Social Commentary On The Movie 'Apocalypse Now'

In both The Things They Carried and Apocalypse Now, transitional archetypical roles are used to show the degradation of innocence, as a result of the conflicts of war. In The Things They Carried, Mary Anne Bell, the young girlfriend of solider Mark Fossie, is brought to Vietnam in the heart of the war to be with him. In the beginning of her visit, Mary Anne is extremely soft, kind, and ignorant to the nature of the conflict taking place around her (O’Brien 91). Her relationship with Mark is one that appears as overly romanticized: “Mary Anne Bell and Mark Fossie had been sweethearts since grammar school. […] [someday] they would be married, and live in a fine gingerbread house near Lake Erie, and have three healthy yellow -haired children.

Moving into the 1970s and 1980s which were two of the most decadent and confused decades of all. Forrest Gump depicts a nation torn into thousands of tiny pieces. After one of the bloodiest wars that America has ever seen those who made it out were faced with not only the physical scars and disfigurement but also the burden of the mental scars that no one could truly understand except those who had gone through the trauma as well. On the other side of the coin you have the draft dodgers and conscientious objectors who chose to immerse themselves in the dark and dangerous world of hardcore drugs where cocaine was king and alcohol could numb all the trauma of the world.

In the book “A Magnificent Catastrophe” the author, Edward J. Larson, writes about all of the little details that has occurred in the First Presidential Campaign in the 1800s. He begins his book with how the two parties, the Republicans (Jefferson) and Federalists (Adams), were going to compete in who will govern the United States now that it is a free country and no longer under Britain’s rule. Although they had at first been friends they soon became enemies because of how they believed the government should be. Jefferson believed that the government should be a populist government that trusted popular rule. While Adams believed that America should have a strong government and that al

What exactly is a dystopia, and how is it relevant today? E.M. Forster’s The Machine Stops uses a dystopian society to show how one lives effortlessly, lacking knowledge of other places, in order to show that the world will never be perfect, even if it may seem so. A society whose citizens are kept ignorant and lazy, unknowing that they are being controlled, unfit to act if they did, all hidden under the guise of a perfect utopian haven, just as the one seen in The Machine Stops, could be becoming a very real possibility. There is a rational concern about this happening in today’s world that is shared by many, and with good reason. Dystopian worlds are often seen as fictitious, though this may not be the case in the

The stone hollow echoed with dozens of small breaths and the clunky shuffling of chairs and tables. The lighting pulsated, from glowing orbs, the color of mandarins, positioned near walls throughout the room. Every child in the room was quiet in fear of disobeying and in pure content that today was another school day. Eilig sat in the back left of the room, at an ancient wooden desk with years worth of scratches and pen marks. Everyone else’s desks were identical: a scribbled-out heart an inch away from the corner, a deep, inch long scratch on the side. The silence was contagious until a woman entered the room, with hare-like features she clutched a clipboard, needle-like claws holding the soft wood in place.

In Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now, both Joseph Conrad and Francis Ford Coppola create similar statements through their creations as they both centralize their views upon the effects of environmental changes that affect the human condition. The film Apocalypse Now vaguely reflects a similar message pursued by Conrad’s novella, due to the difference in time period, place setting, and circumstances in which the film was created. Conrad wrote his novella during British colonization, focusing upon imperialism. Coppola’s film similarly focused upon the barbaric nature of man, which demonstrates the insanity of the Vietnam War. In Heart of Darkness, Conrad centers his main focus upon the journey of Marlow, a sailor, who travels into

When Joseph Conrad sat down to write Heart of Darkness over a century ago he decided to set his tale amidst his own country's involvement in the African Congo. Deep in the African jungle his character would make his journey to find the Captain gone astray. Over eighty years later Francis Ford Coppola's Willard would take his journey not in Afica but in the jungles of South Asia. Coppola's Film, Apocalypse Now uses the backdrop of the American Vietnam War yet the similarities between the Conrad's novel and Coppola's film remains constant and plenty.

     Although Apocalypse Now is an extremely formalistic film from Francis Ford Coppola, he was quoted saying, "It's not about Vietnam, it was Vietnam!" He took quite a bit of time researching the war finding out what life was like for one taking part in the war. It is possible that any man, American or Vietnamese, may have been placed under the extreme psychological conditions of Captain Willard. In fact, in the opening scene, Martin Sheen was genuinely intoxicated and while on a rampage, Coppola video taped his madness and placed it in the script. When Sheen collides with a mirror in the opening scene, it is his real blood that is seen running free on his hands. Coppola

Notable writer, José Saramango, once said that, “a human being is a being who is constantly ‘under construction,’ but also, in a parallel fashion, always in a state of destruction.” Through this dualism, it can be seen that the individual, through external challenges and experiences, is in an ever evolving state of mental alteration. While these changes can create growth, or a construction of the mind, through the introduction of both internal and external conflicts, the individual can tend not towards development, but instead, destruction. In both Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried and Francis Ford Coppola’s film, Apocalypse Now (1979), the creators explore this concept through the evaluation of how the structured mind collapses

put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart. I

, Apocalypse Now is a true award-winning film. Even though it contains disturbing images, it is about a journey of self and the struggles successfully displayed with horrific, but yet stunning camerawork that making this Oscar-winning film breath-taking to watch. It’s literally breathtaking to see a film that just keeps surprising in every minute. The battle within is greater than the battle between the flesh is what defines Apocalypse Now, in which makes this epic film an adventure to explore. It’s not the end yet to watch Apocalypse Now before it’s truly the

When it comes to being prepared for a doomsday event America is ready for anything that can be thrown at us. Most Americans are either physically or mentally prepared. We see how doomsday situations affect people every day in social media. Weapons, for protection for you and your loved ones, are easily found.

Action-packed and highly-rated, Mad Max: Fury Road is a critically-acclaimed film about a journey of survival through a post-apocalyptic wasteland. There is no doubt that post-apocalyptic films are becoming increasingly popular among audiences as seen with movies such as the Hunger Games. However, Leggatt (2012) describes another variation in the post-apocalyptic genre, one that has been dubbed post-9/11 after a string of patterns prevalent in some post-apocalyptic films. Leggatt’s definition of post-9/11 apocalyptic films are ones that have a pessimistic tone towards the future of a society. As the world evolves and progresses, many new issues overlap and outgrow previous issues that have plagued the world before - though this transgression, the film industry follows suit in order to invent stories and media that is thought-provoking and relevant to changing society. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) is a film that encapsulates many elements of Leggatt’s post 9/11 apocalypse film genre through the apocalyptic setting, derailment of redemption, and societal obsession with apocalypse over utopia.

Unsurprisingly, apocalyptic tendencies make their way into nearly every civilization time and time again. From modern day film and literature, to ancient religions, talk of the apocalypse is unavoidable. Despite Buddhism being a religion with tenants based on detachment from the material, emphasis on the distinguishment of suffering, and an enlightened existence, there have been several notable moments in East Asian history when Buddhism was the source of all apocalyptic panic. The first took place in 6th century China when Chinese intellectuals closely examined the “Three Ages of Dharma”-- dharma being a word “used to describe both the teachings of the Buddha and their underlying moral laws” (9, The Art of Buddhism, Denise

What is truth? Is it the position of knowledge one has obtained under guidance of the worldly classifications of fiction, idols, and heresies construed by the father of lies? Or is the Truth proclaimed according to the Word of God? Whether one believes or disbelieves in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit does not change the fact His word is the Truth and will complete what has been proclaimed throughout the world. (John 17:17, 1 John 5:6-9 King James Version) Therefore, society has found measures of their own truths as fact including the many renditions of Daniel 9:24-27 (KJV). Consider just for a moment a home owners insurance policy. Notice the policy covers a zombie apocalypse, but no longer covers the act of God. Society is more apt to believe the version of truth coming from Hollywood than the Word itself.