Apocalypse Now - Vietnam being the perfect setting for the Heart of Darkness

Rating: 9/10 (18 July 2005)

In contrast to the review by Donald J. Lamb from Philadelphia, PA I feel that Vietnam really was the perfect setting to re-render Conrad's The Heart of Darkness in the modern era. The point about US adventures in Vietnam - like European adventures in Africa in the late nineteenth century - was that the darkness at the heart of Vietnam/Cambodia (and Africa) was none other then the projected shadow of imperialism itself. As such it is an excellent war movie, showing the futility, degradation, and degenerative effects of war upon the psyche and cohesion of both individuals minds (soldiers, captains and generals) and communities (Cambodian villagers).
Its use of the Door's "The End" in the napalm sequences testifies to the simple but terrifying truth about the nature of genocide, while the Wagner blaring from speakers placed on U.S. helicopters about to blow up a Vietnamese village is symbolic of the militaristic egotism with which the Calvary division take up their own act of genocide (reflecting the militaristic egotism of Wagner's own music and attitudes). The soldier surfing to the Stone's "Satisfaction" is - in relative terms - a light rendering of the frustrations, and delusions of denial suffered by GIs in the Vietnam war.
It really is a great film - although Donald seems to have missed the point of it. Its not an expression about the directors madness, but about the collective madness, delusion and suffering that war brings about in ourselves (as conquerors) and others (as conquered). As Willard says (in the narrative) in the movie where the conquerors can go home, the conquered have only two choices, to die or to win.