Apocalypse Now: A crude wartime reality

War brings out the best and the worst in men. It is when they are put under high stress situations that arise due to war that men show their true nature in terms of courage, compassion and humanity. The stigma of war lies in the inevitability of death and destruction that comes along with it but few people believe there are positive takeaways in terms of loyalty and valour on the battlefield. Francis Ford Coppola has experimented with these ideologies in his epic war film titled Apocalypse Now.

Captain Willard is a veteran of a special operations division in the United States Army deployed during the height of the Vietnam War. He was discharged and returned to America but decided to join back in the war efforts after finding rudimentary life not attuned to his liking anymore. He is summoned by a General in the army and tasked with finding and assassinating a rogue Colonel of the Special Forces. He is informed that the man in question is Colonel Kurtz, a brilliant soldier who went astray and has started murdering without orders after having set himself up in a local tribe as a God. Willard is informed that the mission is top-secret and does not exist – nor will it ever exist. As he joins a small US Navy crew, he studies the dossier on Kurtz and starts to grow in awe of the rogue soldier who may just be the most decorated officer in the US Army. Along the way Willard is assisted by other army officers and fights enemy troops as he travels up the Nung River in his efforts to finally reach the liar of Colonel Kurtz.

The film was directed by legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and released in the year 1979. It is a period film set during the Vietnam War. The screenplay was written by Coppola, John Milius and Michael Herr and was roughly based on a novella titled Heart of Darkness written by Joseph Conrad. The film stars Martin Sheen in the role of the protagonist and Marlon Brando as the antagonist. Other actors in the film include Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne and Dennis Hopper.

The film stars a morally ambiguous war veteran with symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder who has gotten addicted to war and returns to Vietnam after normal life gets too boring for him. The character shows glimpses of a dark side which has resulted due to his exposure to killing in the war as he himself confesses to having murdered many people, 6 of whom were close enough to breathe their last into his face. The character is a hardened war veteran who is called in to hunt down a compatriot and agrees on the pretext that the man has gone completely insane as reported to him by his superiors. He shows loyalty towards his country, his superiors and his mission by not asking too many questions and safeguarding the secrets which are entrusted to him under classified information. He is well aware of the crimes committed by the man he is sent out to kill but slowly learns more about him as he studies his career during his journey to find him. In the end, the protagonist is both at awe and repulsed by the antagonist before he has had the chance to face him.

The film is a direct reflection of the effects of war on men. Coppola was aiming to lay out the horrible truths of war in his film and has accomplished the feat he set out for. Through actions and dialogues from the characters, Coppola has shown just how brutal war can be and how terribly nerve-wracking the effects can be on a normal human being. One of the most shocking dialogues comes from Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore who says “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” as a village is air bombed in the background which clearly depicts the level of insensitivity during war. In the same battle, Kilgore orders his troops to play Ride of the Valkyries on the helicopter loudspeakers as they fly into battle and invade a village to instil fear into the hearts of their enemies and announce their arrival on the battlefield. Another instance shows a woman being brutally murdered when she runs to protect a puppy as a squadron opens fire on her. Although not as grave, there are few other shocking moments in the film as well, one of which has a Colonel ordering his men to surf or be shot by his hand as a battle ensues in the background and a second when a squadron of soldiers travelling on a river in the middle of a warzone decide to take time to surf while starving locals look on in amazement.

Brutality is one of the key components of the film. Being set in a warzone, it can be expected that multiple killings would take place. But the manner in which they are depicted show what director Coppola was aiming to convey to his audience in his criticism of war. One particular scene actually has a television crew recording on the shore of a beach as a battle takes place and telling soldiers to act naturally, not look at the camera and get on with the war. In another scene, a commanding officer demands that an injured prisoner of war be treated well and attempts to give him water from his own flask but loses focuses as soon as he is informed that a celebrity surfer has joined his platoon and drops the injured man from his arms to greet the celebrity. Some of the soldiers in the film take pleasure in being able to kill their enemies even if it is uncalled for. Although informed that a particular area is a hotspot for enemy troops and advised to divert paths, a platoon leader decides to take the route via the enemy hotspot just to be able to eliminate the enemy soldiers and claim the area for his own army.

The film shows a contrast in what is seen as being sane during war but would otherwise be considered insane in times of peace. The film uses the antagonist to depict this perfectly. The antagonist is shown to have gone mental and defected from his own army when in fact he has realised that the commands he previously received were to kill unnecessarily and he decides to conduct his own operations. In one scene, the antagonist reveals that the news broadcast about the war claims that it is under control with minimum deaths and that peace will be restored soon; however the truth is that soldiers are continuously ordered to carry out innumerable attacks which are unknown to the rest of the world. In the end, there is sympathy towards the antagonist because although partially insane, he still comes across as fairly rational.

The film has narration by the protagonist which comes through well in the raspy voice of Martin Sheen. It is a brilliant film which is aesthetically pleasing; one particular scene where Marlon Brando is first revealed as the antagonist as he speaks in a deep, commanding voice through the shadows but only the glint in his eyes is clearly visible. It is an excellent film which can be summed up in the last dialogue as Marlon Brando exclaims “The horror, the horror”.