The first time Captain Benjamin L. Willard is introduced in the film, he is shown as being high on drugs, drunk and in very bad shape. His face is filmed up side down, everything being reversed and wrong. The fan spinning around in the ceiling sounds like a helicopter from the war and he practices martial arts almost like he is fighting an imaginary enemy. This instantly gives the feeling that Willard is still mentally in the war – without really being there. Willard is throughout the film a very passive figure. He focuses on his mission and do not have an interest in anything else than finding colonel Kurtz. Through his travel, which is the majority of the film, Willard keeps to him self most of the time, reading and …show more content…
It shows how putting thousands of men in a war, without any female contact, makes them crazy. The Bunnies remind the soldiers of home and what they are missing because of the war, and although the scene is happy and lights up the film, it is also very tragic because of the soldier’s despair and extreme reaction. The Nung River represents the journey Willard undergoes through the film. It is both a metaphorical and more factual journey. The further they go down the river to Cambodia, the longer they get from civilization. It gets more dark, foggy and frightening no one knows what is going to happen next. The title “Apocalypse Now” implies a sort of doomsday being near – and the crew comes nearer the end of it all when they sail down the river. Kurtz’ world at the river end, is like an underworld or hell where no one can leave. Kurtz being a God for the tribal people has created a world far away from the rest of humanity. The crew almost never leaves the boat, because it represents the darkness and the unknown. But in the end of the film Willard goes in to the water and comes up muddy and ready to kill Kurtz. Here the river stands for transformation and change. Like the saying; “You can not step in to the same river twice”, because it will not be the same