Epic Elements in Apocalypse Now: A Cinematic Exploration

Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film, Apocalypse Now, defied conventional perceptions of the Vietnam War and is regarded as a notable achievement in contemporary cinema. The movie prompts contemplation on the essential components of an epic narrative, such as religious allusions, a transformative journey, a majestic setting, supernatural elements, and other pivotal factors. These epic elements are depicted through Captain Benjamin Willard's mission to eliminate Army Colonel Walter Kurtz.

The former Green Beret has abandoned his post and is now in charge of a renegade group of soldiers and Montagnard, the indigenous people from Vietnam's central highlands (Human Rights Watch).

This movie explores the depths of human nature as Willard journeys up the river, immersing himself in the Army's file on Kurtz, a renegade considered insane for his extreme methods. Willard seeks to understand Kurtz's actions and witnesses more of the senselessness and immorality of war that ultimately helps him grasp the enigmatic Kurtz.

His understanding deepens as he descends into madness. After brutally murdering a peasant woman on a sampan, Willard reflects, "It was the way we had over here of living with ourselves.

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We’d cut them in half with a machine gun and give them a Band-Aid. It was a lie— and the more I saw of them the more I hated lies." These words echo the insanity of Kurtz. The fictional Nung River serves as the setting for Apocalypse Now. The majority of the film unfolds on a Navy river patrol boat (PBR) manned by a four-person crew (Milks).

The crew of the boat includes Captain Chief, a military man who strictly follows protocol and feels personally responsible for his crew's fate, blaming Willard for their predicament. Clean, a seventeen-year-old mechanic from the South Bronx, symbolizes young, inexperienced soldiers in Vietnam who are just waiting for their service to end. Chef, a saucier from New Orleans, and Lance, a California surfer, are also part of the crew. Lance and Chef use rugs and their placement in the jungle to escape from the war, reflecting the feelings of many drafted youth in Vietnam. The film begins in en medias res with Captain Willard in a hotel room in Saigon in 1968, already miserable with civilization after completing one tour of duty in Vietnam. He re-enlisted because he felt everything he loved was there.

He has been permanently altered by the war. He believes that the jungle is his true home and eagerly anticipates returning to battle, "Every minute I stay in this room I get weaker. And every minute Charlie squats in the bush he gets stronger." The movie does not strictly adhere to Greek Epic conventions. In the beginning, Willard does not call upon the muses and the Montagnards worship Kurtz as a deity. There are no epic catalogs in the film and it is not segmented into twenty-four books.

The film's only division is seen in the various episodes the crew faces while traveling up river. These include the rendezvous with Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore, the tiger attack in the jungle, the U.S. supply depot with Playboy Playmates, the French rubber plantation, the small sampan, and the ancient temple where Kurtz resides. Each event adds to the chaos of the journey and sets a darker tone for the film. Captian Willard is the narrator and protagonist of the film, but he does not meet the criteria to be considered an epic hero.

He is a male with a task to complete, but his only heroic quality is that he lacks exceptional physical or mental strength. He is passive, allowing external influences to dictate his actions. Upon taking on the mission, he questions, "What the hell else was I gonna do?" While aboard the PBR, he isolates himself from the crew's activities and immerses himself in studying Kurtz's file, attempting to understand his target's mindset, further distancing himself.

At Kurtz’s compound, Willard is influenced by Kurtz's teachings and leaves the audience wondering if he will complete his mission or join Kurtz's group. Lance and the final assassin sent to kill Kurtz both succumbed to Kurtz's influence. Willard confesses his strange obsession with Kurtz, saying, "Two of my men dead and all I could think of was whether Kurtz was dead too. That’s all I wanted: to see Kurtz, to hear Kurtz." Kurtz himself seems ready for death, acknowledging Willard as the "final justice" that he has been waiting for. In a moment on a sampan, Willard's true moral nature is revealed when he kills a civilian in order to continue his mission to assassinate Kurtz.

Willard's actions during the event caused the rest of the crew to turn against him, casting a dark shadow over him. When Chef questions him about his feelings after killing, Willard's reply shows that he only feels the recoil of his rifle, indicating that he is not a morally good person. The concept of the supernatural plays a significant role in epics, and in Apocalypse Now, it is more about a disconnect from reality rather than traditional supernatural elements like ghosts or miracles. The film is filled with this sense of the supernatural throughout.

First Kilgore’s calvary, the surfing calvary charge into battle listening to the “Ride of the Valkyries. ” Kilgore boasts, “We’ll come in low, out of the rising sun, and about a mile out, we’ll put on the music... Yeah, I use Wagner – scares the hell out of the slopes! My boys love it! ” The music and the surfing are completely out of place in the war-torn jungles of Vietnam. However, this is just the first stop on the tour of mass mayhem. Later in the film, the PBR comes across the remains of a rubber plantation. This is a plantation run by the de Marais family, a hold over from the French colonization of Indochina.

Despite being in a war zone, a family is determined to hold onto their property in a foreign country where they are not native. Despite losing family members in the conflict, they believe their claim to the property is just as valid as anyone else's. One family member makes a symbolic gesture by cracking an egg, representing Indochina, and letting the white run out while exclaiming, "White goes, yellow stays!" This blunt symbolism highlights their determination to keep their property amidst the chaos of war.

The community preserves their cultural heritage by speaking French and upholding traditional plantation practices, while isolating themselves from external influences. Clean's symbolic burial signifies a sense of disconnect from reality. A boat trip brings them to an American base conducting experiments on insanity inspired by Einstein's theory that "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." (Moncur) Each night, the Viet Cong demolish a bridge, only for the G.I.s to reconstruct it daily.

The soldiers at this base are feeling fear, confusion, and drug-induced highs. The use of colored flares and tracer rounds amplifies the psychedelic effects of drugs, leading to chaos in combat situations. Kurtz's compound is depicted as a surreal place with decaying bodies hanging from trees and severed heads scattered in an ancient temple. Despite the disorderly setting, a burnt out photo journalist admires Kurtz without acknowledging the madness around him. Kurtz is portrayed as a powerful and larger-than-life figure.

He remains in the shadows throughout the film, quoting poetry from T. S. Eliot and embodying a supernatural power, despite his deteriorating mental, spiritual, and physical state. Though the film departs from the traditional Greek epic standards, it tells an incredible story of a man's exploration into a mysterious land where he must confront his own morals amid the challenges of war. Willard is truly a stranger both in the foreign land and within himself.