Apocalypse Now (1979) Web links

"At the Cannes Film Festival, Coppola, speaking about his film said "This movie isn't about Vietnam -- it is Vietnam." The controversy surrounding the film at the time caused this statement to be disregarded as the ranting of an egotistical director. But after watching the film, I understood exactly what he meant. The confusion, the senselessness, the violence, the otherworldliness of the images Coppola created -- the horror of it all -- truly captures the reality of war."                    

1.  What does Kurtz mean when he says: 

"I watched a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor. That's my dream, it's my nightmare. Crawling, slipping along the edge of a straight razor and surviving....But we must kill them, we must incinerate them, pig after pig, cow after cow, village after village, army after army, and they call me an assassin. What do you call it when the assassins accuse the assassin? They lie. They lie and we have to be merciful for those who lie, for those nabobs. I hate them. I do hate them."

2. Who do you think is more insane Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall) or Colonel Kurtz?  Is Kurtz seen as more insane because he is not following the military's program in Vietnam?

3. Do you agree with Tim Dirks' that Kurtz needs to be killed, not because he is insane, but because he is a threat to the U.S. military's understanding of the war:"Kilgore, the 'respectable' side of the Vietnam experience, is ironically contrasted to the other side of the same coin - Kurtz, the 'barbaric' character who is the object of the mission. Willard questions what the real reason might be for the orders to assassinate Kurtz:

"If that's how Kilgore fought the war, I began to wonder what they really had against Kurtz. It wasn't just insanity and murder. There was enough of that to go around for everyone."

4. Why does the military want Willard to assassinate Kurtz?Captain Benjamin L. Willard: "Terminate the Colonel.

General Corman: He's out there operating without any decent restraint, totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct. And he is still in the field commanding troops.

Civilian: Terminate with extreme prejudice."

5. What does Kurtz mean when he tells Willard this: .Colonel Walter E. Kurtz: "I've seen the horrors, horrors that you've seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me, you have a right to do that, but you have no right to judge me."

6.. Why does Kurtz allow Willard to ritualistically kill him?  The director seems to imply that Willard's killing of Kurtz is just like the tribesmen's ritual killing of the cow.  What does this have to do with Kurtz's guilt or innocence?

7.  What does Kurtz mean when he tells Willard that horror must be your friend:Colonel Kurtz:  "It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror. Horror has a face, and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies."

8.  What do you think Kurtz wants Willard to tell his son about why Kurtz died in Vietnam?

9..  Why do you think Kurtz and his tribesmen army are so vicious and bloodthirsty?  Why do they strew heads, bodies, and torsos around their camp?

10.  Why does Kurtz read T.S.Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men" aloud?  Are Kurtz and Willard and the rest of the American military "the hollow men"?  T.S. Eliot's (1888-1965) Hollow Men .

11.  Do you understand the necessity for Willard's long, slow trip up the river into Cambodia.  Like in the Conrad short story, "The Heart of Darkness," Willard takes a trip up the river into the jungle and into the "heart of darkness."  What lies at the heart of darkness?

12.  What does Kurtz mean when he says that he realized they were stronger than we are:"Then I realized they were stronger than we...They have the strength, the strength to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men, then our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling, without passion, without judgment - without judgment. Because it's judgment that defeats us."

13. Why does Willard after killing Kurtz put down the machete and leave the tribesmen rather than becoming their new warrior leader by replacing Kurtz?  Why are the tribesmen willing to let Willard be their new leader?

14. According to Tim Dirks, in the 70 mm version of the film (for its initial release), there were no credits for the film - printed credit booklets were issued to audiences. Two other test endings were shot for the film:

1. Willard kills Kurtz and remains in Cambodia in his place.
   
2. A large-scale airstrike raid is staged at Kurtz's retreat and the compound is bombed and napalmed as Willard and Lance start downriver.

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© 2002 by Chris H.  Lewis, Ph.D.
Sewall Academic Program; University of Colorado at Boulder
Created 7 August 2002:  Last Modified: 12 March, 2009
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