Joel Holsteen - In Class # 5 Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now is the story of Captain Willard who is sent on a special mission in the Vietnam War in 1969. His mission is to travel through the Cambodia jungle in order to find and eliminate Colonel Kurtz who has taken some soldiers and gone off the radar and disobeys the army's orders. Along Captain Williard's travels he finds many disturbing places and people like LTC Kilgore who goes surfing in the middle of a battle. In the final scenes we see Captain Willard slaughtering Colonel Kurtz in a similar fashion as the Cow that is being slaughtered out side for religious purposes. This was interesting to me because it showed that Colonel Kurtz is represented as a spiritual leader in a way. In a strange way Colonel Kurtz also knew that Willard would end up killing him and did not have Willard restricted to a jail like place he was free to walk around and talk with the Colonel. This showed me that Colonel Kurtz was ready to die and accepted death in hopes that he would become a martyr for his cause.