which is actually better 'apocalypse now' or 'apocalypse now : redux' ?

There are four different treatments of the end credits, all four are available in different VHS, laserdisc, DVD and TV prints of the film......
When the film premiered in a limited 70mm format, it had no beginning or end credits, nothing but a one-line Omni Zoetrope copyright notice at the end. Programs were passed out to theatre goers in lieu of any credits.
When the film went into it's wide release it's format was 35mm. This version included end credits rolling over surrealistic explosions and burning jungle, showing the Kurtz compound being destroyed.
When Coppola heard that people were assuming that the explosions during the end credits of the 35mm version meant that an air strike had been called in on the Kurtz compound (which is not what he wanted audiences to think) he quickly re-edited the 35mm version to have the end credits rolling over a simple black background and a slightly altered musical score.
The "Redux" version also has the end credits over a black background but in different screen fonts and including additional "Redux" inserted cast members.

A 289min long workprint version exists. It has never been officially released but circulates as a video bootleg. The bootleg contains the following extra material not included in either the original theatrical release or the "redux" version.
A longer opening montage, the entire 10 minute song "The End" by The Doors is heard.It intercuts longer helicopters/jungle images with Willard in the hotel room in a drunken rage, as well as a scene where he is with a prostitute. There are various shots outside depicting the streets of Saigon.
When the two soldiers pick up Willard in the hotel room there is a brief conversation while they help him shower and shave. They notify him that his wait for his new mission is now over.
The scene where Willard is given his assignment is longer and contains much more dialogue. The general informs Willard that the mission is purely voluntary and he can decline it. The general also offers Willard a promotion to major upon completion of the mission. For some reason Colonel Kurtz is referred to in this scene as "Colonel Leevy". There are some external shots of the military base.
A brief scene where Willard is introduced to the crew of the Navy P.B.R.
Carmine Coppola's score is not present in this version. Many more songs by The Doors are played throughout the film instead.
None of the narration or dossier voiceovers are in this version.
There is no audio dubbing in this version. All the audio is from the sound recorded during the actual filming. Much of Robert Duvall's dialogue is unitelligable due to the sound of the helicopters in his scenes.
A much longer first cavalry "Ride of Valkyrie" attack scene (30+ mins)showing much unused footage and alternate takes.
A much longer playboy bunnies performance.
Various extended scenes on the boat, and alternate takes and shots.
A scene where a miniature toy boat passes the Navy PBR. Lance tries to grab it out of the water. The Chief yells at him to leave it alone claiming it's a booby trap. To prove it the Chief fires some shots at it to which it explodes.
When the P.B.R. reaches Do-lung bridge, the soldier that greets them gives a more detailed explanation of the chaos around the bridge.
When Lance is reading his letters on the boat, he suddenly stops to machine gun a water buffalo on the shore. The Chief yells at him to stop.
The sequence where Clean is killed is omitted.
A slightly longer French plantation sequence. After the French woman strips she crawls into the bed with Willard and they begin kissing.
The sequence where the Chief is killed is omitted.
More dialogue between Willard and the photojournalist when they first reach the Kurtz compound. The Journalist reveals that it was HE who was able to get the montangnards to break off their attack on the boat in the previous scene. Willard repeatedly asks the Journalists name but he refuses to answer.
The character of Colby, (the soldier who was sent before Willard to kill Kurtz, played by Scott Glenn) has a much more substantial role in this version. As Willard inspects the compound, Colby tells Willard that the night before, NVA soldiers had attacked (which explains all the bodies laying about the compound). Willard then enters Kurtz's house, much to the dismay of the journalist. Willard sees Kurtz empty bed and his medals, also his journal with the inscription "Drop the bomb, exterminate them all" (many of these scenes were in the final version but re-inserted in different places).
The scene where Willard talks to Chef about the air strike on the boat is omitted.
In this version. The first time Kurtz appears is the scene where a mud caked Willard is tied up (seated) to a pole in the rain. Kurtz appears with camouflage face paint, Willard asks...."Why he is being mistreated?" and tries to bluff his way past Kurtz by telling him that he had just completed a secret mission in Cambodia, and only stopped for supplies. Kurtz says nothing to him, but plants Chef's head in his lap. (Only a portion of this scene was in the original version).
The scene where Willard meets Kurtz in his bed chamber contains more dialogue....as Kurtz makes it clear that he knows why Willard is there.
A scene where Kurtz talks to Willard in the bamboo cage while two children sit on top of the cage and dangle insects in Willard's face. He tells him that Willard is "like his colleagues in Washington, master liars who want to win the war but don't want to appear as immoral or unethical".
A lengthy scene where the montangnards in a ritualistic display pick up the bamboo cage (with Willard inside) and poke him with sticks (Lance and Colby participate in this). The natives dance around the bamboo cage, chanting and singing while a squealing pig is tied up and killed.
A 10 minute version of the scene where Kurtz reads the poem "The Hollow Men", intercutting between his reading and the journalist talking with Willard.
A scene where the journalist meets Willard to tell him that he thinks Kurtz is about to kill him because he took his picture again. During which Colby comes behind the journalist and shoots him three times, killing him. Willard throws a knife at Colby's stomach to which he falls, but before he dies he asks Willard to talk to his family for him and asks him to kill Kurtz.
Kurtz speech about the horror and the children vaccination are omitted.
During the assassination scene at the end, before Willard enters Kurtz' home, one of the guards confronts him. Willard picks up a spear to defend himself as the guard picks up a child to shield himself. Willard runs the spear right through the child and into the guard. The final scene with Willard and the montangnards after Kurtz assasination are omitted.

That French plantation scene is HORRENDOUS.

SOMETHING GOOD WITHOUT MARLON BRANDO!

I'm suddenly realizing how short life is, I think.

Clearly Coppola did not conceive of Marlon Brando weighing six-billion pounds and having to be shot entirely in shadow so I think it's pretty easy to separate them.

Even if he looked like Paul Newman, the Brando sequences are, written and filmed, portentious, ponderous, and camp.

I also like the way Redux moves and feels with the extra footage (especially the sex), but the Plantation scene is ludicrous as history and politics.

OTMFM

"I swallowed a bug!" = pure poetry.

ooh, i like the sound of that version!

Even if he looked like Paul Newman, the Brando sequences are, written and filmed, portentious, ponderous, and camp.

Although on reflection I accept all that, I still think those scenes work. Some of the campness in fact makes it all the more menacing.

Only just saw Redux for the first time tonight. Can't say the plantation scene bothered me much; it's a nice little breather in fact. It'd been so long since I'd seen the original that I didn't even recognize that the other new stuff was even new. 200 and some mins is quite a butt numbing length, though, and AN is already a draining enough experience as it is. Still, can't really say I have a preference of one over the other.

Also, young Fishburn = CUTE!

i remember hating the plantation scene and the ending, but except for those flaws, I love this movie!

fucking thing looks absolutely incredible in 1080/BluRay; a fact i only realized this week.

well, he's right

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/aug/09/francis-ford-coppola-apocalypse-now-is-not-an-anti-war-film

Off to see the new 4K Final Cut 'with Dolby Atmos' tonight on the tallest IMAX screen in the uk! Most excited i've been for a revival for a long time. The removal of the dreaded extended Playboy bunnies sequence seems to be going down well.

Was watching the version with the plantation scene and it really, really sucks. What a mistake.

There are now two versions with the plantation scene, Redux and Final Cut. Final Cut (which I have somewhere but have not watched) apparently splits the difference between the two, more or less, but still supposedly keeps all/a lot of the plantation scene, which didn't really help a movie that was already pretty draggy (if we're being honest).

So there are officially *four* different cuts:

Apocalypse Now - Theatrical Cut 153 minutes
Apocalypse Now Redux 202 minutes
Apocalypse Now - First Assembly 289 minutes
Apocalypse Now - Final Cut 182 minutes

I dunno if there's a way or ever was a way to see the Assembly Cut besides a rare special screening. I think they even make it hard to see or buy the theatrical cut in the US right now, unless you get it as part of a box set, which I did, albeit by way of a shockingly fair priced German edition (which also includes Hearts of Darkness). The restored theatrical version I recently watched looked great, though.

Never found the Theatrical version draggy. Its a series of sketches that make their point, and there actually isn't that much dialogue.

Then the plantation scene comes along and it feels like too much of an explanation of the colonial/imperialist mindset.

Far from my favourite film, but I've seen both and would stick with whatever version played in theatres first time around.

It's not a movie that needs more of anything.

Draggy, druggy ... it's not a movie in any particular hurry to go anywhere, lol. Certainly when it gets to the end it just kind of hangs around for a while, like the dog that caught the car. What now? Not that I would really change anything, its flaws are more feature than bug.