Apocalypse Now Redux - New Scenes and Alterations

New Scenes and Alterations

The film 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 tells an officer riding with him, "Lieutenant, bomb back that tree line 'bout a hundred yards, give me 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 Kilgore has ordered 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) on his chopper.
• 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. Before he and Lance run back to the boat, Willard steals Kilgore's surf board.
• Before Willard and Chef go to search for mangoes, there's a scene where the crew is lying around in a river. Chef asks Chief if he can go get some mangoes and Willard goes with him. The Redux version contains a new scene before this, in which 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: "Fuck. You don't get a chance to know what the fuck you are in some factory in Ohio"). Chef later asks Chief if he can get some mangoes.
• The day after the Playboy Playmates' USO show, we see the crewmembers talking about it. Chef is obsessed he was able to meet "Miss December". Clean then reminds Chef not to go crazy over his Playboy magazines, and proceeds to tell the story of an Army Sergeant who was so obsessed with his Playboys, he killed an ARVN Lieutenant who ruined his foldouts.
• The "Satisfaction" scene comes immediately after the above scene. In the following scene, Willard reads a letter by Kurtz, criticizing the incompetent young soldiers sent to Vietnam, blaming them for their losing.
• At 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 there. 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), and Lance spends his time with the Playmate of the Year. Clean constantly interrupts, trying to get his turn. During one such interruption, a large cooler is upended, revealing the corpse of the Playmates' manager, which upsets the Playmate of the Year.
• After the above scene, Chef learns that Clean is still a virgin. Chef makes fun of him for it, only to be stopped by Chief. The exchange is only partially heard in the original cut.
• The longest addition to the film is a sequence that takes place after Clean's death. The crew find themselves in a French plantation in Cambodia. 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 solemn 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 back to France. The family soon get into a long argument over the First Indochina War and the Vietnam War. There is a dispute over "traitors at home" (e.g., the famous Henri Martin Affair) and most of the family leaves in anger. After they all leave, one, Roxanne (the only one not in the conversation, played by Aurore Clément), apologizes for her family's behavior. She and Willard talk, smoke opium, and she later explains the conflicts her deceased husband had faced with himself during the Indochina War. After she undresses and approaches Willard, she 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 continuing the mission.
• After Chef's death, Willard is kept in a metal shipping container known as a "CONEX". Kurtz later sits outside the doors and reads Willard several Time Magazine articles detailing America's success in the war.
• In the Do Lung Bridge sequence, after being asked where he's going, Willard now mentions wanting to get some fuel for the ship. In the original, it is only said when Willard returns to the PBR vessel.