This is a classic !
This redux version expands on the original cut, with allot more new scenes, including the funny theft of Robert Duval's surf board, also you find out what happend to the play boy bunnies, and the french settlers chapter, that was totaly cut from the original cut. The Redux version does make a richer viewing experiance, but also drags out the action more, Making this film no better than the original version, or no worse, it's just addressing the film from a different angle.
The film is self is mesmerizing, it's like taking a acid mind trip, and the overall affects of the film takes a long time to shake. Martin Sheen gives his best performance ever.
Brando mumbles, but plays his deranged part brilliantly.
This is Coppola's best film to date, even better than the holy grail of Godfather 2.
This is the ultimate in iconic films and a must buy !

'Apocalypse Now Redux', Francis Ford Coppola's war opus is probably the most beautiful war film I have ever seen. Capt. Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) is a Vietnam soldier who is tapped to head a very dangerous and highly classified mission into Cambodia to 'terminate the position' of Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a highly ranked and highly regarded army man who seemingly has gone completely insane and defected from the army, setting up his own little society and helped by a cultish following of soldiers. Escorting him up the river to Cambodia is a handful of navy men, and along the way, they encounter several interesting people (most notably is Robert Duvall's Kilgore, a badass lieutenant colonel with a few screws loose) and some horrifying situations.

'Apocalypse' is less historical war film than a philosophical and psychological study. It is more 'Full Metal Jacket' than 'Platoon'. The running time of 'Apocalypse' is over three hours, but the film is so wonderfully paced and compelling that when the end of the film arrived, I was actually surprised at the amount of time that had passed. The beautiful cinematography is surely what stood out the most for me, however. After seeing this film, I am convinced that Coppola is one of the masters of light and photography in film history. The 'Godfather' films were all tinged with an almost sepia tone, and shadows created the feeling of a Baroque composition. With 'Apocalypse', there is an incredible usage of natural light, and the shadows, particularly in the scenes involving Brando and Sheen, almost become a living character, they are so pervasive and effective. Another gorgeous scene was when Cpt. Willard and Jay Hicks (Frederic Forrest) were in the jungle looking for mangoes, and come across a tiger. The sheer enormity of the surrounding foliage (leaves as big as a house) made the characters almost Lilliputian, but the colorization of the scene was incredible. While everything else was almost a muted grey, the leaves were an incredibly vibrant green, an effect that was particularly striking. Another really minor positive moment in the film was the great scene when the helicopters carrying Duvall and company attack the small village while playing Wagner. This could have just been an ultra-dramatic underlying soundtrack to the scene, but instead Coppola turns the song into an actual part of the scene, with Duvall mentioning that he likes to play it while they are approaching to 'scare the hell out of them'.

The performances in 'Apocalypse' are first class. Much has been made of the amount of money Brando earned for the film, and the amount of trouble he caused. Regardless of this, he turned out a powerful performance for a relatively short amount of screen time. Sheen is completely outstanding - this is the first time I have seen him really unleash in a film - and Duvall is a lot of fun to watch as the loony Kilgore. 'Apocalypse Now' is a film that is so pervasive in pop culture by now (most know several choice lines from the film, 'I love the smell of napalm in the morning' et al) but I knew little enough about it that there were plenty of surprises left to experience. I have not seen the original cut of 'Apocalypse Now' so I cannot compare it to this newer cut, but this is a film that should most certainly be experienced.

I thought it was impossible to improve on Apocalypse Now but Redux achieves it. The extra scenes of Sheen stealing Kilgores surf board is hilarious and the new scene set in the French vineyard colony in the middle of the jungle is surreal and fascinating. Sheen has a love interest there and its a beuatiful addition to the film. The extra scene with Brando's Kurtz is also great in that it gives more substance to the most important and fascinating section of the film when Sheen is with Kurtz. This is an amazing film, with real substance, a critique of the good old USA's war mongering in Vietnam and a portrait of a man who has achieved a dark illumination in the heart of darkness, taking its cue from Joseph Conrads 'Heart of Darkness'. A film everyone interested in cinema with depth, spirituality, amazingly realistic war scenes and art as a critique of arrogant murderous governments should watch.

This has to be the best film based on the Vietnam War, a really great piece of cinema

one of the singularly most overated films of all time.i have never understood what all the fuss was about.too long,podgy,bloated (thats the film,not brando).it has delusions of being americas great film,delusions are all they are.very weak compared to `full metal jacket` or even `hamburger hill`.buy me a copy,i still wont watch it again.

Despite that the fact that i had never seen apocalypse now, i decided to buy it a few months ago and finally decided to watch it the other day and thought for the standards that Francis Ford Coppola had set with The Godfather Trilogy it was very poor , thogh i thought the first hour was good and Martin Sheens performance was excellent it slowly drifted in to a poor movie and not the classic that alot of people consider it to be.

The 70's were great for Francis Ford Coppola he made all his great films then Godfather part 1and 2, The Conversation and the ground breaking masterpiece Apocalypse Now. Better than the old version just coz theres 45mins added on which makes it very long but still AMAZING

its first outing. Not designed to tempt the die-hard fan of this movie to part with more cash in a quest for greater depth, this extended edition only serves to provide other facets to this already amazing film. Adequately tying up a few loose ends - sometimes comically - faith in re-release will be restored. Now, if only more care was taken with other re-releases by those wanting to milk the Hollywood 'cash-cow'!