Francis Ford Coppola is an American filmmaker whose most famous works include The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now. Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979) is a widely acclaimed film that explores mankind’s propensity for evil through the lens of the Vietnam War; the film follows Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) as he journeys up the Nung River to kill Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), as instructed to by his superiors. The film depicts the atrocities American soldiers commit throughout the course of Captain Willard’s expedition and mainly focuses on the psychological trauma of these soldiers. The purpose of this film is to artistically render Coppola’s interpretation of the Vietnam War for the sake of entertainment; it also draws upon Joseph Conrad’s
