Apocalypse Now is a film that reflects on the ‘curse’ of the American involvement in the Vietnam War, a civil war that occurred in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos from the mid 1950’s until the 1970’s. It is a revisionary film produced in the post-war US by American director and producer Francis Ford Coppola, which was first shown at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival where it took home the prized Palme d’Or. The story follows Captain Benjamin L. Willard, an unstable, self-destructive, alcoholic ‘assassin’ on his secret mission to eliminate estranged Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, during the height of the American involvement in the war. Although the film looks anti-war, by portraying psychologically damaged soldiers and senseless massacres, upon closer analysis
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Many Hollywood-Vietnam films merely focus on the impacts of the war on the individual, rather than the morality of the war, with the main focus being the issues facing veterans returning to civilian life rather than holding themselves accountable for their actions. A common strategy of the American-Vietnam-War genre is to attempt to deal with a controversial subject matter by ‘having it both ways’, or ‘sitting on the fence’. This is prevalent in Apocalypse Now as it outlines the grim, psychological effects on the individuals and large scale massacres but then show large triumphant battle scenes and that death ‘is just a part of war’. Although Apocalypse Now presents a more pro-war stance, there are elements that oppose this such as the characterisation of Willard and his comrades as individuals damaged by war. This is a trope used as to not alienate an audience that feels one way or the other towards the …show more content…
This is a dangerous subject as it is stated that many youths drafted for the Gulf War and other wars viewed movies such as Apocalypse Now to understand the war and how it felt to be enlisted. ‘The supposedly anti-war films have failed’, an ex-soldier and author of Jarhead, Swofford, states. ‘[He] leaves the screening feeling that it is now his time to step into the newest combat zone. As a young man raised on the films of the Vietnam War [he] wants ammunition, and alcohol and dope. [He] wants to screw some whores and kill some Iraqi motherf*ckers. What he wants, in essence, is to recreate those Vietnam movies in his own war experiences.’ The reception of Vietnam films like Apocalypse Now is deep embedded in war culture in the United States. Many soldiers who fought in the Gulf War refer to the Vietnam War, as presented in Apocalypse Now, as ‘the Vietnam marines are the archetypal marines’, and the battles as the quintessential portrayal of
Many Hollywood-Vietnam films merely focus on the impacts of the war on the individual, rather than the morality of the war, with the main focus being the issues facing veterans returning to civilian life rather than holding themselves accountable for their actions. A common strategy of the American-Vietnam-War genre is to attempt to deal with a controversial subject matter by ‘having it both ways’, or ‘sitting on the fence’. This is prevalent in Apocalypse Now as it outlines the grim, psychological effects on the individuals and large scale massacres but then show large triumphant battle scenes and that death ‘is just a part of war’. Although Apocalypse Now presents a more pro-war stance, there are elements that oppose this such as the characterisation of Willard and his comrades as individuals damaged by war. This is a trope used as to not alienate an audience that feels one way or the other towards the …show more content…
This is a dangerous subject as it is stated that many youths drafted for the Gulf War and other wars viewed movies such as Apocalypse Now to understand the war and how it felt to be enlisted. ‘The supposedly anti-war films have failed’, an ex-soldier and author of Jarhead, Swofford, states. ‘[He] leaves the screening feeling that it is now his time to step into the newest combat zone. As a young man raised on the films of the Vietnam War [he] wants ammunition, and alcohol and dope. [He] wants to screw some whores and kill some Iraqi motherf*ckers. What he wants, in essence, is to recreate those Vietnam movies in his own war experiences.’ The reception of Vietnam films like Apocalypse Now is deep embedded in war culture in the United States. Many soldiers who fought in the Gulf War refer to the Vietnam War, as presented in Apocalypse Now, as ‘the Vietnam marines are the archetypal marines’, and the battles as the quintessential portrayal of