One great thing about digital distribution and genre culture is the plethora of classic and cult movies getting re-releases in theaters.
To me, watching movies on a massive screen always lends a new perspective to my viewing experience and helps me appreciate the intent of the director much better than watching it on a 60-inch plasma.
Example: Just this year I managed to see Barry Lyndon in a theater for the first time and it was quite an eye-opening experience — I never realized that Barry wasn’t the good guy!
This month alone my small college town is getting Inception, Woodstock: Director’s Cut, The Last Unicorn, Two Lane Blacktop, Jaws and entire Original Trilogy. And these are just the movies I want to see!
In addition, we, and you, are also getting something called Apocalypse Now: Final Cut.
For those of you that were not satisfied with the regular 145-minute theatrical cut of Apocalypse Now, you’ve always been able to get the excessive randomness of Apocalypse Now Redux, which clocks in at an eternal 3 hours and 15 minutes.
The Redux cut has an additional 50 minutes of finished footage that includes several side quests, like the trippy sequence involving some holdout French colonists living on a forgotten rubber plantation. Or when our heroes run into a couple of stranded Playmates from the Playboy USO Tour and wind up exchanging fuel for some tender favors.
Like Coppola said at the debut of this final version of his masterpiece during the Tribeca Film Festival this April:
“You can’t make art without risk, any more than you can make babies without sex.”
Watching all these extra scenes from an artist like Francis Ford Coppola was a true delight but, in my opinion, Redux is just too damn long.
Now, FFC is back with yet a third official cut of the movie, Final Cut, that promised all the of weirdness with none of the boredom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyNwha5hrAo
According to Coppola, this is the best version of the film:
“It’s my favorite version because I feel the first one we released was clipped too short and REDUX is a little too long. This one is just right.”
Lionsgate is releasing Apocalypse Now: Final Cut in theaters on August 15 and 18, 2019. Check your local theaters for local times.
