Insane in the Membrane

            While Willard’s superiors accuse Kurtz of being insane for killing the four Vietnamese intelligence agents, Kurtz in turn calls these accusations insane. Even Willard admits “charging a man with murder in this place was like handing out speeding tickets in the Indy 500.” The ridiculousness of war is that a soldier is expected to kill indiscriminately in the field, but when they are out of that context, responding with violence to any situation is a crime. For example, when Chief stops the little Vietnamese boat for a search, Clean kills all of its passengers. These people were not soldiers, and had they not been in the middle of a war, Clean would have been a murderer. Why then is he not accused of being insane?

            Kurtz actually seems to me to be the sanest person in the story (minus the severed heads and stuff), because he spends his time in a temple philosophizing about life and questioning the practicality of war instead of obeying his superiors. He writes to his son that responding with violence is only clarity. It is knowing in that moment what to do and swiftly doing it. The insanity of the war was mostly caused by the lack of cause and organization. Throughout the movie, it is unclear who was the enemy. They mostly killed villagers and were in constant pursuit of some guy named Charlie. The fact that they used the name Charlie to refer to the enemy really makes it clear that the enemy is made up, and the soldiers are fighting only because they are told to and not because there is a cause.

            Acting insane in an insane war isn’t a cause for blame. But once you remove yourself from that war as Kurtz did, your insanity is visible.