Apocalypse Now!

“I love the smell of Napalm in the morning” – Colonel William “Bill” Kilgore

            From the movie: Apocalypse Now!

            Vietnam could be the poster child for Imperialism.  The country’s heritage is rich with foreign powers angling for total control.  The ending of Vietnam’s imperialistic story is extremely tragic; it’s simply called the Vietnam War.  Apocalypse Now!, a movie released in 1979, takes a microcosmic look at the Vietnam War on a personal level, with symbolic references to previous imperialistic history.

            Understanding the movie requires reviewing Vietnam’s history.  The first outside people to venture into the area were Catholic French missionaries. They were followed closely behind by the French military, which overwhelmed the Vietnamese with their military power.  They declared the territory a French colony using the necessity for a militarily strategic location, the beneficial spread of capitalism, and international trade benefits as justifications for their occupation.  Meanwhile, they exploited Vietnam’s natural resources and treated its people with distain, keeping them in poverty.

            From 1871 to 1940 the French declared the whole area French Indochina.  This area included Cochinchina (South Vietnam, including Saigon), Tonkin (North Vietnam), Annam (Central Vietnam), Cambodia and Laos.  In 1940 the French gave the Japanese access to Tonkin, which they used to their advantage in WWII.  In 1945, after the Japanese surrendered, the French tried to reinsert themselves into its former territory. However, continuous fighting with the communist Viet Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh’s Democratic Republic of Vietnam, led to a partitioning of the country during the 1954 Geneva Convention.  Vietnam was split into two countries. North Vietnam remained communist and was supported by China and the Soviet Union. South Vietnam was called the Republic of Vietnam, supported by the U.S., Britain, and France.  Cambodia and Laos were separated into separate countries.

            The Geneva Convention also called for a general election to be held in 1956 to finally unify the country.  Before the election millions of North Vietnamese moved to the south and only an estimated 10,000 moved to the north. The United States, at this time, was heavily invested in the interests of South Vietnam and its strategic location among the Cold War countries.  Fearing the “domino effect”, of one country becoming communist after another, the United States, using the Gulf of Tonkin incident, sent troops to Vietnam.  The fighting escalated, more troops from the United States were sent to Vietnam in 1960 and the war spread to neighboring Cambodia and Laos.

            Apocalypse Now!, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, revolves around the character of Captain Benjamin Willard who is sent on a secret mission into Cambodia.  Willard must eliminate a renegade war hero, Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, who has set up his own war operations in the heart of the jungle.  Coppola uses Willard’s foray into the darkness to reveal the horrific scenes of the Vietnam War, forever linked to the United States’ imperialistic fortunes. 

            Francis Ford Coppola also famously bases his movie on the novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.  Conrad’s book is a story regarding the horrific affects of imperialism; its exploitation and devastation of the native African population by the country of Belgium.

            This movie illustrates that regardless of the motive of a larger nation the spirit of native peoples and their right to govern themselves is stronger than what modern warfare can extract from them.  In scene after scene, Captain Willard interacts with U.S. soldiers in a completely foreign country, totally surrounded by natives that they can or cannot trust.  Using crude weaponry and guerilla tactics, the Vietnamese mount an undefeatable campaign against the attacking U.S. military.  The emotional scenes of the human and environmental toll that is taken when one country feels moralistically and intellectually dominant over another give Apocalypse Now! its place in movie history.

http://www.vietnamwar.net/FrenchIndochina.htm

http://www.asian-nation.org/colonialism.shtml

http://www.asian-nation.org/vietnam-war.shtml

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078788/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse_Now