Apocalypse Now: Final Cut 2019

Forty years after it almost killed him, Francis Ford Coppola returns to the jungle one last time. Both a complete restoration and a new cut, Apocalypse Now: Final Cut represents his fully realised vision, trimming back some of the restored scenes from 2001’s Apocalypse Now Redux and returning to the original negatives and sound masters. Even if you’ve seen his legendary, phantasmagoric journey into the heart of darkness, you’ve never seen it like this. — Doug Dillaman

“The troubled production of Coppola’s psychedelic Vietnam war epic has already calcified into the stuff of industry myth: leading man Martin Sheen was nearly felled by a heart attack, second lead Marlon Brando showed up to set too overweight to believably portray a Green Beret, a monsoon seemingly sent by God destroyed thousands of dollars in equipment... The just-right Final Cut splits the difference between the creative concessions of the original and the unwieldy sprawl of the Redux, a massive feat of film craft reined in to the general neighborhood of perfection… Coppola has at last gotten everything right where he wants it, which testifies to the real evolution of this project, as an insane risk that gradually vindicated everyone crazy enough to have believed in it.” — Charles Bramesco, The Guardian

“Final Cut… demands to be seen [in the cinema], both by longtime admirers and by young viewers lucky enough to have their first viewing be in a theater. This is an overwhelming sensory experience, with deep colors and nuanced sound amplifying the film’s hypnotic effect.” — John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter