Apocalypse Now shows
how much madness and chaos can occur in war. The entire movie is focused on the
violence and destruction that the American soldiers brought upon Vietnam. At no
point in the movie are political views or reasons for the war discussed. It is as
if the soldiers are blindly following their leaders and committing horrible,
inhumane acts just for the sake of killing. This seemingly misled violence
brings bout different themes and conflicts such as the conflict between being a
good man and being a good soldier. To be a good soldier is to follow instruction
from your superiors and execute what is asked of you to the best of your
ability. Even though the soldiers were willing to kill in order to be a good
soldier, they were also willing to kill out of fear and paranoia. We see this
when the soldiers kill all of the civilians, including women and children, on a
boat in the river. This sort of ruthless killing does not necessarily make
someone a good soldier. Because their fears and paranoia were the reason for
their killing, not what they were told to do, I would say that these men were
not being good soldiers. I think it is really obvious that the soldiers were
not good men either. Even though they were always scared because they could not
tell the enemy apart from innocent people, this fear does not justify murdering
civilians. Because of their lack of morals and inability to follow direction, I
believe they were neither good soldiers nor good men.
You make a good argument that this was not a good soldier move because there was never an order to kill the people in the boat. However, Clean learns from experience not to trust anyone no matter how harmless they may seem, like the woman who throws a grenade into the helicopter. And if a soldier's job is simply to kill the enemy, why not take precaution and kill anyone who MIGHT be the enemy? I think that this was an unfortunately timed display of good soldiering.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this post, you make an excellent point the different standards for good man and a good soldier. I like that you bring up the fact that the soldiers do not really know why they are in Vietnam, but as any good soldier would do they blindly do as they are commanded. "I believe they are neither good soldiers nor good men" This is such a good observation. Their inability to distinguish innocent civilians from the enemy makes them inadequate soldiers.
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