Apocalypse Now Redux is an extended, definitive version of the 1979 epic war film Apocalypse Now. Unlike other new cuts of the film, Redux is usually considered by fans and critics, as well as director Coppola, as a completely new movie altogether. The movie adds 49 minutes of all-new material, and represents a significant re-edit of the original Apocalypse Now. The movie came into production when Coppola concluded that his original cut was tame by today's standards.
New scenes/alterations
The movie contains several newly added sequences and alterations to the original film:
* In the original film, the PBR Street Gang crew members relax and play around, listening to the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" while Willard first looks at the dossier. The scene plays right before the crew members meet Kilgore. In the Redux version, the scene is moved to later in the film, and Willard is shown reading the dossier without the surrounding activity and music.
* In the original version, Willard first meets Kilgore when asking a fellow officer who simply replies "He's over there, you can't miss him". In the Redux, the officer now says "There's the Colonel coming down". We later learn that Kilgore is arriving (via Helicopter) to the scene. When he arrives, he asks an officer riding with him to "Back by the tree lines 'bout a hundred yards, give him some room to breathe". He later asks another for his "Death Cards" (which he uses in the original version).
* During the raid, Kilgore looks over some of the wounded and dead. He then walks away, simply replying "Damn".
* After ordering an air strike, a Vietnamese mother, with her wounded child in hand, runs to Kilgore. Kilgore immediately takes the child and tells his men to rush the child to a hospital (mother as well).
* After the helicopter carrying the wounded child leaves, Kilgore hands Lance a new pair of shorts to go surfing in (Note: Throughout the original cut, Lance is wearing them, but it is never explained how he got them).
* After giving the famous "Napalm" speech, Kilgore soon learns that the napalm has changed the wind current, ruining the perfect waves. Willard immediately uses this as an excuse to leave. He and Lance run back to the boat. Before they leave, Willard steals Kilgore's surf board.
* Before Willard and Chef go to search for mangos, there's a scene where the crew is lying around in a river. Chef asks Willard if he can go get some mangoes and Willard goes with him. In the Redux version, there is a new scene before this. In the scene, it is clear that the crew are hiding from Kilgore, who is trying to get back his surf board. A helicopter soon flies by, carrying a recording by Kilgore, asking Lance for the board back. Chief then changes the subject by asking how far they are going up the river. Willard says it's classified. Chief later asks Willard if he likes it like that, "hot and hairy" (to which Willard replies: "****"). Chef later asks Chief if he can get some mangoes.
* The day after the playboy bunnies' USO show, we see the crewmembers talking about it. Chef is obsessed he was able to meet "Miss December". Clean then warns Chef not to go crazy with these Playboys, and proceeds to tell the story of a man so obsessed with his Playboys, he kills an officer who ruins his foldouts.
* The 'Satisfaction' scene is now moved after the above scene. Afterwards, Willard reads a letter by Kurtz, criticizing the incompetent young soldiers sent to Vietnam, blaming them for their losing.
* One point during their travels, the crew stop at a destroyed Medevac. The area is completely wrecked, with no real Commanding Officer (much like the Do Lung Bridge sequence). Willard tries to find someone in charge, but later learns that the Playboy bunnies' helicopter has landed here. Willard then negotiates two barrels of fuel for an hour with the bunnies (along with the rest of the crew). Chef spends his time with his idol, Miss December (now Miss May). Lance also spends his time with Playmate of the year. Clean constantly interrupts, trying to get his turn.
* After the above scene, Chef learns that Clean is a virgin. Chef then makes fun of him for it, only to be stopped by Chief. The argument is only partially heard in the original cut.
* After Clean's death, the crew find themselves in a French plantation. Willard tells the head of the plantation (Christian Marquand) that they lost one of their men. He tells Willard that they will bury him (to pay respects to the fallen of their allies). What later follows is a funeral for Clean. Following the recital of a poem by one of the French children (played by Roman Coppola and watched by older brother Gian-Carlo), the crew then has dinner with the new arrivals. Willard, sitting with the family, asks when they are going home. The family soon go into a long and lengthy argument over the First Indochina War and the Vietnam War. Most of the family leaves in anger. After they all leave, one, Roxanne (the only one not in the conversation), apologizes for her family's behavior. She and Willard later talk, smoke opium, and she later explains her deceased husband's conflicts he had faced with himself. After she undresses and approaches Willard, Roxanne tells him, "There are two of you, can't you see? One that kills, and one that loves". We later see the crew back on the river, and continue towards the mission. The scene is very oneirical.
* After Chef's death, Willard is kept in a metal hut. Kurtz later enters inside and reads Willard several Time Magazine articles detailing America's success in the war.