Apocalypse Now
photo taken from wikipedia.org
In 1979, Francis Ford Coppola, director of The Godfather, released his psychological drama about the war in Vietnam. It was entitled Apocalypse Now. Based in part on the book Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, the film tells the story of a special forces soldier sent into the jungle to eliminate a man named Colonel Kurtz who has gone insane and started his own cult.
Throughout the film, the main character of Captain Willard, slowly slips into insanity in his search for Kurtz as he sees the horrors of war surrounding him. This leads to the dilemma within Willard’s mind of whether or not killing Kurtz is a necessary thing to do. Ultimately, this has become one of the most renown films in cinema history, although it was hampered by production problems that almost prevented the movie from being made.
Although the film takes place in Vietnam, it is by no-means a war film. It is a study of one man’s journey into the darkness of the human mind. After viewing this movie, I am quite certain it will leave any educated viewer thinking about the psychology of the film for a while.
