QUOTES

INTRODUCTORY SCENE
“Every time, I think I’m back”
“I was going to the worst place in the world, and I didn’t even know it”
OPENING SCENE
AUDIO:
- Sound of helicopter blades – non-diegetic
- “The End”- sense of cyclicality w/ overtones of ‘Americana’; foreshadowing
- Initial dialogue – VO: communicating thoughts; closing walls provoke claustrophobic
imagery through multimedia
VISUAL:
- Opening overlay – extreme close-ups, explosions, forest  permanence of
psychological impact, constant darkness w/in psyche illuminated by war
- ‘blood on hands’  foreshadows
- green, blurred lighting, multiple perspectives  multifocal, fractured psyche

ARRIVAL AT CAMP
Quoting Kurtz: “we must incinerate them, pig after pig”
“Things get confused out there… power… morality… with those natives, it must be a
temptation to just… be God.”
“There’s a conflict in every human heart… every man has got a breaking point”
ASSIGNMENT AT BASE
AUDIO:
- silences filled with helicopter blades  oppressive omnipresence of war
VISUAL:
- close-ups of Willard  psychological toll, character-establishing

BEGINNING OF MISSION
“How many people had I already killed? … this time, it was an American.”
“The crew were mostly just kids… rock-n-rollers with 1 foot in their graves.”
MOVEMENT DOWNRIVER:
AUDIO:
- persistent use of VO, narration  intimate look into psyche
VISUAL:
- futile wiping of sweat  immersion w/in jungle complete and irresistible

AERIAL ATTACK ON VIET VILLAGE

“play Wagner to scare the s----s”
“She’s a savage!”  racist epithets
ARRIVAL AT VILLAGE:
VISUAL:
- Death cards – absurdity of war
- Bombed-out church: reflects ‘white man’s burden’ narrative + incongruity of values
w/ environment; Futility of faith; transparency of ‘sophisticated’/philosophical
 institutions w/in place of violence, primitive action  filling the spiritual void?

AERIAL BOMBING
AUDIO:
- Flight of Valkyries diegetic but afforded non-diegetic magnification  wholly vicious
act framed as defence of honour, heroism
VISUAL:
- Close-ups reaffirm ludicrousness of performative aspect in violence
- Lack of emphasis on civilian casualties contrasted w/ mid-grounded Americans –
disparity

BEACH
“If I say it’s safe to surf this beach, it’s safe!”
“I love the smell of napalm in the morning…. Smells like victory.”
BEACH
AUDIO:
- Persistent clamour – overlaid diegetic sound: bombing, screams, ocean, civilian
shouts  chaos of war, reinforces absurdity of surfing
VISUAL:
- Gradual zoom on centred Kilgore  godlike, authoritative status; framed by
explosions
- Viet. Characters suffering/casualties pass briefly in front of camera  minimised

INTERACTION w/ TIGER:
AUDIO:
- eerie silence
- Chef’s breakdown – screams soundtrack close-up on Willard  universality of
impact, direct confrontation w/ unforgiving wilderness
VISUAL:
- Camera pans across jungle – individuals swamped by magnitude; the Sublime,
general sense of consumption
CONCERT AT BASE
AUDIO:
- Persistent helicopter blades an inescapable reminder
VISUAL:
- Reinforces animalism through ‘home comforts’

CONTINUING DOWNRIVER
AUDIO:
- foreboding strings – ND
- Rock-n-Roll fades in and out of diegetic soundscape  impermanence of comfort
- Clean’s drumbeat a half-hearted echo of prior music  foreshadows tribal drums +
descent
VISUAL:
- Light fades w/ continuation  physicalized darkness
 - Interspersion of Willard’s pensive close-ups + VOs w/ soldiers attempting normalcy
- Firebombing from fellow soldiers  descent into madness
- DOG: SYMBOLISES INNOCENCE, protecting morality?

CONTINUING DOWNRIVER
“I began to wonder what they really had against Kurtz. It wasn’t just insanity and murder…
enough of that to go around”
“Never get a chance to know what the f--- you are in… Ohio”
“Don’t get off the boat… Kurtz got off the boat.”  polyptoton
“I began to admire him… he could have gone for general. But he went for himself instead.”
“Cold beer and rock-n-roll are enemies of progress.”

KURTZ’S LETTER
“[allegations] given the circumstances… quite completely insane…. There are many
[opportunities] for ruthless action; what can may be called ruthless, but is often only
clarity… I am… past morality.”

BRIDGE
“You’re in the a-----e of the world, captain.”
“Do you know who’s in charge here?” – “Yeah.”
BRIDGE
AUDIO:
- Dischordant music, shouting  hellscape
VISUALS:
- Flashing lights illuminate characters  hellish
- Strings of light comically futile amidst fire + red cast
- Lance daubed in war-paint, on LSD – ironic ‘performance’ of war; detachment from
reality  incomprehensibility, absurdity of war

CONTINUING DOWNRIVER – CLEAN’s DEATH

“This is better than Disneyland.”
Recorded message – “stay out of the way of bullets”
CLEAN’s DEATH
AUDIO:
- Diegetic cassette of mother ironic, evocative  loss of innocence
VISUAL:
- ‘blood on hands’ continued  loss of personal innocence through mateship; echoes
HoD?
- Article about Manson: foreshadowing, contextually reaffirming
- Loss of dog = loss of innocence

DINNER ON FRENCH PLANTATION

“Is an angel passing?” “Let’s eat it.”  loss of reason, godlessness
“French, American, they’re all the same.”
“They are fighting for freedom…. They are already dead.”
“You must learn from our mistakes!”
DINNER w/ FRENCH
AUDIO
- Soundscape exclusively cutlery + conversation  surreal removal from reality
- Bursts of accordion noise  mock situation, futility of ‘American Hero’ narrative w/
SSB
VISUAL:
- Egg  metaphor for incongruity w/ landscape, proxy war
- Scene w/ Roxanne: escapism  surreality, layered, dreamlike/hallucinatory visuals
- Gradual loss of light: fading dream

APPROACHING KURTZ
“He was close… I could feel him as if the boat was being sucked upriver.”

CHIEF’s DEATH
VISUAL:
- Referential of HOD + death of helmsman  point of savagery reached close to death
- Funeral: reversed baptism? Religious – fading light, submersion = loss of faith
- Followed by darkness, presence of fire  loss of reason, moral + physical guide

ARRIVAL AT TEMPLE
“Him” – Godlike epithet; reinforces cult-like atmosphere
“We’re all his children”
“He’s enlarged my mind; he’s a poet warrior in the classic sense… I’m a little man, he’s a
great man.”
Writing on wall: “Our motto: APOCALYPSE NOW”
AUDIO:
- ND drumbeats  entry into ‘heart’ of darkness; heartbeat-like bass
VISUAL:
- Cursory glance at heads  physical evidence savagery less confronting than human
corruption
- mid, fore + background punctuated w/ casual presence of carnage, almost
religiously arranged  absurdity of senseless violence, pseudo-sacrificial

MEETING KURTZ
“It smelled like slow death… this was the end of the river, alright.”
“Are my methods unsound?” – “I didn’t see any method at all, sir.”  ECHOES HOD
AUDIO:
- silence  peak of action; no building strings necessary
VISUAL:
- shafts of golden light  ‘end of tunnel?’ subverted religious experience?
- Kurtz washing himself – pseudo-baptism?
- COMPARATIVE: Kurtz’s face completely in darkness – evokes perverted godliness OR
satanic status  ultimate darkness?
 MEANWHILE: Willard’s face at least partially visible, muddied  primitive; at mercy?
Both dichotomous + unifying – together, they create one complete image?

AT THE TEMPLE
“He’s got something in mind for you”
“When it dies… he dies… when he dies… it dies”
“Not with a bang, but with a whimper, and with a whimper, I’m splitting”  ECHOES
‘Hollow Men’; persistent references to Eliot – myth of ‘eloquence = elevation’?
“He knew more about what I was going to do before I did.”
“You have a right to kill me… no right to call me a murderer…. To judge me.”
[re: pile of arms] “I thought, my god, the genius of that… the will to do that… perfect. Pure.
They were stronger than me. They were not monsters, they were men.”
“We are the hollow men, the stuffed men.” – ELIOT AGAIN
AUDIO:
- Persistent eerie music in background, chaotic buzzing of flies; notable lack of speech:
reverence? Trance-like?
VISUAL:
- Willard in cage, then shed – illuminated w/ chiaroscuro  passion of Christ?
- Kurtz in warpaint – performance of battle? Savagery?
- Women, soldiers haloed in light – symbolic of ‘Exoticism’; fascination w/ the ‘other?’
fetishistic eye of camera?  reflects HOD
- Kurtz enveloped in smoke, half-light, constantly contrasted w/ Willard – Godlike,
incomprehensible – flickering between life + death

KURTZ’s DEATH + CLOSING

Kurtz’s notes: “Exterminate them all!”
LAST WORDS [repeated at end in VO] “The horror! The horror!”
AUDIO:
- Re-emergence of “THE END”  cyclicality? Finality?
- Ultimate silence  finality? Shock? Universal impact?
- Echo of final words – persistence of ‘The Horror’, darkness, timeless capacity for evil
VISUAL:
- Penultimate shots of Kurtz: haloed in light – godlike? Subverts the angelic?
- Murder multifocal, half-lit, dramatic; juxtaposed w/ sacrifice of cow + rejoicing
civilians  human capacity for darkness? Animalism? ‘Sacrifice’? heroism?
- Willard’s muddied face + Lance’s daubed in blood  rebirth? Pseudo-warpaint?
- Crowd parts – finality? Godly status? Inheritance?
- OVERLAY BETWEEN WILLARD + STATUE; STATUE ‘wins out’  unfeeling god?
Immortality of narrative? Finality?