The Redux version of AN does a lot to humanize Willard. It adds two long scenes and a sequence (when he steal's Kilgore's surfboard), and they all show you a lot about who and what he is. Still, the movie was already very slowly paced, and the two new scenes dragged it down further. If you want to better understand Willard it's the better version. If you think the original is dull or boring, the Redux version will be far more so.
Upon first viewing AN, I thought everything was about as good as it could be for a movie. And as such I felt any benefit Redux provided in to Williard's character was marginal at best, and outweighed by the drag it put on the overall experience.
Willard was, by design, inhuman. He was an operator and nothing more. He really couldn't cope outside of that one element. The scenes in Redux showed that wasn't always the case. Stealing the surfboard was fun; it was the only time he laughed that I know of. It was also a show of contempt for Kilgore's way of doing things. Trading fuel for some time with the bunnies showed that he actually did care about the crew. He felt sorry for them knowing what the big picture looked like. I'm not really sure what to make of him smoking opium with the perky-breasted French gal, but it was another instance of him behaving well outside of his established nature. Whether or not expanding his character was the right thing at the expense of another half hour is a tough call. I do think having a better understanding of his nature, both before and after, is meaningful, though.
If that is so, then movies we are even further removed from like Private Ryan, or Paths of Glory would have less and less of an impact, and I can't say that is the case.
Most of these movies, and in particular SPR, had an overarching story to tell. A story about the war. Realism was important but only insofar as it's details that make the story believable. Platoon was different in that regard. It was about being in the war, and one guy's perspective of living through it. Realism
was the story. At the time Platoon came out we all knew Vietnam veterans, and we knew how fucked up they could be. We certainly had grandparents who'd been in WWII, but they came back and made good. As we're losing sight of the troubled, shell-shocked Vietnam vets I suppose the movie could be less impactful. Not less good or less meaningful. Just further removed.
This makes me wonder what Twelve O'Clock High must have been like to former B17 pilots in 1949, or gods forbid, what SPR would have done to people had it come out in the 40s.
Topic: Last movie you saw? (Read 563525 times)
