About the film: The 1979 war film by director Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now combined the classic novella by Josheph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, with the Vietnam War, moving the setting of the novella forward nearly a full century and across continents. The film, starring Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, and Martin Sheen (among others), focuses on an insane Colonel Kurtz, commanding his troops in Cambodia and acting as if he is a God. An order to kill Kurtz is given and, through a series of miscommunication and betrayal, several members of the company die. The film deviates greatly from the source material, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, but uses this to its advantage to tell multiple stories at once. Coppola tells both the story of Heart of Darkness and also the story of the Vietnam War skillfully. References to other works and authors, like Dante and Virgil, can be seen in the symbolism prevalent throughout the film.
About the director: Francis Ford Coppola had had an incredibly successful career as a director since 1962. Apocalypse Now went on to win several awards, including the Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1979. The film came directly from Coppola’s desire to adapt Heart of Darkness, but moved it to the Vietnam War so it could be more of an allegory and less of a direct adaptation. As discussed in his biography on Coppola, Peter Cowie said the director envisioned the film as a definitive statement on the nature of modern war, the difference between good and evil, and the impact of American society on the rest of the world (Cowie, Coppola: A Biography). The director said that he wanted to take the audience “through an unprecedented experience of war and have them react as much as those who had gone through the war” (Cowie, Coppola).
So What: While Conrad’s Heart of Darkness was a warning tale about European imperialism, Coppola’s Apocalypse Now warns instead of American imperialism and interventionism, keeping the theme the same while changing the actors involved. Coppola’s Apocalypse Now is the definitive Vietnam War movie and considered one of the best war movies of all time. The fact that such a highly acclaimed movie is one about Vietnam speaks to the movie industry’s ability to tell compelling stories in settings that most people want to talk about. Apocalypse Now paved the war for not only war movies but for a more open discussion of the Vietnam War and America’s role in the world.
sources:
“Apocalypse Now.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Apr. 2017. Web. 28 Apr. 2017. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse_Now >
Cowie, Peter. Coppola: A Biography. New York: Da Capo, 1994. Print.
Pop Culture & the Vietnam War 