Apocalypse Now was very interesting to me in that the entire premise seemed to be about the madness of soldiers. It really made no difference what the madness was about or if it was even really madness. From the scene when the men pull their boat over to tie it with another, and end up shooting everyone completely recklessly and carelessly just goes to show how every soldier loses himself in war. They become terrified and uneasy; everything sets them off. Even the part where the natives are throwing sticks at the boat sends every man into a shooting craze that even Captain Willard can't put a stop to. Everyone goes a little insane it seems--in their own way.

I think it has to do with boredom almost as much as it has to do with gruesome experiences, because as we know from Tim O'Brien's book, boredom is what makes the soldiers' minds wander so much so that they throw bombs and grenades and empty their guns out on the stationary mountains. Similarly, Apocalypse Now shows a great deal of boredom with one man painting his face green and another playing drums, and even when they go to look for mangoes in a dangerous jungle.

Apropos of that, the themes in Tim O'Brien's book that seems to present itself most in Apocalypse Now is the theme of boredom, and how that alone can drive a soldier to madness. From Komenyaka's works, I would say a major theme is memory, and how even when the soldiers are not "in" the war, they always are. For example, in the very beginning of Apocalypse Now, Captain Willard talks about his nightmares and how even though he's not there, he still wakes up thrashing, thinking he's back in the jungle, just like in Komenyaka's poem how he cannot distance himself from the war either when looking at the wall.