Apocalypse Now- Liz Eisler
Although Francis Ford Coppola’s film, “Apocalypse Now,� is often argued to be apart of the multitude of the Vietnam war films in existence, I have to argue that due to the amount of contradictions and inconsistencies through the messages being sent to the audience, that this film is more on the anti-war side and provides little, if any, pro-war messages.
In Tomasulo’s article, “The Politics of Ambivalence� he states that, “it was a common marketing strategy of the American cinema to attempt to deal with controversial subject matter by having it both ways, so as not to alienate segments of the mass audience who have feelings on one side or another of a particular issue.� However, with the beginning of the film, the audience meets the character Willard, and throughout the scene, negative intentions are implied, such as deception and cruelty. His main mission, which is top secret, is to kill another member of the United States military by any means, no matter if it’s unjust or not. Other disturbing scenes throughout the film portray the men from the United States military as being atrocious, such as killing innocent women and children, raping women, horsing around while out on missions, and so on. The irony of the film seems to be that instead of fighting against the enemy, the United States military was ultimately fighting against one another, ultimately impairing the American society. Nowhere, throughout the entire film, was I able to distinguish pro-war messages.
As well, Francis Ford Coppola claims to have made this film in order to, “assist Americans in putting Vietnam behind them,� (Tomasulo) however, after the gruesome and sickening scenes of battle, and the betrayal of the United States military, not only against one another, but against innocent people, it can clearly be stated that this film in no shape or form helps relieve the horrors that the military men saw and became apart of in Vietnam.