Apocalypse Now - Rebecca Rinas
First of all – I love this movie – it has been on my top three since I first saw the film years ago. Brando, Hopper, (Martin) Sheen, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper under the direction of Francis Ford Coppola with accompanying soundtrack by the Doors – for me, it doesn’t get much better. However, never once did I take into consideration that some may see this film as even slightly pro-war, as Tomasulo suggests in his article. To say that the film in any way represents “America’s idealized view of itself post-Vietnam,� is absurd. The most famous line from the film is “the horror – the horror…� uttered by an accomplished military Colonel after his descent to insanity. The brutal killings, the sacrifice of our young men, is this really our ideal? There is no “hero-villian� no concept of “good vs. evil� “light and dark.� Who are the heroes? Who’s evil? The film is portraying insanity – the Vietnam war was insane. On one hand Coppola gives the audience a very literal translation of this insanity, in the form of the high-ranking military men, Brando, Sheen and Duvall. In the opening credits we see that war has clearly broken Capt. Willard (Sheen), he is now an alcoholic, taunted by nightmares of the jungle, haunted by sleep so much that he has to drink himself to bed. Duvall is clearly not all there – in the midst of some of the most horrific scenes, bombings, bullets flying, people (Americans and Vietnamese) dying – he is raving about surfing and the tide, clearly disconnected, numb and almost oblivious to his own reality. And Brando … well, clearly something has gone wrong, a man with all his credentials, experience, “potential� could only slip to the depths of his insanity with the help of truly traumatic experiences, ie: the Vietnam war.
In a more figurative sense, is it not insane to see those young boys aboard that ship, on a mission unbeknownst to them, in a foreign landscape, away from their loved ones at home? This insanity is witnessed as a young Laurence (“Larry�) Fishburne listens to his mother’s voice – her message of love, family and home in her soothing “mama� voice is one of the most tender moments in the movie quickly dissolved by gunfire – shooting Miller (Fishburne) dead, as his mother’s voice still coos in the background. Ambivalent? Tomasulo’s suggestion that this film is “ambivalent� is shocking to me – nothing could be less ambivalent than this scene, or Brando, after hours of literal and figurative representations of insanity, uttering those echoing words, “the horror, the horror.�
The message is pretty clear to me. THE VIETNAM WAR IS/WAS INSANE! Literally: people are going insane! Figuratively: every scene and situation is insane; young boys dying, Lance wondering through the jungle with a puppy, surfing in the midst of death, etc. Taken for what it is – a representation of the war, I don’t understand how anyone could see this film as pro-war. The lighting, the shots of people’s faces, the foreign landscape, the dying Americans and dying Vietnamese, Jim Morrison’s ominous vocals: none of this screams, or even whispers “pro-war.�
However, I don’t think this is the film’s only message, I can see how different people can dissect different interpretations. This is a complicated film with so many layers and issues that I would never assume to have it all figured out, nor would I ever claim to know Coppola’s true and full intent. I can only give my feedback, my experience and emotion after seeing the film, and as I sat back, the credits rolling, the Doors playing, all I could muster to say in the first 5 minutes was, “wow, that was f*ing crazy.�