Madness and the breaking point in Apocalypse Now
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- čas přidán 11. 09. 2024
- "The Breaking Point" is a concept introduced early in Apocalypse Now, and is another term for madness or PTSD, which is perhaps the main theme of the film and what I'm going to focus on in this analysis.
Several of the characters in Apocalypse Now reaches the so-called Breaking Point, including Captain Willard, Kurtz and every other crew member on the PBR.
WARNING: SPOILERS.
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Do you enjoy war movies? Then check out my essay on The Thin Red Line: czcams.com/video/ZCrMXFbyYdQ/video.html
The war as a surreal dreamscape.
I think Lance survived and even thrived as time went on because his brain was operating on an almost unconscious (primitive to use Kurtz's word) level and he was percieving things that nobody else was.
When the locals are screaming at the boat from the shores of the river, everybody freaks out except Lance, who joins with the screams, completely in tune with the vibe.
It helps to be a brainless surfer.
I remember seeing someone liken their travel on boat to a sort of time machine. How every stop they make along the way to Kurtz's eventual death is them going further back. It ties in well with the director's assertion that them coating their boat with materials from around the jungle is them becoming more and more primitive.
Fascinating.
That was actually a major theme of the book the movie is based on. "Heart of Darkness" if i recall correctly.
This is a major theme in Heart of Darkness. Marlow mentions it quite a few times.
@@agnel47 correct
One of the best, easy to understand videos looking into the themes of this film. This deserves more views and credit. Amazing work here!
Thanks a bunch !
The movie is ultimately deontological morality vs utilitarian. Kurtz is a utilitarian and feels that if one is to engage in immoral acts they should not obfuscate them with pompous justifications or compensatory acts of altruism toward the enemy.
Someone like Kilgore will annihilate a village to go surfing, but patch up an injured baby as if to make up for it. The PBR crew massacre some young fishers and deliberate on rescuing one of the near-dead survivors. The americans dump ungodly amounts of money and military might into the war but since their actual fighting force has zero will to actually fight the war, the inundate them with luxuries to incentivize action. As Willard points out, the utilitarian Vietnamese have no need for an incentive as their only outcome in the war is victory or death.
I could say a lot more. Anyway i just feel like Kurtz isn't evil, even if i could never truly align with his utilitarian morality. Anyone who counts lying as a cardinal sin is an automatic win for me.
No Lie.
Kurtz isn't evil. Kurtz is the War itself.
Since the dawn of man, people fought wars, and no suprise - followers of Kurtz are primitive men. War is part of human nature.
I always felt an excellent English class assignment would be to write a short story about what happens to Willard and Lance on the return journey -- and possibly later in life back in the states after the war. We never get any answers, and can only speculate.
I didn't see it as that people are evil at heart and just have a good facade around them, but rather that people are good at heart but Kurtz intentionally strayed from the human compassionate way to do what must be done in his eyes. But by straying too far from the human kind, he has gone insane.
Kurtz approached an insane world with clarity. it was malaria that took him. As willard said, Kurtz only answered to the jungle. Prehaps the film is about the transformation after breaking points?
The snail is the US the razor is Vietnam.
could be! I think a nightmare is more personal though :)
@@CinemaAutopsy In the film he states that he could win the war with a fourth of the soldiers in the right mindset. I think then the Snail = US and Vietnam = Razor analogy works. They are going to lose because they are a snail fighting a war they are indecisive about, unaware that they have already lost against the razor.
@@evo2542 well I dont know... that kind of interpretation is a bit too on the nose in my opinion. Not sure how it's that relevant for what Kurtz describes as "my nightmare".
I would say it could be a Vietcong while Razor is the US. Hence the Snail surviving on the edge of a razor .
Also fits with Willard's thoughts about only two ways, home victory or death. As Snail slowly goes it's way.
The razor is the Ho Chi Minh trail and the snail is the Air Force which could never stop the supplies from reaching the VC
He's just assassinated someone, the opening scene is a regular thing for Willard.
Brilliant analysis and reflection. It would be fascinating to hear your rumination on either Malick's THE TREE OF LIFE or Mann's HEAT. Or you may want to even consider the superb film NARC with Ray Liotta and Jason Patric.
I'm not familir with Narc, I'll have to check that out. Thanks!
Ads interrupt dude every-time he tries to get a point across nasty work on yt part Great vid with an ad blocker
"Judgment defeats us."
There was no more world to go back to thanks to burkley
War is an unending atrosity, no war ever completely ends, they just take naps to rise again.
I am not sure that Kurtz broke he adapted
Kurtz broke long before he adapted.
Brake to adapt
Richelieu
Yamato
QE class
Willard was sec,8 to they all lost it lance,chief, kurts ,hard to stay normal
Good vid ,but the back ground music SUX !!!
That's the intention
Distance your mouth from the microphone next time pls
Heart of Darkness played a bigger part in this, surely?