Apocalypse Now & Things They Carried

Apocalypse Now a film that fallows Captain Willard across the Nung River during the Vietnam War exposes the physiological and emotional turmoil a soldier goes through during war. Captain Willard fallows rogue Special Forces Captain Kurt across the Nung River into the heart of Saigon. As Captain Willard travels threw the river he sees the darkness of war and starts doing things that he would have normally considered immoral. For example during their trip the Captain Willard and his crew stop a natives boat with the idea of finding war contraband like bullets, guns, and other black market items. Chief the head sailor and captain of the boat tell chef to board the boat and search it. Chef fallows orders but is displeased with Chief because he noticed that the boat had no contraband and the passengers on board were not pleased wit the situation. Then suddenly Chef reaches for a yellow box and a woman passenger on board reacts to it. Thinking it is a weapon of some sort Clean the youngest of the crew (only 17) starts to shoot his machine gun and kills all the passengers on board except for the woman. The woman was reaching for her puppy to make sure it was safe. The crew asses the damages and realize the girl is still alive the crew wants to medevac her but Captain Willard pulls out his pistol and shoots the girl twice in the chest and says, “you shouldn’t have stopped’. This kind of behavior would have not been tolerated by captain Willard during the beginning of his journey, but the his travels along the Nung river have harden his soul and created a “the ends justify the means” kind of mentality. This scares captain Willard because he realizes that he is becoming just like captain Kurt. A rouge commander that would do anything to accomplish his mission. Just like in The Things They Carried the films theme of death is very present. The scenes are very real and show a specific way of dying, a brutal way of dying. It draws a parallel with a The Things They Carried and reminds me of when one of the soldiers drops like a stone because of all his gear and is just dead. So many soldiers died just like that they just dropped like stones and the life inside them just disappeared.