Katherine Rivard
America’s involvement in the Vietnam War engrossed the entire nation, and it created dynamic responses from many. Frank Cappola’s film Apocalypse Now is a primary example of what was going on not only directly in the war but also what the nation was struggling with domestically. The film doesn’t bother to hide anything; it hits the viewer full force with the damages that the war had created.
Directly, the film shows the hardships of both the Americans and the Vietcong in the war; American soldiers struggled with a different kind of fighting and an unrecognized enemy, many struggled with why they were there, and were physically and mentally pushed to the limit. The people of Vietcong had been dealing with defending their country from occupation for a very long time, trying to maintain their culture and homes. Oblique meaning behind the film surfaces the reality of America itself. It not only touches on the twisted politics behind the war, but it also uncovers the idea that the imperialist goals of America’s “idealism is itself a fraud, a cover for the brute drives for power that dominate Americans as much as any people” (Hellmann 437). This can be seen particularly through Colonel Kurtz and his idealist actions. He creates an empire and is worshiped, despite his horrendous deeds and his brutality, and he continues until someone tries to knock him down. This, to many, can be seen in America and its attempts to occupy and conquer communism and anything that is tyrannical to American idealism.