Apocalypse Now

             In the film Apocalypse Now, the main character, Benjamin Willard patiently waits to get back into war. This film symbolizes imperialism, madness due to war, and the absence of American Values. The environment you live amongst strongly affects the human morals you live by.
             After desperately awaiting a mission, Willard finally received orders. Willard's orders were to find and kill Colonel Kurtz. The reason Willard is sent out on this death mission is because Kurtz had killed 2 soldiers. Kurtz has lost his mind; the war has gotten the best of him. He sent the army recordings of himself rambling on about his situation leading the army with suspicion to look into what was going on. He had committed inhuman murders with the help of a tribal army that looks to him as their "god". Willard was feeling many mixed emotions about his mission. Willard wasn't just being sent on any mission to kill the bad guy, it was different this time. He had killed 6 people before, but never an American Officer. His assignment was to travel up the river in a Navy PBR up to Cambodia along with a crew of four other men.
             While traveling up the river, Willard spends most of his time studying all the information he has on Colonel Kurtz. He isolates himself from any events not directly related to the mission and most interactions with his crew. Willard begins to admire Kurtz for all the accomplishments and rewards he's received throughout his life. Kurtz even had the opportunity to go for being a general, but he chose to go for himself. Willard can almost relate to how Kurtz because at the beginning of the film, Willard was alienated from the civil world. Willard as a man was changed irreversibly by war. Willard also had fought in the Vietnam War and learned first hand that war can turn people crazy.
             From the beginning of the film to the end, Willard goes through changes from being a civilized to an uncivilized i...

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Apocalypse Now. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 07:01, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/8773.html