![]() Other insertions add a much-needed camaraderie among the boat crew, which makes their transformation into "hollow men" more evocative. Diversions into two new scenes now break up the narrative a second sequence involving the Bunnies sits nicely in the story, while an extended detour to a French plantation brings the plot to a haunting halt but sets up the final thematic cataclysm much more sharply. In this sense, the new edit is a triumph, because the film's numbing chaos is now much more finely focussed on its themes, even if the story itself is more rambling. But he says this was his original intent - less a war movie and more a film about truth and restraint. This has always been a magical, gruelling, brilliant movie, so it's surprising that Coppola has tampered with it in such significant ways. but changing it completely in the process. And the result is stunning, making an astonishing film even more powerful. ![]() On 2001's Redux: Coppola's 1979 masterpiece gets the director's cut treatment, with 49 minutes of previously edited footage reinserted to bring the film in line with the director's original vision. It's also been digitally transferred to the highest image and audio standards, a 4K transfer that still looks like 70mm and sounds even better. And it ends on a much more hushed note, which is refreshingly jarring. This version has a fierce sense of focus both in its plot and in the character journeys. Basically, what he's done is take the Redux version with its re-inserted scenes, then tightened it into something less meandering. But Coppola says he's finally done switching things around here. On 2019's Final Cut: I'm not one for watching endless versions of favourite films, as it can be quite risky (I've had a few favourites ruined by tinkering directors). Along the way he bonds with the crew (Forrest, Bottoms, Fishburne and Hall) of the boat taking him up-river as they encounter a gung-ho surfing colonel (Duvall), a sexy French woman (Clement), a few Playboy Bunnies, a free-wheeling journalist (Hopper) and more war-time horrors than they could have imagined. The story, based on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, centres on Captain Willard (Sheen), a US Army intelligence officer with a mission to travel into Cambodia and terminate ("with extreme prejudice") the command of the renegade Colonel Kurtz (Brando). Find it in a cinema with great projection and sound, any chance you get. Everything about the film echoes and resonates, from finely tuned performances that feel like they're on the edge of madness to the way Francis Ford Coppola orchestrates the mind-bogglingly elaborate set pieces without using digital effects. This is an immense, overwhelming cinematic experience that envelops and rattles the viewer with its massive imagery and pungent themes. An American masterpiece, this is one film that should never be watched on video, no matter how big your home screen might be.
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