Apocalypse Now Redux follows the journey of Captain Willard as he attempts to bring back rogue agent Kurtz. Willard is a deeply troubled soldier in the Vietnamese war and is then assigned the mission of retrieving the newly rogue agent Kurtz. Willard puts together a team and is then on his way, he then ends up having most of his team killed and is then captured by a soldier that is under the authority of Kurtz. Willard is then taken to Kurtz’ HQ and then manages to escape and then kill Kurtz and return home.
For my textual analysis of Apocalypse I will be the opening scene of the film where we are introduced to the main character, Willard. We start of by being shown a vast amount of trees, a helicopter goes past and then a great amount of explosives are detonated. We then see the characters face in a room lying down on a bed; we are also shown his bed side desk which has alcohol and drugs on it. We then realise that he was either dreaming or reminiscing as he sits up and looks outside the window to see a helicopter outside. He then says that he is still in Saigon.
Codes/conventions
* Explosions-the bombs that were dropped during the opening sequence causing the vast numbers of explosions * Guns-the gun under the pillow of the character * Army uniform-the gear that the character in the opening sequence * Violence-guns ensure violence/protection * An understanding of why the specific war is happening-the character states the location of his whereabouts as Saigon which is in Vietnam so we instantly create meaning and analyze that this is the war in Vietnam dated between 1955-1975 * Different ranks in officers-general, sergeant major etc. * Bombs-helicopter that drops bombs causing the explosions in the opening sequence * Evidence of an officer of wars life outside of war-the picture of a woman, the drugs and alcoholic substances on the table
Audience
The audiences of war films like this film