Alvaro Daniel Castro Terrazas History in films March 23, 2012

Questions and answers paper about Apocalypse now (1979 - directed by Francis Ford Coppola's): looking for a reason into the depths of the hell.

The film Apocalypse Now, first released in 1979, is now recognized as Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece. It was inspired in Josephs Conrads novel Heart of Darkness. This is a great film that tells the story of a journey upriver where the characters experience not only the atrocities of war, but also a spiritual experience in the middle of the darkness and the unknown. The film can be understood from different perspectives: as a USAs conflict with Vietnam and as a spiritual journey. So, from this two points of view, we can ask ourselves:

Q. is this a conventional war film?

A: yes and no. Yes because the setting of the film is located in time and space in the Vietnam war1 and the typical features of a war film can be easily identified during the film: we have a squad, a mission and of course, we have bullets everywhere! However, if we remember that this film was based on Heart of darkness, a 19th century book with a completely different context (1800s Africa exploration era), we should know that this books content is not exactly about war. Therefore the film focuses in different aspects and not just war between men, but an internal struggle for whatever we call the sense of our lives. Q. So the perspective of a human spirit journey what does it mean?
1

Vietnam war: from 1st November 1955 to 30 April 19 years, 180 days) South Vietnam, North Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos

Coppola uses the war to somehow justify the human madness. The abuse of drugs and lethal power over men: the Vietnamese, who can hardly be recognized as people, they are just a shadow of savage tribes; lunacy is the result of the actions that literally lead the squad into the depths of the hell. The captain Willard is the representation of the human Soul; the only living spirit on earth, he has chosen the madness as a way of life. However Willard tries to keep a perspective clear: kill Kurtz, his supreme mission. But when he starts getting to know him, he is not sure of his real purpose and here comes the most important part of the film, because he do not hesitate in order to accomplish his mission, he doubt about the reality and he is not sure if he is living in the real world or inside a nightmare. Actually his mission is the only thing that connect him with the reality. At the end of the film he does not just kill Kurtz because he was ordered to kill him. He kills him because it is the only way to probe himself that he can leave the madness, the only way out of hell. And from the dead body and from his blood of the dead king the reality is reborn2; the horror dies in Kurtz, and his death allows the redemption to Willard, for the myth of the sacrifice that is considered in many cultures the origin of creation and he can now choose between become the new god for the natives or to stop definitely the violence of his world leaving that place and becoming a new man.

Q: How was war depicted in the film?

War was depicted as chaotic and erratic violence. Except for the scene of the helicopters attack with Wagners ride of Valkyries we dont know who is the enemy, if there really is an enemy to fight.

Q: what makes this film different from the others?

2

Life is founded upon the death of the primordial being whose substance is the very food on which the world lives. From the death of Christ for example

When I was here, I wanted to be there; when I was there, all I could think was getting back into the jungle Captain Willard

Well they did not care about going back home. If they had the chance, they would rather preferred to stay in the war, because war made them feel powerful, undefeatable but everything changes when the privates start dying, when they remember that whatever they kill, will not come back to life; when they realize that they will die.

Q: Is there any character whom we can identify with?

I would say that we can identify ourselves with all the characters. Everyone has different features we can recognize: we see ourselves killing innocent people on a boat, doing nothing against injustice; we recognize the fear, the lust. But at the same time we recognize that those characters are inhuman. But we have to remember that they are not playing just privates in a war, they are playing the role of the tormented souls (tormented by their own acts) in their way to the hell.

Q: What is the message of the film?

The message of this film can be really difficult to recognize, but if we forget for a second the psychedelic dream, we can see this:

The Vietnamese... we worked with them, made something - something out of nothing... We want to stay here because it's ours - it belongs to us. It keeps our family together. I mean, we fought for that. While you Americans... you are fighting for the biggest nothing in history!

Hubert de Marais; Dialogue from Apocalypse now Redux 2001 extended version

The Vietnam war was something that make no sense for most of people, and this is not the first time that we hear about it, but the discussion of this topic deserves another paper.

I want to finish this paper with the message of this film focused in the spiritual journey for a new life, a new reason to live and die; but it is difficult to explain, however Edgar Allan Poes short story Ligeia, written in 1838 depict the will to survive to even to the death, when he talks about the human strength. because god acts through the human will:

And the will therein lieth, which dieth not. Who knoweth the mysteries of the will, with its vigor? For God is but a great will pervading all things by nature of its intentness. Man doth not yield himself to the angels, nor unto death utterly, save only through the weakness of his feeble will. Joseph Glanvill