Apocalypse Now - Chimezie Ononenyi
Depending on how people view it, Apocalypse Now can either be viewed as having a pro or anti-war lesson. I think that it did not particularly do a specific job of standing as a pro or anti war film. Other than the overal mission to assassinate the evil Beret, the film had several parts that played outstanding roles, especially the horrific scene of attack on a village. In addition to this thought, it did not look like the American soldiers had any remorse for any member of the village during the major attack on the inhabitants.
On the anti-war point of view, Tomasulo argued and suggested that the film was made “to put Vietnam behind them” (page 2). This is true because the horrific scenes showed what it is like to attack a community where it is hard to distinguish the enemy from the innocent. Knowing that such thing actually took place and how purely immoral such attack seems, American people definitely had to feel ashamed of how evil the world would view them as.
On the pro-war point of view however, there was a big picture of the American soldiers fighting to eradicate the evil for the good of the Vietnamese people. Also there were some quick scenes inserted in the film with a purpose of suggesting that the American soldiers were fighting with a humane sense and for a greater good. For instance, during the major attack on a village, a wounded child was taken to a helicopter with the mother for treatment. These kinds of scenes are nothing but cliche of American soldiers in war films in general and did not weigh up to the fact that many innocent people were being killed. Therefore it is easy to see that the Apocalypse Now, no-matter what its main purpose, leaned more towards anti-war purpose.