"But what about the new stuff? It's all good, but there are niggles - when Willard and his men rag Kilgore by stealing his surfboard, it deepens their characters and makes some nice relief, but the extra footage blunts Duvall's great exit line ("Some day this war's gonna end"). The Playboy bunny scene has moments but feels unfinished, and a crucial moment with Laurence Fishburne is still MIA. The long French plantation sequence has weird echoes of Sid James and co. taking tea during battle in Carry On Up The Khyber, but the first ghostly appearance of the colonials in the mist is magical. A bit with Brando reading articles aloud makes this a more specific film about this particular war, but is literal editorialising.Now, it's a slower film, with a little more intellect and sentiment, but perhaps the added time to think will make you feel less overwhelmed.VerdictUnmissable in any version, especially if you're an Apocalypse-in-the-cinema virgin, it'll take a few more viewings to decide which is the definitive version."
