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DVDs
Apocalypse
Now
 By
Richard Moore
It's
hard to know exactly where to start a review of Francis Ford Coppola's
Apocalypse Now, other than by saying it is a DVD that you
have to see as it is quite rightly regarded as one of the best war
movies ever made.
Having
seen the original on the big screen, and then many times on the
Cretin Box or video, the extra 49 minutes of film put in for this
Apocalypse Now Redux version has made it even more powerful
and engaging.
It is the story of Captain Willard (Martin Sheen), an army assassin
who is given orders to execute a renegade American officer, Colonel
Walter Kurtz (Marlon Brando) during the Vietnam War.
Kurtz
has seemingly gone insane and the top brass want him removed.
The
trouble is that as Willard journeys by river into Cambodia he discovers
that maybe the man knows what he is doing and may in fact have the
answers to winning the unwinnable war. And the journey Willard embarks
upon, aboard the patrol boat Streetgang, is as wild an adventure
as you would ever want to join.
The
commander of the boat is The Chief (Albert Hall) who is as straightlaced
as they come. The other three members of the crew are not. There's
Chef (Frederick Forrest), Miller (a very, very young Laurence Fishburne)
and pro-surfer Lance Johnson (Sam Bottoms).
The
weirder the war gets, the more drugged out and loopy the crew gets.
One
of the most memorable characters is the eccentric air cavalry commander
Colonel William Kilgore (Robert Duvall), who attacks a Viet Cong-held
coastal village just so he can let some of his men surf.
Two
of the most well known quotes from movies come from him "Charlie
don't surf" and "I love the smell of napalm in the morning."
The
sequence where his helicopter gunships come in over the water with
Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries screaming out is truly amazing.
However way-out Kilgore happens to be, it is nothing to what Willard
and the crew of the Streetgang have to face further up the river.
There is the Show for the Boys with Playboy bunnies, the surreal
night scenes at a bridge under attack, arriving at the French plantation,
Kurtz's base and the gut-wrenching search of a sanpan.
Once
he meets Kurtz, Willard then has to weigh up his orders against
what he wants to do and the penultimate scene is both beautifully
photgraphed and brutal.
Director
Francis Ford Coppola copped a lot of flak for making Apocalypse
Now, there were so many problems at one stage it didn't look
like being finished, but what he came up with is piece of film-making
almost without peer.
Sheen
is outstanding as the initially tormented killer who discovers that
he is actually more sane than most in the war.
Brando,
criticised for his huge pay packet for what the critics said was
very little work, is sinisterly reasonable (to a point) as Kurtz.
The crew of the Streetgang works brilliantly together and really
it is their disintegration that makes the movie. It is amazing that
Fishburne was only 14 when cast, and only 17 when the movie was
released!
Also
watch out for Dennis Hopper as the freaked out photojournalist and
Harrison Ford as the young military aide.
This remastered version looks utterly stunning and while there is
some grain at times is truly gorgeous.
Some
words of advice - watch it on the biggest screen you can. The sound,
which was done almost entirely from scratch for the Redux,
is rich, filled with positional depth and is as exciting as you
will hear. I rate it 10/10.
The
extra scenes are clearly marked on the scene selection and they
really do add a whole new depth to Apocalypse Now. Whether
it be the hoplessness of the war - in the scene with the stranded
Playboy Bunnies - or the history of the conflict from the French
viewpoint - a much-maligned addition, but one I found both interesting
and giving more balance to why America was fighting.
If
you want to see one of the greatest movies ever made, in the way
it was meant to be seen, then Apocalypse Now Redux is the
way to do it.
Conclusion:
Movie:
95%
DVD
Extras: 65%
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