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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Apocalypse now redux

15:39 / 27.11.01

I'm 14. I hadn't seen this fucking film before, I was stoned, and it blew me away.

It was a great film. Flawed, sure - (top notch piss take in Mind the Oranges Marlon) but it was fucking brill.

of course, you might disagree. especially if your name is Augustus and you smell.

But seriously dudes, please - your opinions.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

16:47 / 28.11.01

I'm definitely going to wait for the video. I have difficulties watching films in cinema settings and I teeter on that "it's brilliant!"/"it's shite!" border for AN anyway.
'Sight and Sound' did quite a good article on it (which incidently identified for me a sample from the UNKLE album) which suggests that, due to my opinion, I wouldn't gain anything by going to see it.

The Return Of Rothkoid

17:08 / 28.11.01

And lo! Coincidence strikes. I went and saw this thing in the Empire yesterday. Went in at 3pm. And came out at about quarter to seven. It's long. That said, though, I thought it worked a lot better than the other version I'd seen, some years ago.

This recut seems to link in with the Conrad a bit more. When I left the screening yesterday, I was pretty disoriented - it really is an experience more than a film, hackneyed as that description is.

I'd recommend to anyone that they go and see it at the cinema, in 70mm, if the chance arises. It's not the 6-hr rough cut, but it is phenomenal. More affecting a rerelease than that of 2001, I thought.

Loz: I'd say that you should get along anyway - it's really worth the effort. I previously thought it was a bit of a failure of a film, but this time around it just seemed to make sense. When was the last time you saw it? It's worth it for the sound alone, methinks.

Read a badly-written review on my blog, here.

[ 28-11-2001: Message edited by: The Return Of Rothkoid ]

Our Lady of The Two Towers

21:21 / 29.11.01

I tend not to do very well with films generally, so only go to see specific films which I'm almost sure I'd enjoy. Plus there's no way i could stay in my seat for that length of time. I'd need to have the video so I can move around and go to the loo in the middle and so on.

17:27 / 30.11.01

It's only having watched it that I saw the point of all those weird samples in NWO by Ministry. The siren is sampled, as is the journalist shouting, IT'S ALL RIGHT! and also the twiddly little repeat guitar solo near the end comes from the scene where the v.c. are bombing the bridge and everyone's listening to Jimi Hendrix and wishing they were someone else.

Excellent.

Pin

18:34 / 30.11.01

I've justr realised that you're younger then me. A lot younger then me.

Stop that. I want my title back.

And should this fucker ever get here, I'll be veiwing it my own good self...

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

15:53 / 05.12.01

This movie does not have the power it is capable of on a TV screen. I saw it on TV and liked it...then saw it in a theater and was utterly mesmerized. If not for Memento, this would have been the best movie of the year, despite being 20+ years old.

It's not a movie like we are used to, but something you immerse yourself in, and come out as if you've been somewhere new. Not because of any one great scene, but the way it slowly sucks you down into a world of madness.

A lot of reviews said this was the last great Halloywood movie...I see it more as one the first of the Indy movement. I can't imagine this sort of movie ever being made today. Which is a fucking shame.

17:17 / 05.12.01

I've never seen it either. Thinking of going to see it this weekend, or next. Any advice on good London cinemas in which to lose my 'Apocalypse' virginity?

10:02 / 06.12.01

It's better than Memento. I saw the opening 20 minutes or so of the original cut on VHS, but it was ropey and I never got around to finishing it. This blew me away.

For a start, the visuals and ESPECIALLY the sound are remastered; I read a short article on putting it into 5.1, and believe me, it sounds fabulous. The soundtrack, the effects; AN was one of the first films to create the concept of "Sound Design". Those opening helicopters... are just synthesized. And yet they set the standard for chopper-noise.

Martin Sheen's fabulous; so into the role, so right, so Everyman. Visually it's splendid; the napalm against the green jungle earlier, and then the washed-out colours of the boat journey. It veers from absurdity to drama and back again; it's hard to explain because if anything, the best thing about it is the entire _experience_ of seeing it.

It's worth the effort; it's affecting and surprisingly coherent (no doubt the longer cut helped). Brilliant. Which screen to see it on? The largest, loudest motherfucker you can.

(And the 14-year old Laurence Fishburne is pretty damn good as well).

Pin

11:31 / 06.12.01

And on that note... Is the IMAX print coming to England? Cos that would be a motherfucker to witness...

The Return Of Rothkoid

11:39 / 06.12.01

quote:Originally posted by Ganesh v4.2:
I've never seen it either. Thinking of going to see it this weekend, or next. Any advice on good London cinemas in which to lose my 'Apocalypse' virginity?The Empire in Leicester Square. Be warned; £9.50 tickets, unless you go to the 3pm Monday-Friday screening, when it's £6...

Pin; believe me, the 70mm will fry your head enough. I think the IMAX would be a little too big for something that's as visually dense as this flick can be...

15:45 / 12.12.06

Just in terms of the Redux vs. original debate, I saw the Redux a couple of days ago and really loved it. The plantation scene may take away some from the immersion in the jungle of the original version, but it's also fantastically moody in its own right, and definitely worth seeing. It's astonishing how this movie, at over 200 minutes, can just sort of drift along, never feeling boring or draining. And I mean drift along in the best possible sense, as others said, right from the opening, you're dropped into this world, and get no respite from the hazy journey up the river. I feel like this pretty much ends the war movie genre, nothing has, or likely ever will, top it.