LITR 5734: Colonial & Postcolonial Literature

Student Film Presentation 2005

Michael A. Russo

08/30/05

Film Highlight: Apocalypse Now (1979)

Clip Introduction:

Apocalypse Now was released in 1979, directed by film maker Francis Ford Coppola of The Godfather fame.  IMDB.com includes the following quick plot description about this film: “Based on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, this is a controversial addition to the multitude of Vietnam war movies in existence. We follow Captain Willard on his mission into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade Green Beret who has set himself up as a God among a local tribe.” 

The scene I’m about to show sets up Captain Willard’s mission into Cambodia.  But first, something quick to think about.  Indian scholar Bhabha in 1987 wrote about the tendency of certain colonized peoples to take up and transform certain aspects of the colonizing peoples’ culture.  He coined this process “hybridity.”  With that in mind, please consider the following clip and whether it demonstrates a mergence of two cultures, a divergence, or perhaps something else.

Play clip.

Follow-up Questions:

1)      Can hybridity go both ways?  In other words, from the clip, is there any evidence that a kind of “hybridity” is at work on the colonizing culture?  Consider the image of the snail and razor blade offered by Kurtz.  Also, what is the effect of the food choices offered to the characters in this scene?

2)      What seems to be the army’s problem with Kurtz?  Why are they trying to assassinate him?  Is there something more about Kurtz that troubles the army above and beyond what they are telling Captain Willard?

3)      Why put Kurtz in Cambodia instead of Vietnam?  What is the effect of that setting as opposed to North Vietnam, South Vietnam, or even the United States?