Just to be clear. This is no CGI. This is a real forest, those are real helicopters, and that is a real explosion. It's a close-up of the napalming of the tree line we saw at the end of the class today.
So to begin the journey:
1. Questions? What do you want to know here that doesn't make sense? What questions do you have about anything you saw in the first 45-50 minutes of the film? What do you need—want—to know that isn't clear?
2. What do you think of our protagonist, Captain Willard? Like? Dislike? What kind of person is he—a word or phrase that best describes him for you and why?
3. We asked today about your reaction to the phrase, "heart of darkness." What's your reaction to the phrase, "apocalypse now"? What does this make you think of? Imply?
4. How did what you see today connect to what we said about "heart of darkness"?
5. Your reaction to what you saw today? What scene or moment or image particularly stayed with you—and why do you think that?
Take about 20-30 minutes to answer these questions—before 10 PM. We'll continue down the Nung River tomorrow with Team Willard as they search for the Kurtz. See you then.
1) I think I'd like the nature of the mission to be made a little bit more clear. Has the man Willard was sent to assassinate defected from the military entirely? What was the meaning of those recordings? How large of a threat is he?
ReplyDelete2) I think I like Willard so far. His narration is more 'sane' than that of many sixties war narratives. Although, from the first scene it's obvious that he's seriously suffering from PTSD or something similar. I think his line about not knowing what he will do once he finds the man he is looking for is very telling of Willard's character; he's going along with things and isn't really sure how he'll react.
3)The phrase 'Apocalypse Now' is kind of comical to me. It's a sparse command, very reminiscent of the destruction caused in an instant by war. It could also be a very crude statement about how the war in Vietnam brought us to apocalyptic scenarios.
4) I thought that the dehumanization of the enemy in Apocalypse Now connected with the 'othering' of darkness (dark skin, the unknown, etc.). The way that the General was so preoccupied with surfing, even when scores of men were being blown up, seemed very egotistical and self-centered to me.
5) The first five minutes stood out to me. Coppola is clearly using Apocalypse Now to tell an 'epic' story, but the total despair and loss with which he begins the story shows the more sinister side of the entertaining tale. Willard -- the hero -- begins his journey in a very vulnerable and damaged state which stayed with me throughout the rest of the section and overrode, in many ways, the calmness of his narration.
So far, I'm enjoying the movie we're watching in class. For the most part, it's clear and straightforward. However, I was a little confused by the scene of Captain Willard receiving his mission over lunch. I understood that Colonel Kurtz had to be "terminated" for some sort of disorderly conduct, but I missed a description of his specific poor behavior. I haven't really seen enough of the main character, Captain Willard, to form an opinion on him. From the scene when the audience first saw him, he appears to be somewhat of a mess and an alcoholic. However, he readily accepts the task of dealing with Kurtz, which shows his dedication. He seems dutiful but somewhat average. I'm excited to see his character develop. The phrase "apocalypse now" feels frantic and terrifying to me. An apocalypse is never welcomed in society, but the idea of it always seems distant and unfathomable to many people. The thought of this great fear occurring now is one of the most stressful hypothetical situations I can think of. The title fits the chaotic state of the countries at war during this time. We related darkness to uncertainty and discomfort, which shares the uncomfortable aspect of being presented with an apocalypse immediately. While apocalypse has a more actively disturbing connotation than darkness, which seems quietly scary in my opinion, the two are similar negative feelings. Although I was disturbed by the constant scenes of bombings and violence in the film, the plot presented was interesting. I remembered the opening scene distinctly because I was intrigued by the cinematography and how the explosions were overlapping with Captain Willard waking up. This technique pulled me into the movie from the beginning, and I also liked the music playing at that time.
ReplyDeleteI think Captain Willard is a very interesting character. If I had to choose one word to describe him, it would probably be troubled. We saw him at the beginning of the film in what looked like a very fragile mental state, and from what we discover through Willard's narration throughout the scene, we know that he has been through a lot lately.
ReplyDeleteThe phrase "apocalypse now" makes me think of...well, the apocalypse. Honestly I think it sounds like some sort of code word for something, like a mission gone wrong. It implies that disaster is upon us, and the word "apocalypse" implies that the disaster could end life as we know it.
Willard's heart seems dark in itself. For one, divorced his wife. Since the heart is often associated with love and negative things like divorce can be associated with darkness, it's like Willard himself has a dark heart or a heart of darkness. He's also been in war, and has undoubtedly seen death firsthand. Seeing man's inner evil this close could make anyone's heart "dark".
The scene we ended on, where Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore says "I love the smell of napalm in the morning. Smelled like...victory. Someday this war's gonna end..." really stayed with me. Maybe it's because how he says he loves the smell of napalm in the morning. It's something you'd only expect a guy like Kilgore to say. A guy that tells someone else to go surfing in enemy fire. Or maybe it's because it contrasts so much with the scene in which he says it in. There's war going on all around him, but he says it like there isn't a war going on all around him. Either way, that scene really stuck with me.
1) I'm a little confused as to what exactly Kilgore's troops are doing, what there orders are. They seem to mostly do what they want, without really hearing from any command except for the orders Willard brings.
ReplyDelete2) I think I like him. Although he certainly has issues, possibly PTSD, he seems fairly sane in comparison to the other characters we've met, and he seems to make the right calls. I still don't have a good feel for him yet, and I am interested to see his character develop.
3) the phrase "Apocalypse Now" makes me think that its almost trying to inform people the apocalypse is going on. those not part of the war don't see the apocalypse going on across the sea in places like Vietnam, with terrible war.
4) I think Willard is an example. He seems to be a good soldier when presenting himself to the General for his briefing, but there is definitely something dark inside him, that he doesn't show to others. Also, on a more general level, the entire war scene is horrific, with so much death and destruction, it really does seem like the heart of darkness, what could be more terrible?
5) The scene where Kilgore saves a young boy and his mother, sending them on a chopper stands out to me. It felt so contradictory. This man, who has dehumanized these people, calling them savages, mowing them down with machine guns, and blowing them to bits, acts as if it is obvious this boy and his mother should be saved. Similarly, when he is going to give a dying Vietnamese soldier some water, yet hears the famous surfer is there, immediately forgets about the soldier, after giving a speech about how he should be commended for his fighting spirit. His character confuses me somewhat.
1. I’d like to know what made Colonel Walter E. Kurtz go insane. There are plenty of reasonable explanations, possibly PTSD, but it seems as if Kurtz truly went off a cliff of sorts. I can’t help but wonder if the reasoning behind Kurtz’s change is commentary on the nature of the Vietnam War itself.
ReplyDelete2. Captain Willard appears as a competent, if not decent, character—entirely likable, though not lovable. Like Sarina, I find him to be fairly reliable in comparison to his 60s war cinema peers. I think he provides an interesting contrast with the flamboyant Colonel Kilgore. Willard seems to be affected by the war, when in the midst of it, in a way that Kilgore does not.
3. “Apocalypse now”, for me, seems like a form of commentary on the war. From a historical perspective, the physical war itself—the terrain, etc.—was unexpected and the Americans were unprepared for the sheer difficulty. Part of me wonders if Coppola is focusing on this aspect, but I feel like there’s another reason for the title that I’m missing. I’m more confident that the title implies the anguish of the war, with emphasis on the outright difficulty both physically and mentally, especially for the Americans.
4. The “heart of darkness” seemed quite often, in the class discussion, to come back to the fear of the unknown. Willard has seen duty in Vietnam before, but as he says in the beginning—that this will be his last mission, the mission to end all missions—I think he’s quite unprepared for whatever this mission will be. From what we’ve seen of the film so far, I feel as though he’s perhaps a bit petrified of the unknown—his mission will be the unadulterated unknown.
5. The scene where the helicopter lands in the middle of the village and soldiers are loading Vietnamese people on-board, but the young girl pulls the two older people away (her parents?) because she knows there’s a bomb on board, stuck out to me. The emotional hallmark of war, for me, is when people are willing to watch others die if it aids their own cause. It’s the point where humans stop being fellow humans and become enemies and I think that’s why this scene got to me—the war just became a war on multiple levels.
I couldn't figure out who one of the guys who gave Willard the mission was. Two were definitely military officers but who was the other guy?
ReplyDeleteI think Captain Willard is just sort of your average guy. He was greatly affected by his past experiences in the Vietnam War, but does not seem to have any sort of significant personality besides this. All the other characters so far have some kind of quirk, but Willard does not. However, his indistinguishable personality makes him a good candidate for his secret mission, as people are less likely to suspect him. I find Willard a little bit boring so far, but I don't think I like him or dislike him.
"Apocalypse Now" has a similar connotation to "Heart of Darkness". Apocalypse has the same element of chaos and lack of control as "Darkness" has. The intensity of "Now" also matches the intensity of "Heart". If your are at the heart of something, it is not diluted. The same goes with "now". If something is happening now, it is intense.
Captain Willard is traveling down the river to find and kill an insane man. He is searching for the "heart", or essence, of the "darkness", in this case insanity, that has consumed Colonel Kurtz.
The scene that stayed with me the most was the first scene in which Willard is drunk. He is acting violently and does not seem to be mentally stable. I think this scene really shows the effects of the war on Willard's health. It also seems a bit ironic that he later is given a mission to catch and kill someone who has gone insane.
1. Willard's thoughts and interactions with other characters suggest that he did something wrong, or at least feels that he did something wrong. When he is questioned, he is asked if he killed a tax collector. If he did kill a tax collector, why?
ReplyDeleteWillard also states that thee is no way to tell Kurtz' story without telling his own. Has he had previous interaction with Kurtz? Could the link between them involve the tax collector?
2. I don't feel like I know a lot about Willard. He seems like a very private person as he avoids talking about himself with the other characters. In many ways, I find him indecisive. At the beginning of the movie, he talks about wanting to go back to Vietnam when he is at home but wanting to go home when he is in Vietnam, and then he says that he doesn't know what he's going to do once he finds Kurtz. Overall, I'm okay with him. I do wonder about what happened with the tax collector, though.
3. Well, "apocalypse" means the end of the world/life as we know it, and "now" means in the present time, so "apocalypse now" means that the end of the world in happening in present time. War is the "end of life as we know it" for many people, whether they die in conflict, are displaced by fighting, or otherwise experience changes to their mental state or cultural experience. The phrase "apocalypse how" seems like a command, like someone is ordering the apocalypse to happen.
4. "Heart of Darkness" can refer to the center or the essence of an unknown. Willard seems to be entering an unknown when he receives his mission. We aren't given many details as to what Kurtz is doing or why he is doing it other than that he is doing something destructive, and Willard says himself that he doesn't know what he will do when he finds Kurtz. Also, death is associated with darkness, so far we have seen a lot of death.
5. When Kilgore is about to give water to the mortally wounded man, he is distracted by mention of Lance, the famous surfer. I found that scene interesting because it shows how the dead and the dying can become insignificant in the face of the concerns of the living. Also, it shows Kilgore's desensitization.
1. I’m wondering why, not only Colonel Kurtz, but also Captain Willard, had a mental break down? I am also wondering if the young girl was the reason that the helicopter blew up in the middle of the village? I thought I saw her throw a hat inside of the helicopter, but I wasn't sure if I saw that correctly.
ReplyDelete2. I like Captain Willard, he seems real. His break down at the very beginning of the movie made me feel connected to him in some way. My grandfather was a Vietnam War Vet as a doctor, so I know that he had break downs similar to Captain Willard’s break downs. After the first couple of scenes Captain Willard faded into the background, I can’t wait to see what he’ll be like in the next part of the movie we watch.
3. The Vietnam War is the single most traumatizing War the US has ever fought in. Seeing and fighting in the Vietnam War gave people no hope for tomorrow. People back home could watch the War on TV and possible see a loved one or even someone they knew be blown up right before their eyes. Hearing “apocalypse now” makes me think of the literal meaning, that the complete and final destruction of the world is happening at this very moment, in the time of the Vietnam War.
4. Both the “heart of darkness” and “apocalypse now” have very negative feeling. Captain Willard is on a mission to search out and kill Colonel Kurtz. Colonel Kurtz represents the unknown. Willard is having to go deep into the jungle to find a man he doesn't know and kill him.
5. For me, the scene where the helicopter lands in the middle of the village to rescue the injured soldier stand out for me. Watching this scene made me think of my grandfather and him trying to save wounded warriors. While the other good-hearted soldiers in his troop tried to help him on to the helicopter, they were all blown up. This scene just sticks out for me and makes me respect the men who fought in Vietnam even more than I did before.
1) I really want to know more about Jerry. If he is CIA, does Willard already know him from working there in the past? Also, his quietness seems odd, as he acts very authoritative, and would know about what was happening with Kurtz.
ReplyDelete2) I generally like him, though I do have some problems with him. For example, when Kilgore leaves the man whose guts are spilling out on the ground without water, and Willard stays behind, he doesn't offer his own water. Also, though he does seem to see the ambiguousness of the military's moral standpoint, he still does exactly what he's told.
3) The apocalypse is the end, so the title shows how to the people in the Vietnam War, it feels like everything is going up in flames. The jungle, his marriage, and even some of the traditional rules of war.
4) Willard has seen terrible things. These things have taken him, who seems to be fundamentally a good person, and given him this dark side. Likewise, a heart of darkness would be what we view as a fundamentally good thing but with a dark twist.
5) The opening scene in which we see the jungle go up in flames is hard to forget. It is incredibly striking, and has a dark beauty to it. The rest of the movie has a similar feeling, sometimes seemingly calm, like Willard's sleep, and other times overtly violent. There is always a scarred feeling to the characters.