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Qreview: ‘Apocalypse Now’

By Glenn Ferrara

After Miramax announced it would re-release Francis Ford Coppola’s striking Vietnam film “Apocalypse Now” into theaters, fans of the film got excited.

When it also announced that this “Apocalypse Now” would have nearly an hour’s worth of never-before-seen footage, fans were beside themselves. There would be more Marlon Brando, more Robert Duvall and more Martin Sheen. An extra hour of such a puzzling and marvelous movie, what a treat!

But, as that old saying goes, when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Enter “Apocalypse Now Redux.”If you haven’t seen this film, which is loosely based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, this is not the version to see first. The original is a much better, more even film. And while it’s nice to see material that’s never been released, one is constantly reminded why this footage never made it out of the editing room the first time.

The “new” footage messes with the tone of the film, adding unnecessary color and even humor to what is mostly a nightmarish odyssey. The characters, Martin Sheen’s especially, come off more human then they should be. Dimensions are added to Sheen’s Captain Willard where none are needed. Originally, he is haunted, decaying, but intensely focused on his mission. In this version he’s more human, less of a spectre.

In the “old” “Apocalypse Now,” Sheen is wholly wrapped up in a mission and a prey he doesn’t understand — everything else is secondary. The crew, Sam Bottoms (“The Outlaw Josey Wales”), Albert Hall (“Beloved”), Laurence Fishburne (“The Matrix”) and Fredric Forrest (“The Conversation”), and their well-being are of little concern. Never in the original does Willard appear to like, or involve himself in any way, with the other men on the boat. Now he’s palling around and pulling pranks right alongside them. He’s friendly, a buddy.

In one of the added scenes, Willard trades gasoline in return for sexual favors for the crew from some stranded Playboy bunnies (Remember the USO show?). It’s not only a waste of time, but it doesn’t make much sense for his character. Why would a man so intent on getting up river that he’d kill a wounded women rather than take a side trip to a hospital, stop and waste gas and time on a crew he doesn’t even like? This stuff was cut for a reason.Another superfluous interruption has the troupe stopping over at a French plantation. There is some interesting material here, but overall it , too, isa distraction.

The last of the significant additions happens later, when Marlon Brando, playing the renegade Kurtz, reads a couple of Vietnam news clips to an imprisoned Martin Sheen. That bit is only fun because it’s Brando, but it does nothing for his character. The Kurtz character is pulled out of his shadows and is seen fully and sunlit, standing around a group of children. You see too much of the monster. In the “original,” Kurtz wasn’t as much flesh and blood as he was a looming presence rotting everything around him.

Even with all the tampering, the film is still haunting and powerful. It’s just too bad that people who wanted to see the film on the big screen have to see this version.

Reach Qguide writer Glenn Ferrara by e-mail at timesledger.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 139.