Examples Of Savagery In Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now: A Descent into Human Savagery
Apocalypse Now is a 1979 film set in the Vietnam war and was produced and directed by American film director Francis Ford Coppola and is a film adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness. The title Heart of Darkness, if used for the film, would appropriately chronicle Captain Benjamin L. Willard’s descent into the darkness of the human heart. In Apocalypse Now, Coppola uses Willard’s existential perspective to illustrate the horror, the savagery, and the psychological impact the war has on those who experience it. From the film’s onset, it is apparent that Captain Willard has been psychologically altered by his previous experiences with war. However, as he progresses on his mission …show more content…
In the final sequences of the film, Willard and the remaining members of the crew reach Kurtz and the civilization he has created in the heart of the jungle. Upon arriving it is clear, from the perspective of any refined person that would not approve of the mutilation of other people, that Kurtz has established a society which functions on the savagery and, what civilized people would call, the insanity of the human subconscious. When Willard is finally introduced to Kurtz, the transformation of his appearance appears to reflect his psychological transformation into insanity. Although it appears, without reproach, that Kurtz has gone insane, his conversation with Willard leaves him, and the audience, with the impression that Kurtz is still coherent and capable of reason, and therefore is not insane. Kurtz examines the relationship between our contrived sense of morality and man’s inclination towards savagery in war when he asserts, “it’s impossible for words to describe…what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. You have to have men who are moral, and at the same time, who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling, without passion…without judgment. Because its judgment that defeats us.” In this quote, Kurtz suggests that “those” from the civilized world cannot understand why humans behave with savagery because they have never been exposed to the “horror” which pervades war. While this is not a fresh concept in the film, Kurtz contributes the notion that the force that smothers our savage instincts in civilized society is our fear of “judgment,” which Kurtz argues is abandoned in wartime because our fear of death overrides our fear of “judgment” and compels our savage instincts to ensure our survival. In the final scene of the film, Willard kills Kurtz
Apocalypse Now is a 1979 film set in the Vietnam war and was produced and directed by American film director Francis Ford Coppola and is a film adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness. The title Heart of Darkness, if used for the film, would appropriately chronicle Captain Benjamin L. Willard’s descent into the darkness of the human heart. In Apocalypse Now, Coppola uses Willard’s existential perspective to illustrate the horror, the savagery, and the psychological impact the war has on those who experience it. From the film’s onset, it is apparent that Captain Willard has been psychologically altered by his previous experiences with war. However, as he progresses on his mission …show more content…
In the final sequences of the film, Willard and the remaining members of the crew reach Kurtz and the civilization he has created in the heart of the jungle. Upon arriving it is clear, from the perspective of any refined person that would not approve of the mutilation of other people, that Kurtz has established a society which functions on the savagery and, what civilized people would call, the insanity of the human subconscious. When Willard is finally introduced to Kurtz, the transformation of his appearance appears to reflect his psychological transformation into insanity. Although it appears, without reproach, that Kurtz has gone insane, his conversation with Willard leaves him, and the audience, with the impression that Kurtz is still coherent and capable of reason, and therefore is not insane. Kurtz examines the relationship between our contrived sense of morality and man’s inclination towards savagery in war when he asserts, “it’s impossible for words to describe…what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. You have to have men who are moral, and at the same time, who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling, without passion…without judgment. Because its judgment that defeats us.” In this quote, Kurtz suggests that “those” from the civilized world cannot understand why humans behave with savagery because they have never been exposed to the “horror” which pervades war. While this is not a fresh concept in the film, Kurtz contributes the notion that the force that smothers our savage instincts in civilized society is our fear of “judgment,” which Kurtz argues is abandoned in wartime because our fear of death overrides our fear of “judgment” and compels our savage instincts to ensure our survival. In the final scene of the film, Willard kills Kurtz