Apocalypse Now Redux

Aroview: Twenty years after its release, dir. Coppola’s expressionist epic of the Vietnam War, is ‘healed’ (redux in Latin) by the re-inclusion of extra footage, adding 49 minutes to Martin Sheen’s dubious mission up a jungle river to assassinate murderous renegade colonel Marlon Brando.

Bringing it closer to the pace of Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ novel (upon which it was loosely based), this telescopes the journey in time and space to include a stopover in a ghostly plantation left-over from the French occupation (as well as adding several other minor scenes). Returning to this hellish vision of war – as a world both horribly real and unreal – reminds one afresh that this is one of the greatest films of all time.

NZ International Film Festival 2002
Adopt-a-Movie Kindly Adopted by Graeme Cowley