Apocalypse Now Redux

{{Short description|2001 extended version of Apocalypse Now directed by Francis Ford Coppola}}

{{Infobox film

| name = Apocalypse Now Redux

| image = Apocalypse Now Redux.jpg

| caption = Theatrical release poster

| director = Francis Ford Coppola

| producer = {{Plainlist|

Francis Ford Coppola
Kim Aubry

}}

| writer = {{Plainlist|

John Milius
Francis Ford Coppola

}}

{{Infobox|decat=yes|child=yes|label1=Narration by|data1=Michael Herr}}

| based_on =

| starring = {{Plainlist|

}}

| music = {{Plainlist|

Carmine Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola

}}

| cinematography = Vittorio Storaro

| editing = {{Plainlist|

}}

| studio = American Zoetrope

| distributor = {{Plainlist|

Miramax Films (North and Latin America, United Kingdom and Italy)
StudioCanal (International){{cite web|title=Apocalypse Now Redux|website=Screen International|first=Emanuel|last=Levy|date=18 May 2001|access-date=16 November 2021|url=https://www.screendaily.com/apocalypse-now-redux/405757.article}}

}}

| released = {{Film date|2001|05|11|Cannes|2001|08|03|United States}}

| runtime = 202 minutes{{cite web | url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/apocalypse-now-redux-2001 | title=APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX | work=Roger Ebert}} Retrieved July 4, 2020

| country = United States

| language = {{Plain list|

English
French
Vietnamese
Khmer
Spanish

}}

| gross = $12.5 million{{cite web|url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=apocalypsenowredux.htm|title=Apocalypse Now Redux (2001)|website=Box Office Mojo|access-date=August 4, 2019}}

}}

Apocalypse Now Redux is a 2001 American extended version of Francis Ford Coppola's epic 1979 war film Apocalypse Now. Coppola, along with editor and longtime collaborator Walter Murch, added 49 minutes of material that had been removed from the initial theatrical release. It is a significant re-edit of the original version.

Production

Francis Ford Coppola began production on the new cut with working-partner Kim Aubry. Coppola then tried to get Murch, who was reluctant at first. He thought it would be extremely difficult recutting a film that had taken two years to edit originally. He later changed his mind (after working on the reconstruction of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil). Coppola and Murch then examined several of the rough prints and dailies for the film. It was decided early on that the editing of the film would be like editing a new film altogether. One such example was the new French plantation sequence. The scenes were greatly edited to fit into the movie originally, only to be cut out in the end. When working again on the film, instead of using the heavily edited version, Murch decided to work the scene all over again, editing it as if for the first time.

Much work needed to be done to the new scenes. Due to the off-screen noises during the shoot, most of the dialogue was impossible to hear. During post-production of the film the actors were brought back to re-record their lines (known as A.D.R. or dubbing). This was done for the scenes that made it into the original cut, but not for the deleted scenes. For the Redux version, Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Sam Bottoms, Albert Hall, Frederic Forrest, and Aurore Clément were brought back to record ADR for the new scenes.

=Music=

New music was recreated and recorded for the remade film by San Francisco Bay Area-based composer Ed Goldfarb, specifically the added tracks "Clean's Funeral" and "Love Theme".Ken Hughes, "Ed Goldfarb: Synthesizing the Apocalypse" (2001), Keyboard, Vol. 27, No. 9, pp. 54-56, 58. Article reprinted at https://madcaplabs.com/portfolio/apocalypse-now-redux.{{cite web|last=Blake |first=Larry |url=https://www.mixonline.com/recording/apocalypse-now-redux-373389 |title=Apocalypse Now REDUX |publisher=Mix |date=2001-08-01}} For example, it was thought no music had been composed for Willard and Roxanne's romantic interlude in the French Plantation scene. To make matters worse, composer Carmine Coppola had died in 1991. However, the old recording and musical scores were checked and a track titled "Love Theme" was found. During scoring, Francis Coppola had told Carmine, his father, to write a theme for the scene before it was ultimately deleted. For the remake, the track was recorded by a group of synthesists.

=Cinematography=

Vittorio Storaro also returned from Italy to head the development of a new color balance of the film and new scenes. When Redux was being released, Storaro learned that a Technicolor dye-transfer process was being brought back. The dye-transfer is a three-strip process that makes the color highly saturated and has consistent black tone. Storaro wished to use this on Redux, but in order to do it, he needed to cut the original negative of Apocalypse Now, leaving Apocalypse Now Redux the only version available. Storaro decided to do it, when convinced by Coppola that this version would be the one that would be remembered.

New scenes and alterations

The film contains several alterations and two entire scenes that were cut from the original version – one of which has the boat meeting the Playmates farther up the river, and the other with the boat meeting a family of holdout French colonists on their remote rubber plantation. Also included are additional scenes with Colonel Kurtz.{{cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54023-2001Aug9.html |title='Apocalypse': Once More, With Extra Footage |work=washingtonpost.com |date=2001-08-10 |access-date=2017-06-30}}

Cast

{{About|| a list of the rest of the cast that appeared in the original cut|Apocalypse Now#Cast}}

Christian Marquand as Hubert de Marais
Aurore Clément as Roxanne Sarrault
Roman Coppola as Francis de Marais
Gian-Carlo Coppola as Gilles de Marais
Michel Pitton as Philippe de Marais
Franck Villard as Gaston de Marais
David Olivier as Christian de Marais
Chrystel Le Pelletier as Claudine
Robert Julian as The Tutor
Yvon Le Saux as Sgt. Le Fevre
Henri Sadardiel as French soldier #1
Gilbert Renkens as French soldier #2

Reception

Apocalypse Now Redux originally premiered at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.{{cite web |url=http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/1100020/year/2001.html |title=Festival de Cannes: Apocalypse Now Redux |access-date=2009-10-24|work=festival-cannes.com}} The screening marked the anniversary of the original Apocalypse Now screening as a work in progress, where it won the Palme d'Or. Coppola went to the festival, accompanied by Murch, Storaro, production designer Dean Tavoularis, producer Kim Aubry and actors Bottoms and Clément.

=Box office=

The film was given a limited release in the U.S. on August 3, 2001, and was also released theatrically around the world in some countries, grossing {{US$|4.6 million|long=no}} in the United States and Canada, and {{US$|7.9 million|long=no}} in other territories, for a worldwide total of {{US$|12.5 million|long =no}}.

=Critical response=

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 93% rating based on 98 reviews, with an average rating of 7.80/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "The additional footage slows down the movie somewhat (some say the new cut is inferior to the original), but Apocalypse Now Redux is still a great piece of cinema."{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/apocalypse_now_redux_2001|title=Apocalypse Now Redux (2001)|website=Rotten Tomatoes|publisher=Fandango|access-date=March 4, 2025}} Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 92 out of 100 based on 39 critics.{{cite web|url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/apocalypse-now-redux|title=Apocalypse Now Redux (2001)|website=Metacritic|publisher=CBS Interactive|access-date=August 4, 2019}} Some critics thought highly of the additions, such as A. O. Scott of The New York Times, who wrote that it "grows richer and stranger with each viewing, and the restoration of scenes left in the cutting room two decades ago has only added to its sublimity."{{cite news|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9404E6D9143CF930A3575BC0A9679C8B63&scp=11&sq=apocalypse%20now&st=cse|title= Aching Heart of Darkness|date=2001-08-03|work=New York Times|access-date=2009-07-20 | first=A. O. | last=Scott}}

Some critics, however, thought the new scenes slowed the pacing and were too lengthy (notably the French plantation sequence) and added nothing overall to the film's impact. Owen Gleiberman wrote "Apocalypse Now Redux is the meandering, indulgent art project that [Francis Ford Coppola] was still enough of a craftsman, in 1979, to avoid."{{cite web|title = Apocalypse Now Redux {{!}} EW.com|url = http://www.ew.com/article/2001/08/01/apocalypse-now-redux|website = www.ew.com|access-date = 2016-01-17}} Despite this, other critics still gave it high ratings. Roger Ebert wrote: "Longer or shorter, redux or not, Apocalypse Now is one of the central events of my life as a filmgoer."{{cite web|last=Ebert |first=Roger |url=http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/apocalypse-now-redux-2001 |title=Apocalypse Now /Redux Movie Review (2001) |publisher=Roger Ebert |access-date=2017-06-30}} Anthony Lane wrote, "if you have never watched Apocalypse Now in any form; if you know it well and wish to bend your Jesuitical attention to the latest addenda; if you have grown to love it on scrumbled videotape but failed to catch it on the big screen; if you were out of your head during a pre-dawn college screening, duly noted the movie as a trip, and find yourself unable to remember whether the trip in question was Coppola's, America's, or yours; in short, however relevant or rocky your relations with this film—see it now."{{Cite magazine |date=August 6, 2001 |title=Darkness Revisited |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/08/06/darkness-revisited |magazine=The New Yorker|author=Lane, Anthony }}

=Accolades=

class="wikitable"

!Award

!Year

!Nominated work

!Category

!Result

!Ref.

Boston Society of Film Critics Awards

|2001

|Apocalypse Now Redux

|Best Film

|{{Runner-up}}

rowspan="7" |Taurus World Stunt Awards

| rowspan="7" |2002

|Kerry Rossall, Steve Boyum

|Best Water Work

|{{nom}}

| rowspan="7" |{{Cite web |title=Winners & Nominees |url=https://www.taurusworldstuntawards.com/awards/winners-nominees/ |access-date=2022-11-02 |website=Taurus World Stunt Awards |language=en-US |archive-date=November 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221102083419/https://www.taurusworldstuntawards.com/awards/winners-nominees/ |url-status=dead }}

Terry Leonard, Chuck Waters

|Best High Work

|{{nom}}

Dick White, J. David Jones

|Best Aerial Work

|{{nom}}

Kerry Rossall, Joe Finnegan, Terry Leonard, Steve Boyum

|Best Work With a Vehicle

|{{nom}}

Terry Leonard, Kerry Rossall, Steve Boyum, Joe Finnegan

|Best Fire Stunt

|{{nom}}

Terry Leonard

|Best Stunt Coordinator and/or 2nd Unit Director: Sequence

|{{nom}}

Terry Leonard

|Best Stunt Coordinator and/or 2nd Unit Director: Feature Film

|{{nom}}

Soundtrack

A soundtrack was released on July 31, 2001, by Nonesuch. The soundtrack contains most of the original tracks (remastered), as well as some for the new scenes ("Clean's Funeral", "Love Theme"). The score was composed by Carmine and Francis Ford Coppola (with some tracks co-composed by Mickey Hart and Richard Hansen). The first track is an abridged version of The Doors' "The End". All songs written by Carmine Coppola and Francis Ford Coppola, except where noted: