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My POV
by Brian A. Wilson
Screening of "Apocalypse Now Redux"
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Samuel Goldwyn Theater
Nothing compares to seeing a masterpiece on the big screen.
So it was on July 20 at the Academy theater for the 197-minute presentation of "Apocalypse Now Redux." This was a new Technicolor print, projected with state of the art equipment and a six-channel soundtrack on a sound system that could play "Ice, Ice Baby" and bring tears to your eyes.
In short, it rocked.
Despite the magnificence of the finished product, accolades have to go first and foremost to screenwriters John Milius and Francis Ford Coppola. These guys hammered out a story that hooks you from the opening sequence and drags you through a war, both within and outside the characters, for better than three hours.
This cut adds 69 minutes to the original release, according to "Redux" producer Kim Aubry. He pointed out that the original release was indeed a director's cut, since Coppola controlled the film (and the money from it, but that's another story). So this is an additional cut by the director, not a "director's cut" in the traditional sense of the term.
Is the extra hour worth it? Yes and no.
Much of the time came from adding in the previously-deleted French Plantation sequence. In "Hearts of Darkness," a must-see movie about the making of "Apocalypse," Coppola expresses his disappointment over the staging, acting and lighting in this sequence.
After watching it, I see his point.
The sequence was a great idea. With it, he hoped to present an encapsulation of the French involvement in Viet Nam. The scene shows a French family stuck in the amber sap of time, unwilling to leave yet equally unwilling to admit their time was done in Viet Nam. It achieved that to some extent, but it felt too long for the payoff. The lavish dinner scene does provide a rich, surreal counterpoint to the insanity of war depicted by the rest of the film, but again, I'm not sure the detour from the journey on the river was worth the stopover.
The other major addition was more footage involving the Playboy bunnies. Faster paced, the scene certainly upped the amount of nudity in the film (as did the plantation sequence). Overall, the extra Bunny material seemed worth it to help explain the transformation of the Lance character.
A few other scenes had a bit more time added, including the Robert Duvall/battle surfing scene. I would say these additions enriched the movie and smoothed transitions from one scene to the next.
For what it's worth, there are no credits on the original film, no credits on this one. That is by design. Coppola believed the movie should be released with a credit list, as was provided at the Academy, and that no copy should appear on screen. Now that's thinking through the presentation of your work to the last detail.
The viewing experience at the Academy couldn't have been better, or more surrealistic. There's Fred Forrest as Chef, larger than life on screen, screaming "Never get off the boat! Never get off the boat!" one minute, then I'm holding the bathroom door for him the next. There's 20-something Playboy bunny Cyndi Wood spinning her six-guns for the troops, even as 40-something Cyndi sits there watching at the end of the row. The best part was seeing so many cast and crew stand up and take a bow for all they sacrificed to bring this epic to the screen.
Having seen the original movie so many times, it's a bit difficult to make room in the ol' mental Hall of Fame for this new creation. And it's fascinating that Coppola went to the trouble-I love that even 20-plus years after the release, the artist still had to put a few more dabs of paint on the canvas. I think there's a lesson in that for screenwriters brainwashed into thinking a script can be completed in 21 days, as some books would have us believe.
Art takes a while, and that's OK.
I'm still partial to the first cut from ?79, but if you're a serious fan of cinema, you've got to see v2.0 of this Oscar-winning masterwork.
Let me know what you think.
Keep writing.
BW
LA
bigtex@loop.com
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