In 1976, Francis Ford Coppola was at the top of his game; between his three major films, The Godfather Parts I and II and The Conversation, he had won the Best Picture Oscar twice and the award for Best Director once, and his protégés -- among them George Lucas -- were beginning to make a name for themselves. two years earlier, Lucas and their mutual friend, director John Milius, had been discussing Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, and its possible basis for a film about Vietnam; as Milius worked on the screenplay, Lucas prepared to direct. But Coppola and Lucas had a series of professional clashes, which led Coppola to take over directing duties on the Vietnam story, while Lucas went solo and left for England to work on something called Star Wars.

In March of 1976, Coppola left for what was expected to be a five-month shoot in the Phillippines. Eight months later -- with no clearly-written ending, sets destroyed by a typhoon, and the film 2-1/2 times over budget -- he was still there.

The film premiered on May 21st, 1979 at the Cannes Film Festival, although it was rightly described by Coppola and others as "a work in progress." It was here that the parallels between the film and the experience were first made; "It is Vietnam," Coppola said, "and the way we made it was very much like the way the Americans were in Vietnam. We were in the jungle, we had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little we went insane."

Between then and its domestic premiere in mid-August, Coppola and United Artists -- still unhappy with the ending -- cut the nearly 2-1/2-hour film, and added an oddly incongruous ending of the firebombing of Kurtz's compound (to use as a background for the credits, which the original cut did not have).

It didn't help. The film, while earning too much money to be termed a financial disaster, left far too many wondering what it all meant (and, more pragmatically, just what Brando's Kurtz said ). The film broke Coppola's winning streak along with his spirit, garnering Oscars only for sound and for Vittorio Storaro's stunning cinematography.

But behind all of this was what was truly an amazing movie, one that needed some separation from the stories of its creation for its achievements to become noticeable. It is only midway through the film that its allegorical nature become truly evident -- and when it does, it holds your attention without wavering.

It was right year, then, that Coppola revisited his epic last year, cleaning up both the audio and video and adding back forty-nine minutes (comprised of three major scenes and several minor bits). Apocalypse Now Redux, as it had come to be known, presents an improved narrative and more measured pacing than its predecessor. The DVD table of contents breaks the film into 36 chapters, 14 of which are listed in yellow on the insert to identify them as new additions (the original was comprised of 19 chapters; the new disc changes the wording of a few of the chapters, and subdivides two of the older chapters into two each. In addition, the "firestorm" end-credits sequence, a supplement on the original disc, here appears as Chapter 36).

For fans of the original film, the first noticeable addition occurs with the entrance of Robert Duvall's Lt. Colonel Kilgore on a helicopter with the slogan "Death from Above" emblazoned on it. After the still-iconic "Ride of the Valkyries" helicopter attack sequence, still sensational after all the years, there is new footage of Kilgore obsessing about surfing, preparing to do so himself, then, most significantly, an episode in which Willard and his men steal Kilgore's prized surfboard. This is followed by a fresh river interlude in which the men hide under some shade while Kilgore's voice is heard booming from a circling chopper, asking for his surfboard back.

These scenes do little more than bring more depth into Kilgore's character; more significant to the film, however, are the Playboy and Plantation scenes. The first comes in at about 82 minutes into the film; it is remarkable for the tone of melancholy that it presents, and although there is some nudity and (implied) sex, the scene is rather one of sadness and detachment than of sensuality.

At just short of two hours in is the longest (at 25 minutes) addition to the film, the near-legendary French Plantation port-of-call. This scene becomes the new point at which the allegorical nature of the film becomes apparent, as the travelers up the "river of memory" begin their travels back in time.

Film Synopsis: Captain Willard (Martin Sheen), whose mission is to "terminate with extreme prejudice", receives orders to seek out a renegade military outpost led by a mysterious Colonel Kurtz (Brando) during the Vietnam war, sending him and his team up the river of memory into the heart of darkness.

Technical

Video:	Widescreen app. 1.92:1 (Anamorphic)
Audio:	ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:	English, Closed Captions
Chapters:	36

Video: In the years following Apocalypse Now, cinematographer Vittorio Storaro became fixated on what he calls the Univisum system, based on the Greek "golden ratio" of 2:1 (typified by the proportions of the Parthenon). He has been active in reframing all of his films in the new ration, and sadly Apocalypse Now Redux was no exception; this is not a pan-and-scan of the original 2.35:1 negative, but rather a straight cropping. What is worse, however, is that the new pressing is zoomed in even beyond what was necessary. Compared to the original DVD release of Apocalypse Now (which was also presented in the 2:1 ratio), the new image is further enlarged approximately 8-10%, losing image off the top and right side, while gaining slightly on the left side.This has the effect of magnifying the film granularity and unavoidable film jitter, leaving the video quality of the new cut a mixed bag. Apocalypse Now Redux's transfer was performed in Technicolor dye-transfer, which has strengthened the colors significantly compared to the previous releases of the film (and the previous DVD pressing). As a result of the dye transfer and advances in transfer technology which overcome the additional cropping, the image is sharper and more lifelike (especially during very difficult scenes, such as the fireworks and flares of the USO show scene, but -- especially when compared to previous releases -- the video has a noticeable "zoomed" feeling.

Audio: The audio is strong throughout, and has been cleaned from its previous incarnations.

Supplements

• Theatrical trailer