Few films have tried to tackle the subject of war as ambitiously as Apocalypse Now Redux. Sure, some films have staged more elaborate battle sequences, and technical marvels of realism. Some films have focused more intimately on the psychological trauma of war. But there has always been a double irony to Francis Ford Coppola's own remarks about Apocalypse Now: "My film is not about Vietnam. My film is Vietnam. It's what it was really like." Apocalypse Now Redux is not a film about war. It is war: staging itself as final judgment beyond the fraying edges of Vietnam history. It is a film about apocalypse. Apocalypse Now Redux stands as the new model of war. Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) says, "Charging a man with murder in this place was like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500."" This statement exemplifies how the true nature of war is contradictory to the social expectations of what war should be. .
The film released in 1979 was nominated for 8 Academy Awards, but with a re-mastered fuller soundtrack and reintegrated scenes Coppola's classic has become epic. Coppola's re-release of his visually beautiful, groundbreaking masterpiece has not become as Rob Vaux states, "longer, slower, [and] more bloated,"" with the addition of forty-three minutes of footage (Vaux). Rather Apocalypse Now Redux better fulfills the criteria of a war/drama in order to make a more powerful social comment. .
In both films the viewer is taken on a journey with Captain Willard in a Naval PBR up the Nung River described by Vaux as, "engulfed with horror, bloodshed, & a U.S. military thrashing about like a headless animal,"" on a mission to assassinate Colonel Kurtz who has apparently gone insane (Vaux). .
Politicians representing society are removed from the truth of war. Even though they try to control the war, they are too detached to have any real affect or understanding. Captain Willard has been sent by his masters "the U.
