In
the beginning scenes of Apocalypse Now
Captain Willard is having a “breakdown,” which represents the repercussions of
the Vietnam War on soldiers. The main theme of Apocalypse Now is the psychology and madness of soldiers due to the
Vietnam War. O’Brien and Komenyaka are trying to show how the war changes the
soldiers mentality and ruins the innocence of the young men. For example,
Captain Willard was already mentally changed by his first tour in Vietnam and
as a result got a divorce from his wife, just as Mary Anne changed in the
“Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong.” The movie follows the group of soldiers,
including Chief, Chef, Lance, and Clean, taking Captain Willard up the Nung
River to kill General Kurtz. Captain
Willard accepts this mission because he has no other option not to. The movie
is a journey of how Captain Willard becomes obsessed with killing General Kurtz
by becoming absorbed by the war and Kurtz’s past. The horror and darkness of
the war swallows Captain Willard, which leaves him struggling with his moral
conscience throughout the movie. As the soldiers make the journey down the Nung
River, one by one they became more enveloped by the war and isolated from
reality. Their behavior changes and there is no morality and sanity left in the
soldiers. Chef breaks down after being attacked by a tiger, Lance turns to
drugs and wears face paint, and when Clean is killed Chief
breaks down emotionally and becomes a changed man. The horrors endured by the
soldiers during the war had a psychology effect on the soldiers that they will
carry with them until the day they die.
Great Blog post Sarah! I agree that the soldiers lost their morality and sense of reality because of what they experienced during war. I also believe that they psychological effect of war at times continues to haunt the soldiers until they die; however, I like to think that some soldiers with the help of therapy overcome the damage caused by war. In many ways I see similarities between O’Brien’s “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” and Apocalypse Now, specifically the transformation of Mary Anne. Lance became so engulfed in the war scene that he turns to nature like Mary Anne did in The Things They Carried.
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