Apocalypse Now: The Evil of War-

A detailed Summary of Apocalypse Now: The Evil of War-

When soldiers prepare to go off to war, many of us envision the parades that are held in honor of their bravery and loyalty to their country. The mood seems very encouraging with the positive mindset that everything is going to turn out right and that they will all come home as confident as they were the day they left. That is not realistic at all. It is good to be positive about winning a war and coming back home safely. Yet when some soldiers look at the evil of war directly in the face, they are changed radically and become self-destructive. Conversely, those who recognize this conflict in their minds and contend with the evil will survive while making life-altering realizations. Two main characters in the film Apocalypse Now, written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, that exemplify different approaches to this inner conflict are Captain Willard and Colonel Kurtz.

The beginning of the film, at the time of the Vietnam War, opens with Willard in a state of frustration, as if he is close to insanity. However, when he breaks his mirror, this action is symbolic of him recognizing that he has to face his inner conflicts. The film portrayed them through his journey down the Nung River in search of the alleged madman, Colonel Kurt

One more scene that displayed Willard's recognition of evil was when he was on the island where Kurtz was. When he arrived, he could see human heads chopped off and strewn everywhere like they were some sort of decoration. The natives there did not think twice about it, but Willard did and could not believe his eyes, especially when he was tied up and all of a sudden saw one of his crewmen's heads right in front of him. He went crazy and could not stand to look at it. It just proved he still had his morality and knew it was sick and inhuman.

Along the way, Willard observed many scenes, which increased his recognition of evil. He observed the fact that the war the U.S. military were fighting in Vietnam caused many soldiers to become chaotic and absurd. Take his encounter with Colonel Kilgore, who was the commanding officer of the ninth U.S. Air Cavalry for example. While they wrap up an air raid on one of the Vietcong villages, all they can think about is the ocean front beach and how great it would be to go surfing, especially Kilgore. They do not flinch once to see the multitude of dead bodies surrounding them, as if it were normal, which makes the scene, seem even more evil. The ironic part about Kilgore was he tried to make things seem normal by throwing a huge beach party as if the soldier were at home, yet it just made us viewers think that it was a scene of lunacy. Even Willard said, "The more they tried to make it just like home, the more they made everybody miss it." The scene that followed was even more unnerving to Willard.

Kurtz was a character who truly came to face every brutal part of evil throughout the war. Even though he was known to be a well-established officer in the military, along with that title, came the most experience of anyone during the war. It could easily be seen through the information about his life and what he had fought to become. The thing was that it all ended up taking the best of him.

Once soldiers go into war, the optimism does not last very long when evil comes in to the equation. Willard and Kurtz both encountered that evilness, which caused them

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Approximate Word count = 1424
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Movies