by how excellent it is. Other reviewers seem to think that this version is worse than the original, but come on, thius is a frickin good film. Probably my favorite war film, in fact, even though by conventional standards its not really a war film...more of a psychological tour de force. Favorite scenes; the beggining, the air raid, the part where willard reads kurtzs final letter from his outpost, the bizzar 'carnival' scene (thats the best way i can describe it) and the scene in which willard actually kills kurtz (intercut with the natives killing a wild boar. Yes, perhaps the frecnh plantation scene does go on a little to long, but as I say, there is no perfect film. Great performances, especially from robert duvall, expertly staged battle scenes and a very atmospheric tone make this one of my all time favorites
Rating: 
Summary: Oh, the horror...
Review: This was one of the greatest war movies ever. The "Redux" version is way too long. It loses focus with the added scenes. I highly recommend the original compared to this.
Rating:
Summary: NOW the film matches the War...
Review: 'Redux' is long, weird, rambling and, (in spots) doesn't make sense. Exactly. Just what the director intended; it is a more complete telling of a truly absurd story.
I will not retell specific storylines since they are told so often already, but this story needs to be as long as it is- the viewer must at times feel restless and impatient- the impact of the story is stronger.
Not sure how any reviewers can say that the added parts 'don't make sense;' the movie is overwhelmingly told as metaphor, the senselessness adds to the narrative.
The film is truly art, and is surely not for every taste.
Rating:
Summary: very nearly the Citizen Kane of war films
Review: For over two and a half hours I sat mesmerised - commercial cinema isn't supposed to be this good at making intricate, multi-layered and telling observations about a subject as complex, as grand and as terrifyingly real as war. He brilliantly shows how social conduct is reflected in the conduct of war. This may be the most refreshing, honest, unsentimental, intelligent and complete statement about modern warfare that we have available on film. As the war in Iraq has unfolded, we don't need to imagine what it must have been like for the people and soldiers on the ground - Mr. Coppola did it for us back in 1979. Very, very few films, art cinema and documentaries included, are able to accurately capture and translate a given human experience or aspect of the human condition in a way that is faithful to the reality of that experience. Books do it all the time. Great books go further and can not only capture but enhance and amplify living human experience. For example, in Bram Stoker's Dracula, if you can get past the fangs, blood and sex, we have a remarkably profound statement about the existential terror of human existence. Films tend to stick to fantasy, story-telling and excitation - all good stuff, but generally, not very profound. So it was a real pleasure and a relief to watch the journey downstream unfold in this film without the usual war-movie pretensions and cliches. I got the strong sense, that real war, especially when it it is carried out for less than the very, very highest of motives is probably very, very much like how it is portrayed here - fast, exciting, messy, surreal, hallucinogenic, full of carnage and horror and flashes of humour, but above all, bathed in a terrifyingly dizzy downward spiral of madness and monumental terror. It may have a logic, but is the logic of the Joker out of the Batman comics. "Why my dear Batman, do we wage war ? Because we want to. It's just sooooooo much fun. Oh Batsy, you must try it sometime." Scary stuff, indeed. My only disappointment and it was quite a big one was that the ending didn't quite match or live upto the sensational build-up -outstanding imagery aside, it just sort of fizzled out, without telling us very much new. It also seemed a bit garbled and unintentionally incoherent. If Coppola could have climaxed with something even bigger at the end, I would have rated this as one of the all-time greats. Definitely worth watching.
Rating:
Summary: The Original version, the Redux, and the Rough Cut
Review: Apocalypse Now is a movie I've been obsessed with since I first saw it in the late '80s. That a movie could be so chilling, epic, and poetic nearly overwhelmed me upon my first viewing, and forever changed what I looked for in a film. So then, around 1999 or so, I jumped at the chance to get a copy of the never-released, underground work print of the film; the 5 ½-hour "Rough Cut" that Coppola used to edit together the film we now know. Seeing the Rough Cut, which of course was of sub par audio and visual quality, I was amazed at the level of work it must have taken Coppola and his editors to piece together the movie. When I read that a Redux version was coming out a few years later, I was eager to see what scenes Coppola would place back into the film. I was upset to see that he included many I had found unnecessary, and had still not included those I found memorable. For example, everyone complains about the French Plantation sequence. And rightly so. What was an effective scene in Milius's script is here a tedious and preachy argument about politics, from a group of people who can barely speak English. Sheen's character Willard watches them in speechless boredom, as do we the viewer. The entire Plantation scene could have easily remained on the cutting room floor, or at least cut down a bit. I only wonder how the Coppola of '76, who is heard to yell "Forget it ever happened!" when referring to the Plantation scene in the excellent documentary "Hearts of Darkness," could change his mind entirely decades later. The Playboy Bunny sequence likewise harms the flow of the film, but less so. But it isn't the Bunnies who make this scene memorable, anyway. It's the soldiers who populate this blasted way-station; they're as burnt out as those we encounter later at the Do Lung Bridge. The hammering rain goes far in giving a sense of the apocalyptic environment Willard et al have found themselves in; the cackling soldiers they encounter, who seem to be beyond any "normal" insanity, only add to the chaos. And where some might decry the pretentious dialog the Bunnies exchange with the PBR crew, I've always found these scenes to be just as bizarre as any other in the film, such as Chef's girl talking ad infinitum about her exotic birds, or the corpse locked in a freezer beneath Lance and his Bunny. But let's discuss what Coppola still has not inserted into the film. Possibly my favorite deleted sequence in the entire Rough Cut: the death of the Photojournalist, aka Dennis Hopper. In both the original and Redux versions, Hopper is last seen after Marlon Brando's Kurtz throws a book at him, and calls him a "mutt." Hopper says "I'm splitting," and he does. However, in the Rough Cut, he comes back, in a scene directly after this. It starts off with Willard roaming around the camp. He's guarded by Colby (Scott Glenn), the soldier who preceded him here, but instead chose to join Kurtz. Standing in a small stream littered with corpses, Willard looks up, to see Hopper's Photojournalist, who's sneaking around above. The Photog reveals that he's taken yet another photo of Kurtz, and this time for sure Kurtz is going to have him killed for it. And he does. Colby stalks up behind the Photog, and pumps three blasts into him with his shotgun. Hopper screams horribly after each shot, in one of the more bizarre sequences in the movie (which is saying something!). Acting fast, Willard pries a knife from one of the corpses at his feet. He throws it up at Colby, and it embeds itself within his chest. In an almost Simpsons-esque moment, Colby looks down at the knife and mutely exclaims, "Special Forces knife." Then he falls to Willard's feet, and proceeds to ask him to tell his (Colby's) wife everything Willard has seen here (a line from the script, originally meant for Kurtz). Colby finishes this off by demanding that Willard kill Kurtz, then he dies. Willard runs off into the jungle, and directly after this we have his nighttime murder raid on Kurtz. This scene is important for two reasons. One, it explains why Willard was able to free himself, in order to complete his mission. And two, it adds depth to the character of Colby, who only has one scene in the original and Redux versions. Colby is an important character, because he's the only American Kurtz loyalist we get to meet in the film, an example of the type of US soldier who would chose to join Kurtz's mad army. Long-winded observations aside, the fact remains that Apocalypse Now is a moviemaking milestone, and certainly one of the best films ever made. The Redux version does nothing to harm this image. Instead, it only serves to add to the myth and the majesty of the spectacle. Whereas some already felt the original version was too long and overwhelming, now the Redux is a total blast to the mind, and is a perfect companion piece to the original release. The only thing that bothers me is the DVD itself. Talk about bare boned. Perhaps a Deluxe Edition of the DVD will be released, which could include Commentary, production notes, and maybe even the long out-of-print "Hearts of Darkness," which is required viewing for anyone interested in the film itself. Better yet, perhaps this fantasy Deluxe release could include a Deleted Scenes featurette, which would include the scenes I've mentioned above, as well as others in the Rough Cut that I haven't (such as the revelation that Willard shares his bed with a prostitute in the opening moments of the movie, or more action in the climax, as Willard takes out more guards). I can only wait for the day.
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