Sunday, February 1, 2015
progression of insanity
One of the most striking aspects of this film is that nearly every single one of the characters portrayed are to some degree to be psychologically unstable. While Kurtz’s descent into madness is the main issue to the military commanders in the film, it clear that insanity seems somewhat contagious. Each of the characters are disturbed in some way, which established from the opening sequence, from the strange stupor to almost fit like state exhibited by Willard, and maintained throughout by displays of madness from each of the soldiers- such as the incident with the tiger and the massacre of the the Vietnamese civilians in the fishing boat. The instability of the soldiers seem to escalate as the film, and the journey progresses further upriver, as though to serve as a metaphor for the rejection of civilasation. This volatile, hostile environment portrayed in the film is brutal, as is the reactions of the soldiers, as if they blend into their environment. Therefore the collective insanity can almost be seen as a logical reaction to the conditions in Vietnam at the time.
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The metaphor of the journey up river, standing for the insanity of the soldiers seeming to escalate is a great way to put it! And I think it accurately describes what I think Komenyaka is trying to say in his film. That being said Apocalypse Now is certainly an anti-war film since there are many scenes that show the ugly side of human nature thanks to the war. For example what you mentioned the massacre of the Vietnamese civilians and how the characters gradually begin to “blend in” with their consistently brutal and hostile environment. These examples also show the process of PTSD as a mental disorder.
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