An allegory is a figurative mode that is used to teach a lesson through symbolism.It often serves as a metaphor for a literary piece of work. Coppola uses the movie "Apocalypse Now: The Complete Dossier (Redux)" as an allegory to represent the atrocities and hypocrisy of the Vietnam War fought by the United States. He based the movie on Joseph Conrad's book "The Heart of Darkness", which tells of a characters journey up the Congo river to meet Kurtz, a leader who has gone mad and insane as a result of the war and his power. Kurtz symbolizes an evil genius and serves as an example of what happens when an individual experiences too much horror and then gains too much power.
In the movie the main character Willard is living in Saigon after his first mission in the war and having a hard time dealing with his life. He has turned to alcohol and drugs and is suffering from PTSD. He narrates throughout the movie and in the very begining he states that the following "story is a confession". When he is given the mission by the Special Operations Unit to go up the river to Cambodia and "terminate without prejudice" Kurtz, he reasons in his mind and says "I took the mission. What the hell else was I suppose to do?". This shows how lost and detatched Willard was after fighting in the war and how he was not prepared to deal with normal life. This situation of not being able to handle home again after the war was also expressed in the movie when Willard saw a note from Captain Richard Colby. Colby, like Willard, was sent on the same mission to assassinate Kurtz. Unfortunately Colby could not handle the horrifying experience of the mission and was transformed like Kurtz to the evil, insane side. In a note to his wife Colby wrote "Sell the House, the can, the kids, find someone else, forget it, I'm never coming home (home is then crossed out and written over by the word back), forget it!". This note is ironic because most American soldiers were fighting to stay alive and return home, but here, Colby fought so much that it took over him and he couldn't even write the word home. After the war,there was no place that felt safe and comfortable like a home.
The movie represents how U.S. involvement in the war was a joke. They were not there to help civilians and represent the true values of America. They were there acting like they owned the country and destroying everything they came into contact with. Instead of helping the innocent Vietnamese, they were killing unnecessarily. This was shown in the scene were the captain basically wipes out an entire village with napalm in order to surf a few waves. The film also suggests that the priorities of the American soldiers were tainted. For example they only cared about playboy bunnies, rock n roll, surfing, and entertainment.
This idea of the American army fighting for the wrong reasons is also expressed while they are on their way up the river, and stop at a French plantaion. There, at dinner they have a big discussion about the war and one of the older French men say "You Americans fight for the biggest nothing in history".
Another aspect of hypocrisy that the film suggests is that the whole mission of Willard and his crew is to kill one of America's own members. It is ironic that they are wasting all this time, money and energy in Vietnam in order to fight themselves.
The river that they are riding also serves as a metaphor for the individual soldiers themselves. The journey up the river represents the journey that the soldiers enter and go through physically, mentally, and psychologically throughout the war. As they go deeper and deeper up the river, their self darkens and gets closer and closer to being taken over by evil and insanity. This is physically shown through the massive amounts of fog they go through and darkness they encountour along their way. This is also shown by the transformations that the characters undergo as they go further and further up the river. Lance's image gradually changes from a pretty, Californian surfer boy carrying an innocent puppy, to a savage looking native with his face masked in war paint and body covered in sweat and blood. Chef transforms after his first encountour with the tiger. Clean's name represents his original clean, innocent image and how it is gradually destroyed by the evil's of war after he shoots and kills all the innocent Vietnamese on the boat.
Another one of the main themes expressed in this movie is the idea of evil and the lesser of two evils. Williard is faced with the question of how can standards and morals be used when judging evil? Kurtz slowly influences Willard and makes Willard see his point of view. Kurtz says in order to have a successfull army you "have to have men who are more able to utilize their primortal instincts to kill without passion and judgement because it is judgement that defeats us". After a observing Kurtz, Willard becomes a little hesitant to kill him. Willard becomes close to breaking and almost giving himself up to the evil side but at the last minute after seeing Chefs decapitated head in his lap and obtaining a machetti from one of the civilians, he realizes that he must kill Kurtz.
The scene were Willard kills Kurtz occurs at the same time that the community is killing the buffalo. Kurtz's last words were 'the horror, the horror'. These words summarize everything about the movie and the war. The war was so horrifically unimaginable and had such power that it consumed everything and everyone. After Willard kills Kurtz, he finds Kurtz manuscript which has a note on it that says "Drop the bomb, exterminate them all". This message shows that there was no hope for anything. All sides and everyone involved was doomed. After reading this Willard realizes that he must leave the community at once. While he is leaving, the community recognizes him as their hero and new leader.
Over all this movie serves as an allegory to represent the hypocrisy and atrocity that war can create. It suggests that war can give rise to such a hostile environment that it will eventually lead to pure evil. The movie also expresses that there was no real reason or purpose for all the horror and evil that took place. The killing and fighting was pointless and unjustified.
No comments:
Post a Comment