An Epic Evaluation of Apocalypse Now
An Epic Evaluation of Apocalypse Now In 1979, Francis Ford Coppola unleashed a film that reshaped the view of the American Vietnam war. The film was heralded as an epic of modern film. However, is it truly an epic or is that term become a widely used word for great works of cinema? Does Apocalypse Now contain the epic criteria of religion, a journey, a vast setting, a sense of supernatural and other key factors? The journey in Apocalypse Now is Captain Benjamin Willard’s mission to assassinate Army Colonel Walter Kurtz. The former Green Beret has deserted his command and now leads a rogue army of commandos and Montagnard, the indigenous people of the central highlands of Vietnam(Human Rights Watch). This film is also a journey into the darkness of the human soul. As Willard travels up the river he spends most of his time reading the Army’s dossier on the rogue Kurtz who has been deemed insane after his use of “unsound methods.” Willard tries to understand the actions of Kurtz, and as the film progresses, Willard experiences more and more of the absurdities and immorality of war that lead him to understand the villainous Kurtz. His understanding comes with his own decent into near madness. After he senselessly kills a peasant woman on a sampan Willard states, “It was the way we had over here of living with ourselves. We’d cut them in half with a machine gun and give them a Band-Aid. It was a lie— and the more I saw of them the more I hated lies.” These words sound as though they were uttered by the insane Kurtz. The setting for Apocalypse Now is the fictional Nung River(Milks). Most of the film takes place on a Navy river patrol boat (PBR) with a four-man crew. The captain, Chief, a military man who follows protocol to a “T”and feels personally responsible for the fate of his crew. He blames Willard for the predicament that they find themselves in. Clean is a seventeen-year-old mechanic from the South Bronx. He is symbolic of the young men that fought in
Cited: 1. Apocalypse Now. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. Perf. Martian Sheen, Marlon Brando, Dennis Hopper, Lawrence Fishburne. Feature Film. Zoetrope Studios, 1979. 2. Milks, Megan. SparkNote on Apocalypse Now. 22 Apr. 2007 <http://www.sparknotes.com/film/apocalypsenow>. 3. Moncur, Michael. "Michael Moncur 's (Cynical) Quotations." The Quotations Page. 2007. quotationspage.com. 22 Apr 2007 <http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/26032.html>. 4. "Vietnam: No Montagnard Repatriation Without Protection." Human Rights News. Jan. 15th 2002. Human Rights Watch. 22 Apr 2007 <http://hrw.org/english/docs/2002/01/15/vietna3470.htm>.