Admiral Kurtz In Apocalypase Now :: essays research papers

     Admiral KurtzApocalypse Now is a film about madness. In this film, Willard, played by Charlie Sheen, is sent through madness, reminiscent of Dantes expedition through hell. His mission is to kill Kurtz, whos gone insane according to military intelligence. Kurtz has gone on his own, starting his own society in Cambodia, where his parade and the local tribes worship him as a god. Kurtz has committed murder by waging his own ferocious, independent war against Vietnamese intelligence agents with his own native Montagnard soldiery across the border in an ancient Cambodian temple deep in the jungle. General Corman explains the deep in thought(p) insanity of the war "In this war, things get confused out there, power, ideals, the old morality, and practical military necessity." The colonel has become a self-appointed, worshipped godlike leader/dictator of a renegade native tribe. General Corman describes Kurtzs come-on to be deified "Because theres a conflict in every human heart between the rational and the irrational, between the good and the evil. The good does not always triumph. sometimes the dark side overcomes what Lincoln c onlyed the better angels of our nature. Therein, man has got a breaking point. You and I have. Walter Kurtz has reached his. And very obviously, he has gone insane." Kurtzs motivation behind his actions is his adopt to feel godlike, to act without judgment. In Kurtz camp, a site of primitive evil, they are greeted by a crazed, hyperactive, fast-talking, spaced-out free lance photo-journalist played by Dennis Hoper. The speak combat photographer, garlanded by his camera equipment, hopes for their sake, that they havent come to take away Colonel Kurtz. He describes the great awe all the natives have for their jungle lord "Out here, were all his children." The photojournalist appears to be a fanatical follower of Kurtz, worshipping the enigmatic, genius "poet-warrior" Kurtz as a p ersonal god and expounding Kurtzs cause "You dont talk to the Colonel, you listen to him. The mans enlarged my mind. Hes a poet-warrior in the classic sense...Im a little man. Hes a great man. I should have been a pair of ragged claws, scuttling across floors of silent seas, I mean...He sack be terrible. He can be mean. And he can be right. Hes fighting a war. Hes a great man." He offers first-hand advice from his own experience " gyp it cool, laid back...You dont judge the Colonel." Willard is impressed by Kurtzs power over the people.