NR Blog 8

An allegory is a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms. A popular example of an allegory is Charlotte’s Web, which sets out to instill the values of friendship, loyalty, and basic human characteristics through an adventure of farm animals. In a similar fashion, Coppola voices his opinions about the war with various characters throughout his incredibly long film.

We see in Marlow what we’ve seen every other work in this course. The war has made him a changed man. We see in the beginning of the film that he has developed a thirst for in-country activity. We see this with the meshing of helicopter propellers with ceiling fans, his heavy drinking, and his talking of divorce. Coppola is projecting a realization of what war, particularly this one, has done to its veterans.

Marlow’s shipmates also serve as a representation of American forces stationed in Vietnam. Lance is a mess. He seems to be on drugs for most of his screen time, all the while projecting no intention of being any sort of good soldier. He gets a kick out of the “purple haze” grenade until the boat is ambushed and Tyrone dies. Lance is a misguided hippy surfer who, due to unfortunate circumstances, got drafted into a war that he had no intention of fighting in. Tyrone is the only character introduced along with his age, 17. It’s an emphasis on the draft’s dragging massive amounts of youth into the war, only to have many of them die. Coppola’s opinion of all this can be heard when Marlow recalls somebody saying that a quarter of their force could win the war as long as they were all dedicated soldiers.

Lt Col Kilgore reminded me a lot of Sgt Horvath from Saving Private Ryan. No matter how many explosions were going off around them, they were up and giving orders to their soldiers. While I found both characters brought some humor to their films, Kilgore seems to be more of a symbolic figure than Horvath does. Just look at his name. Kilgore is Coppola’s representation of the war machine that is the American military during the Vietnam War. He plays fanfare from his helicopters during his attacks and loves the smell of napalmed victory, yet he shows compassion for his forces in attempting to fly the wounded out with haste. His driving intention to capturing the VC base is more for the surfing possibilities than any tactical advantage, which then questions whether or not he really cares for the well being of his troops by flying them into a possibly unnecessary conflict.

The Frenchmen and Kurtz bring up similar points in different fashions. The Frenchmen reason why they are in the war by pointing out that they are territorially involved. They also portray a hidden frustration, bringing to attention their history of continued loss in relatively recent years and how France has fallen from the global authority it once was. They are bewildered as to why the Americans are involved in the war, questioning what they are fighting for. Kurtz puts a spin of insanity on this point. His long record of service is constantly brought up in order to emphasize his amount of experience and nail it into our brains. By then going insane and defecting in Vietnam, we can conclude that the conflict goes against everything else he’s seen in his long career. Whereas other wars may have been justified in the past, he sees no good in this one.