The film Apocolypse Now is an allegory for Coppola's feelings of the Vietnam War. According to dictionary.com, an allegory is a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms or figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another. Simply put an allegory is taking an abstract idea like using a character or event to represent it.
The main focus of the film is Captain Willard hunting down Kurtz, a renegade Green Barret. The allegory that is the underlying meaning of the this is how pointless the war is. Kurtz is a very efficient killer that hunts down and kills North Vietnamese in ruthless and grotesque way. However, he is deemed insane by higher ups in the army so he must be killed because his they cannot control him and his actions reflect poorly on the United States. This is ridiculous because in Kurtz is helping win the war. Meanwhile there are commanders like Big Duke who go into a village and order his men to go surfing. This shows just how there are double standards and how insane the war makes people.
Another section was how waste full the war is. Kurtz quotes in a letter using his methods that the war could be won with one fourth the men and much less casualties and he probably is right. Most of the men in the movie are constantly goofing off and not taking their roles seriously. Also, another example of how wasteful the war is, is when Captain Willard and the boat reach the bridge in the middle of the night while it is under attack. The soldiers explain that the bridge has been under constant construction for months but it keeps getting attacked and they just keep rebuilding it. Also, it shows a leaderless soldier firing rounds of ammo at a single target at night that he can't even see or hit. There is no method or efficiency at all when it comes to the war and it is portrayed as a huge waste.
One more example is that is portrayed in the film is that the war is anarchy. In almost every battle scene depicted in this movie there is constant confusion and disorder. It is only by superior fire power that the Americans manage to hold of the North Vietnamese. Captain Willard multiple times stops at various outposts and asks who is the commanding officer and gets no response or some sort of story about how he stepped on a land mine two months back. This shows how the war had no order and no discipline. It was just a bunch of soldiers going on vacation and shooting back when they were shot at.
The climax of the movie did the best job at describing the Vietnam War. After Captain Willard is cut free he is given a machte and goes and kills Kurtz. As Kurtz lies dying on the floor he explaims "The horror, the horror." That I feel is the most effective way to describe the Vietnam War. It was shear horror. From the disorganization to the waste of lives and resources to the lawlessness and grotesue murders it was simply horrible.
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The film Apocalypse Now is an allegory for Coppola's feelings of the Vietnam War. According to dictionary.com, an allegory is a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms or figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another. Simply put an allegory is taking an abstract idea like using a character or event to represent it.
ReplyDeleteThe main focus of the film is Captain Willard hunting down Kurtz, a renegade Green Beret. The allegory that is the underlying meaning of this is how pointless the war is. Kurtz is a very efficient killer that hunts down and kills North Vietnamese in ruthless and grotesque ways. However, he is deemed insane by superiors in the army so he must be killed because his they cannot control him and his actions reflect poorly on the United States. This is ridiculous because in Kurtz is helping win the war. Meanwhile there are commanders like Big Duke who go into a village and order his men to go surfing. This just goes to show how there are double standards and how insane the war makes people.
Another section was how waste full the war is. Kurtz quotes in a letter using his methods that the war could be won with one fourth the men and much fewer casualties and he probably is right. Most of the men in the movie are constantly goofing off and not taking their roles seriously. Also, another example of how wasteful the war is is when Captain Willard and the boat reach the bridge in the middle of the night while it is under attack. The soldiers explain that the bridge has been under constant construction for months but it keeps getting attacked and they just keep rebuilding it. Also, it shows a leaderless soldier firing rounds of ammo at a single target at night that he can't even see or hit. There is no method or efficiency at all when it comes to the war and it is portrayed as a huge waste.
One more example is that is portrayed in the film is that the war is anarchy. In almost every battle scene depicted in this movie there is constant confusion and disorder. It is only by superior fire power that the Americans manage to hold off the North Vietnamese. Captain Willard multiple times stops at various outposts and asks who is the commanding officer and gets no response or some sort of story about how he stepped on a land mine two months back. This shows how the war had no order and no discipline. It was just a bunch of soldiers going on vacation and shooting back when they were shot at.
The climax of the movie did the best job at describing the Vietnam War. After Captain Willard is cut free he is given a machete and goes and kills Kurtz. As Kurtz lies dying on the floor he explains "The horror, the horror." That I feel is the most effective way to describe the Vietnam War. It was shear horror. From the disorganization to the waste of lives and resources to the lawlessness and grotesque murders it was simply horrible. This also shows the final decent into the heart of darkness. The point of no return where a Willard has become so affected by the war that there is no hope for him to return to being a normal man again.