Joseph Tanaka
Dr. Whipple
Eng 150
Apocalypse Now Review The sound of machine guns, the whirl of helicopter blades, and “the smell of napalm in the morning” makes Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola look like a traditional, action-packed Vietnam War movie. However, upon further examination, the film reveals a much deeper, ominous, and senseless reality that realistically depicts the Vietnam War. Apocalypse Now is a masterpiece of the nineteen sixty counter culture movement that is transposed into the characters of the Vietnam War. The aspects of Apocalypse Now that make it one of the most horrifying movies of the Vietnam era are the characters, the plot, and the setting. The horrifying way human beings treat one another is an enduring quality present in the characters Apocalypse Now. Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore’s Ninth Air Calvary embodies the brutality of the war because of his callous attack on a village filled with non combative residents. In the scene of the helicopter attack on the Mekong Delta village, a Vietnamese villager comes up to an American helicopter loading a wounded soldier and throws a hat with a grenade inside, blowing up everyone inside. Upon seeing this attack by a single villager, Kilgore exclaims, “Holy Christ she’s a savage, somebody get that Dink!” and a group of helicopters decimate her family trying to run away. Not only ruthless was Kilgore’s response but also the amusement that his own soldiers felt while shooting the woman and other innocent civilians was appalling, such as Clean mockingly yelling, “Run, Charlie!” What is more shocking is that a second after ordering the kill of the Vietnamese woman who threw the grenade, Lt. Col. Kilgore asks, “What do you think? No, no the waves, look at that it breaks both ways”. The fact that Lt. Col. Kilgore can think about surfing right after he killed dozens of people is appalling, yet his character adds to the horror of the movie. Kilgore was not the only callous character of the film however, Captain Willard, the movies protagonist, is just as callous and puts his mission’s priority over the lives of Vietnamese civilians. For instance, during the scene when Clean accidentally shoots a fishing boat of innocent civilians and kills all except for puppy, Willard simply orders, “Leave them, let’s go” and shoots the wounded women. Even though Clean was the gunner on the boat who started shooting everyone, Captain Willard’s final action of killing the last survivor is the most amoral decision in the entire scene. It would be a stretch to believe that the American characters in Apocalypse Now saw the Vietnamese as real people, thus the awful reality of the Vietnam War is made evident in the characters. Madness is always an attribute in war, and the plot of Apocalypse Now does not exclude this trait. Captain Willard’s entire mission proves the insanity of the plot. For instance, at the very beginning when Captain Willard is being briefed by the CIA, he is told to, “Find Col. Kurtz and terminate with extreme prejudice”. This term, though printed on a secret document, simply states to assassinate one of the U.S. Army’s own high-ranking officer because he is not following orders. The whole plot of the movie is apalling, killing all the innocent civilians in a village, on a Vietnamese fishing boat, and consequent all the characters on Captain Willard's boat just to assassinate one man. Willard notes that killing Kurtz is not for the typical charges and contemplates, “If that’s how Kilgore fought the war, I began to wonder what they had against Kurtz, it wasn’t just insanity and murder, and there was enough of that to go around for everyone.” It is evident that the mission and all the events that took place around Captain Willard during the film are disorganized and chaotic. For instance, when Willard arrives at a U.S. outpost over a bridge, all the soldiers on guard have their suitcases packed and attempt to swim to the boat from shore begging to go home. In addition, when Willard finally makes it to the center of the post, an eccentric soldier is shooting aimlessly in the darkness and when asked where who is his commanding officer replies, “Aint it you?” This scene emphasizes the disorganization and the confusion in the characters and the leaders during the Vietnam War. More importantly, the whole ideal of the U.S. Army is the greatest folly in Apocalypse Now. Kurtz and Willard are the only characters who see the actual problems with the system they operate in. Kurtz is a more efficient, loved, and effective leader than any soldier, yet he is being assassinated because he killed two agents who conspired against the U.S. soldiers. For instance, Kurtz even effectively leads attacks against Vietnamese, though against orders, and has a higher success rate. However, out of the sheer fact that he is not following orders, the U.S. Army wants him killed. Only Capt. Willard realizes the insanity of his mission, “trying to hand out speeding tickets at the Indy 500”. The paradox of the situation was that those who participated in the lunacy were the “normal”, while those who saw the problem were chastised like Kurtz. The most compelling element of the film is setting and it is the main proponent for dark, ominous feeling throughout the story. The setting of Apocalypse Now is nineteen sixty-eight Cambodia, on a river patrol boat heading up the Nung River. The setting is almost all in the forest, bushy river area of Cambodia and specifically “Chief” Phillips river patrol boat. The river is always dark and almost on every bank there is trees that hang over the river so the little sunlight is shown, everything on either bank is complete darkness. For instance, when Cook tries to go with Willard to find some peaches for his peach jam, it is almost in complete darkness and they run into a pair of yellow eyes right in front of them, unbeknownst to them it is a jaguar. The jaguar lunges at Cook and Captain Willard while they sprint back to their patrol boat and a torrent of bullets is released into the forest. This scene and the darkness of the jungle emphasize the background mood of the movie, everyone is lost in the darkness of the war and dangerous things lurk in the shadows. In addition to the river setting, the setting changes once Willard and the remaining boat members arrive at Kurtz’s compound up the river. The story moves from solely the patrol boat and the river to an indigenous, rural village in Cambodia. This change of background switches the darkness and hostility of the jungle to a simpler, peaceful setting of Montagnard civilization that Kurtz controls. The civilization that Kurtz commands almost seems ethereal because there is no war, no contact with the civilized world, and simplistic living. For instance, when Willard enters Kurtz village, he is met by a group of Montagnard people on boats carrying spears and poles all in silence and smoke covering the background. This rustic setting and the smoky atmosphere creates the impression that Kurtz’s world is the only sane and civilization in the middle of the war, but the U.S. Army is trying to eliminate it. The Vietnam War was a complex and even more confusing conflict, which in Francis Ford Coppola conveys in Apocalypse Now. What may seem like a collection of military mishaps throughout the film is exactly what Coppola was trying to get across. The Vietnam War was a disordered conflict that contained countless atrocities. There were ruthless soldiers, anxious and naïve kids too young to fight, and disorganization on every level of military leadership. He expresses all these ideas through the use of amoral characters that kill on a whim. The storyline’s troubling plot shows the disjointedness of the war. Lastly, through his choice of setting, the mood is set to be gloomy and create fear at the same time. In all three aspects, Francis Ford Coppola is wildly successful and his rendition of Vietnam makes his film one of the best ever.