Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket are both films about American soldiers in Vietnam. This genre of films broke with previous tradition in that they offer a realistic and negative view of war. Most popular movies about WWII for example were almost propagandist in their assessment of the character of Allied fighting men and the rightness of U.S. involvement. Most films about the Vietnam “conflict” (one notable exception being The Green Beret’s starring John Wayne), were remarkably negative. Since films shape our perception of history, and any fictionalized account of history is bound to subjective interpretation we cannot take them as fact, rather they serve as icons of public perception and sentiment (which in turn exert an influence on how the event is perceived). Captain Willard is as much a product of the war he fights as he is a part of it. An assassin with a distinctly self-destructive streak, one gets the sense that his war is mostly fought within him!

self. Upon returning home after his first tour, he finds himself a different man and so goes back to Vietnam. We first encounter him in a hotel room labile and destructively intros

pective, he wants a mission and “for his sins” they give him one. Joker, the protagonist of Full Metal Jacket, is more ambivalent. Apparently fresh out of high-school, he joins the Marine Corps, possibly in the face of a draft. His choice of specialties--Combat Correspondent, elucidates some of his motivation. He wants adventure and primary experience and he actively seeks out a dangerous assignment. He wears a peace symbol on his body armor yet writes “born to kill” on his helmet. In Joker we see a young man wanting to prove himself in the arena of combat, he does kill directly in an act of mercy, yet he lacks the coldness and conviction of a real killer. He is repulsed by the cruelty shown Private Pyle, and yet he participates in it. Apocalypse Now is a tale steeped in metap!

nality in the depths of their souls, in this way Vietnam has already killed them.

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hor. Traveling “up the river” is a symbolic regression to the dark, malevolent inner selves of Kurtz and Willard. At the base of the river there is a sense of American military might and purpose. Capturing a point because the surfing is good at the end of the river and beginning of the journey, the bedlam of the bridge at the Cambodian border and the final savagery of Kurtz’s compound we see how reason is supplanted with something dark and primordial. What these people are expected to do

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 990
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)