Apocalypse Now Redux

Longer or shorter, redux or not, "Apocalypse Now" is one of the central events of my life as a filmgoer. To have it in this beautiful print is a luxury. This new version will make its way to DVD and be welcome there, but the place to see it is in a movie theater, sitting not too far back, your eyes and ears filled with its haunting vision. Now this is a movie.

Apocalypse Now Redux

That this is just so much hooey isn't making too much news. The added 'redux' word hangs over the new Apocalypse poster like the 'now with Bleach' sticker on a box of detergent. Coppola could have edited together a bunch of trims and outs in 1979 and UA would have released it - he had total control and spent years figuring out the best final form for the movie. This recut is just commercial opportunism ... did somebody in Zoetrope-Land see the need for some extra cash ...?

Some critics, however, thought the new scenes slowed the pacing, were too lengthy (notably The French Plantation sequence), and added nothing overall to the film's impact. Owen Gleiberman wrote "Apocalypse Now Redux is the meandering, indulgent art project that he was still enough of a craftsman, in 1979, to avoid." Despite the criticism, other critics still gave it high ratings. Roger Ebert wrote: "Longer or shorter, redux or not, Apocalypse Now is one of the central events of my life as a filmgoer." 041b061a72