Cole Storer- Apocalypse Now as an anti- war film
Personally, I really enjoyed the film. “Apocalypse Now� could be viewed as pro- war or anti- war depending on the time when you saw it and how it was perceived. I saw it as anti-war from how Tomasulo viewed it as a way to “ Put the Vietnam experience behind them.� (page 2). By saying this he is inferring that the war could be forgotten, and obviously it cannot be, since we are still feeling the aftershock of the war to this day. I really liked how Coppola showed the effects of the deaths of innocent civilians and children. He allowed us to use our imaginations to see it rather than actually showing us first hand, which I really appreciated. No one wants to see that. One instance where he used this was when they went to check out the boat to see if the people on it were boating supplies up the river. It ends in everyone on the boat getting killed because the innocent woman goes to grab her puppy. This just plays into the whole “devils advocate� idea we have read about where since the Vietnamese weren’t wearing uniforms, our soldiers had to assume they were enemies until shown differently. The film also shows our soldiers crying and longing towards the boat as they go up the river screaming and pleading for them to take them home.
This movie could be considered pro- war because all of the fighting and bombing scenes show the power our military has. I could be a “flexing of our military’s muscles� if you will. The only times I felt like the movie could have been pro- war was when the Vietcong was attacking us, or when one of our own soldiers dies.
From the readings and watching the movie, I truly believe that “Apocalypse Now� is an anti- war film. The way he leaves most of the death to the imagination only adds to the goal of war being unnecessary.