The Horror

Rating: Null/10 (9 April 2002)

This is a monumental motion picture. The movie is about an honest soldier (Kurtz) who understood the very simple truth that war is terrible and that the only way to finish is if soldiers are determined to kill without judgment. Kurtz understood that he had to go the extra mile to perform atrocities, without any fear, for the sake of winning the war quickly.
I suppose the message is strong because the same truth applies to all kinds of jobs. Some people are workaholics because of the same reason. Either you make yourself a friend of horror and moral terror or you allow yourself to be consumed by these forces. All jobs (not only the job of the soldier) are associated with some form of horror and moral terror. The most honest attitude in the madness of war is to stand there in the middle of the jungle and fight all the way until the enemy is exterminated. This is the greatness and the madness as well of Kurtz's realizations.
The movie is superb because it shows how a group of soldiers progressively understand the realizations that Kurtz made. This is the best treatment of the Vietnam war, much better than the Stone movies.