Apocalypse Now

Film Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, 1979

Apocalypse Now (1979) is widely considered to be one of the great movies about the Vietnam War. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, the film is loosely based on Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness (1902) and, like its inspiration, develops vivid imagery and characters that can be interpreted either as a searing criticism of war, racism, and colonialism or as an unintentional expression of the values it is trying to indict. Coppola suggests that the Vietnam War was, at worst, a colossal waste of American resources and idealism, and at best, a monument to the country's naiveté and hubris.

In the film, Martin Sheen plays Capt. Benjamin Willard who is charged with finding and either bringing back or killing the brilliant but erratic Col. Walter Kurtz, played by Marlon Brando. Willard is weary of the war, but soldiers on with his assignment, intrigued by Kurtz. Like the protagonist in Conrad's novella, Willard will journey up a river, although now on a gunboat rather than a steamship. The mouth of the river is blocked by the Viet Cong (often referred to as “Charlie”), so before he can proceed, Willard must wait for an attack by American soldiers commanded by Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore (Robert Duvall). Kilgore is unwilling to attack—until he is informed of the great surfing at that beach. The result is some of the most vivid and absurd film imagery about Vietnam.

[Page 51]Kilgore's Air Cavalry launch their attack, playing Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries over loudspeakers beneath their helicopters to give themselves a psychological edge. The battle is lopsided; the Viet Cong in question are mostly villagers whose weapons are no match for the gunships’ rockets and machine guns. Kilgore orders an air strike against a tree line, and jets pound the enemy with napalm. In one of the film's most-quoted speeches, Kilgore proclaims that, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn’t find one of them, not one stinking dink body. Smell, you know that gasoline smell. The whole hill. It smells like victory.” Still under fire, Kilgore orders his men to surf and reluctantly they comply.

Willard and the crew travel up the river. Despite some lighthearted moments, such as waterskiing behind the boat, the war strips them of innocence. When they stop a Vietnamese family on a boat, fearful of an ambush, one of the men opens fire with a machine gun, killing everyone on board (except a puppy, which they adopt).

Further upstream, deeper into the heart of darkness, they encounter the last American outpost. One side of the river is controlled by the Americans, the other by the Viet Cong. The Americans control the day, Charlie rules the night. Every day, the Americans are ordered to build a bridge across the river. Every night, Charlie destroys it. The Viet Cong arrive at night and light up the sky with flares, tracer bullets, and rockets. The Americans are demoralized and terrorized. Willard searches in vain for someone in command; finally, he asks a grunt if he knows who is in command. The man answers “yes,” and walks away.

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