The film Apocalypse
Now explores how war produces negative psychological effects in soldiers,
most clearly identifiable as madness. Madness is defined an extremely foolish
behavior; a state of frenzied or chaotic activity or the state
of being mentally ill. The opening scene of Apocalypse
Now sets a dreary scene, with solemn music in the background and images of
death, alcohol and explosions. The audience is shown an even more depraved
scene when images of Martin Sheen, the main character, show him tearing open his
hand from shattering a frame of glass. Martin Sheen then begins to cry hysterically,
while rubbing his own blood on his face and begins guzzling alcohol. These
clear images of emotional instability show what war has done to Martin Sheen’s character
in Apocalypse Now. Martin Sheen’s
behavior is contrasted after he is put on assignment to kill Colonel Martin
Kurtz, where he begins to show more emotional stability. Martin Sheen plays a
distraught soldier with symptoms of emotional instability and unresolved
emotional responses to war. Martin Sheen’s character clearly exemplifies how a
soldier can be so conditioned to war that without that stimulation they become
mad. Obrien’s use of contrast between war and civilian life, is a theme present
throughout Apocalypse Now. In the
opening scene of Apocalypse Now,
Martin Sheen is shown drinking in bed while images of bombings are playing in
the background, these simultaneous images of war and civilian life get the
viewer to consider how they relate. Obrien’s theme is further exemplified when
Martin Sheen references how things ‘are in war’, directly contrasting how
everything is different in war. Additionally, Yusef Komuyakaa’s theme of
mourning the Vietnam war, is a theme present in both Apocalypse Now and Facing It. Facing
It is a poem about a person’s experience when vising the Vietnam Memorial. Yusef
Komunyakaa most clearly identifies remorse when he states “My black face fades,
hides inside the black granite. I said I wouldn’t: dammit: No tear.” in his
poem Facing It.
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