Man, I’m with you. Redux should have be left in the trash. Took a semi-tedious movie to an excruciating exercise in “How long can I stand this bullshit before I have to pee?”. It denegrates the original work.
Agree. The original, as released in theatres, was a taut thriller. The Redux was a … mess. The scenes about Kilgore worrying about his surfboard, the Bunny screwing, and the French plantation, added nothing. In a thriller, you have to keep the plot moving, and the original did. The Redux made me ask what these scenes and incidents added to the plot, and why they were included, when all they did was to slow the plot down.
I watched Badlands for the first time earlier this year and man, does “James Dean type” fit Sheen’s performance in that film.
IIRC, the trooper’s “I’ll kiss your ass if he don’t look just like James Dean” was highly appreciated, since Charles Starkweather himself was a big fan.
I don’t think Brando was an indispensable as he was difficult in his role. Plenty of his era’s Method actors would have done well. Paul Newman would have been credible. Shifting from Method to Shakespearian, Peter O’Toole would have been interesting. There’s a literary theory that Joseph Conrad made Kurtz and Lord Jim from the same source material, one noble and the other corrupted
I thought it was the obvious that Willard was suffering from massive PTSD, hence the confusion.
Bumping this because I have since discovered that much of Willards narration and some body double shots were done by Sheens brother, Joe Estevez.
To me there is a definitive version of Apocalypse Now: the original theatrical release.
And by that reasoning I’m not aware of many films that don’t have a definitive version.
“Do you find my…method acting…unsound?”
I wish they’d have had anyone but Brando in the role. We could have seen the movie that was actually conceived.
Hey come on, that quote is from Porklips Now.
I thought Brando was fine and really couldn’t imagine who else could have played it.
Think about William Shatner in the role.
Sorry.
“i see no…acting…whatsoever.” 
Just kidding. Brando brings a lot to the role. About 300 pounds. He didn’t bring the script, though. Ba dump!
Seriously, my only real complaint with Brando’s performance was his prima donna-ing behind the scenes. If you didn’t know about that it just looks like Mertz, I mean, Kurtz, is insane, Which he is.
I could see Nick Nolte doing a good job.
How about Gary Busey? 
Seriously, though, a couple of decades afterwards, John Malkovich did a decent job in the TV movie of Heart of Darkness. According to Wikipedia, Boris Karloff played the role on TV in 1958.
In agree on Malkovich. If only FFC could have waited.
But then we’d get Charlie Sheen as Willard.
I think the movie as actually conceived would have been greatly inferior to the one we got. It’s a masterpiece because of the chaotic production, not in spite of it.
That’s a good point, as we would likely have got all the deleted Redux scenes, in the initial version, as if the original wasn’t already as bloated as Br…already bloated.
How many here have seen Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse?
I last saw the doc when it was in theaters…30 years ago! I thought it came out like 10 years ago. No wonder I can’t remember any of it. I should track it down and rewatch it.
But has he been an assassin, though? And even if he had been, he is clearly in the throws of PTSD. He is barely holding it together throughout the movie. To me it makes perfect sense and I thought it was very well played.
I love all versions of this movie. I’ve watched them all several times. I’ve landed on the directors cut as my favorite. I like the extended format and I like immersing myself in the experience with Willard.
Six that he knows of. But never an American. It’s in his voice over. The assassination of a tax collector is specifically alluded to when he visits the general and CIA spook.
I think the casting of Harrison and Spradlin (small though they were) was nice