I feel the redux includes so much more that doesn't necessarily move the story but adds to the crazed atmosphere of Vietnam. I feel like a cut inbetween the original and the redux would be best, shorten the French plantation scene just a tad (which I didn't entirely mind) and maybe a few other spots, but that's all questionable. I really love redux, I'll stand by it any day.
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shareNo. People differ on how much they think different aspects of a movie matter compared to each other. You'd expect, for instance, a person who finds atmosphere much more important than pacing to prefer the Redux version to the theatrical version, and vice versa. Your stance is unusual, but not strange.
For the record, I personally disagree (I think the theatrical version is way superior), but I understand where you're coming from.
Don't listen to the negative ones; their arguments are irrational.
I prefer the Redux version also. The plantation scene really provides a pivot point for the film. Once they go beyond that, events really begin to go off the rails quickly.
Also, the way the plantation scene is cut into the film, it arguable whether it actually occurs, or is just a daydream.
Interesting take on the Plantation scenes being a daydream.
My feeling was that the addition of the extra footage really illustrated how the French Plantation family had been there for generations battling to carve out a piece of the jungle for themselves, and the jungle was relentlessly pushing back.
It's really about interlopers not realizing that the jungle didn't want any of them there, and it was pushing back against Kurtz as well.
Yes, I agree that the French family was not going to survive indefinitely. Their numbers were being reduced quicker than they could be replaced. And, they had nowhere to return to.
The notion that the plantation was a daydream of Captain Willard is strongly suggested by the way the scenes are cut into the film. Right before they encounter the plantation dock, Willard is in the front of the boat with his rifle. He asks a crewmember to toss him the binoculars. It is a foggy day.
Then, after the scene where Willard is with Roxanne in her bedroom, we are back on the boat in the fog. Willard is in the same exact position at the front of the boat with his rifle. It is a strong suggestion.
The notion that the plantation was a daydream of Captain Willard is strongly suggested by the way the scenes are cut into the film.
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Yes, and such "daydreams" are commonly used by great directors as saying you are now seeing "reality" from the POV of a character [usually the main one].
Kubrick does it in 2001 - A Space Odyssey where the scenes on the moon [ie deception of J Doe as for Piltdown Man] leading ON to the Jupiter Mission [a Fraud] are in fact all in the nasty Rumsfeld to be [ironically IN 2001] mind of Heywood Floyd [ie Wayward Fraud], but please don't tell J Doe.
Here "it is no accident I got ...." and we see Kurtz himself remember his favorite "bend in the river" as an overgrown Gardenia Plantation as being his last view of Heaven on Earth
http://www.kindleflippages.com/ablog/
I enjoy them both.
The plantation scene just adds another layer to the story. Lays out the "spark" the started all the madness of the war: French Colonialism.
To each his own.
True. But, the history presented at the plantation just provides some limited context. Apocalypse Now is still not really a war film. It is not a Vietnam War film. The war is just a backdrop. The meaning of the film is much deeper.
The film is about the darkness in all men's (and women's) hearts. The darkness which leads some people to bad choices in life.
The Vietnam War was a fiasco, and badly managed, but that is not what the film is about.
The film explores the darkness in us all which can destroy us and our lives.
Apocalypse Now is still not really a war film... The war is just a backdrop. The meaning of the film is much deeper.
The film is about the darkness in all men's (and women's) hearts. The darkness which leads some people to bad choices in life.
The meaning of the film is much deeper.There's no such thing as "deep" (unless you're referring to e.g., a hole in the ground); you've been duped. Everything that you've ever unwittingly mistaken for "deep" is just the product of someone making sh*t up.
I prefer the redux because of the second bunny scene.
shareI prefer the Redux as well mainly for the Plantation scene. It was well thought out and lent a lot to the film in my opinion.
I just wish we had a modern film about the Foreign Legion in French Indochina during the 1950's.
Conquer your fear, and I promise you, you will conquer death.
Redux is about the "big lie". This was FFC's point. The entire Vietnam war was a scam(was the cold war itself a scam to pit the Russians vs. the Americans using dialectics? to make profit and power).
Oh yes, definitely. The French plantation scene is yet another scene that convenes the effects of the madness of war, even though it doesn't relate to the plot directly. I love it when films take little sidetracks to simply make the universe feel richer without necessarily moving the story forward.
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