The transition from nomos to physis is a central theme in Apocalypse Now. This shift is seen throughout the movie in the form of the setting, but additionally, there is also is a major transition in the development of several characters. The beginning of the film places major emphasis on nomos. Captain Willard is ordered by his superiors to assassinate the rogue commander, Colonel Kurtz. They believe that Kurtz has gone insane and needed to be dealt with. This scene especially shows the presence of nomos in the film because Kurtz’s deranged behavior was unacceptable to the commanders, and against their definition of “law”. This presence continues when Captain Willard meets the riverboat team that will escort him to Kurtz. He meets a young soldier named Lance. In Lance’s first appearance, he is shown sun tanning and relaxing. Lance is a famous surfer and is known by many. I believe his presence also represents a form of nomos at this point in the film. …show more content…
We see what seems to be a peaceful village, demolished by the ordinance from the helicopter squadron. The film’s major shift to physis that I perceived, began when the river boat arrived at the bridge. The soldiers at the bridge were unlike any that we had come across thus far. They had become quite savage. They had necklaces made from human teeth, and it did not seem they even had a commander. One of the soldiers particularly appeared to become one with nature. When asked to fire his bombing weapon at the enemy, he didn’t even need light to hit his target with pin-point accuracy. As the boat advances down the river, the film continues its conversion to physis. The river becomes increasingly primal. At one point, the soldiers encounter enemies firing flaming arrows. We also begin to see the degradation of Lance. At this point, he has painted his face in camouflage and he is beginning to become more
As the war progresses, Caputo requests to go to a line company in the middle of November. This is a change from the “office” position he currently held where he was largely responsible for counting casualties. At this point, the romanticized visions Caputo had of war have been completely shattered and he goes into this transfer being fully aware of this. This change in viewpoint becomes even more clear when compared to the beginning of the novel where Caputo was intrigued by the romance and action of war. While readers would expect more action and typical war stories in this section of the book, Philip Caputo writes anything but. Caputo writes, “It went like that for the rest of the month. It was a time of little action and endless misery…Almost every hour of every night, the radio operators chanted, ‘All secure. Situation remains the same’ (1996: 240). Caputo repeats the phrase “All secure. Situation remains the same” five times throughout this single paragraph. Because of this, readers see the dull and mundane side of war that is often not talked about. In addition, Caputo continues to comment of the large amounts of waiting throughout the autobiography. When most think of the Vietnam War, they picture the “main events”. Similar to the numerous documentaries we watched in class, some of the main points of the war include: The first Indochina War, The Gulf of Tonkin, and the Tet Offensive. These documentaries all focused on these monumental events and because of this, the public perceives this war as the sum of these events. However, what many fail to consider the large gaps in time between these events. It is in these large gaps that little action occurred and most of the soldier’s time was spent waiting as Caputo depicted in this scene. In connection with
The insurgents had arrived in the neighboring villages of the camp deep in the night and started grouping together with the Nuristan militia men. Their first step involved evicting the civilians in the village on an impending attack on the Keating combat outpost. Following analysis showed that the villagers might not have moved out of the area during the attack. The attack started at dawn when the insurgent...
The violent nature that the soldiers acquired during their tour in Vietnam is one of O'Brien's predominant themes in his novel. By consciously selecting very descriptive details that reveal the drastic change in manner within the men, O'Brien creates within the reader an understanding of the effects of war on its participants. One of the soldiers, "Norman Bowler, otherwise a very gentle person, carried a Thumb. . .The Thumb was dark brown, rubbery to touch. . . It had been cut from a VC corpse, a boy of fifteen or sixteen"(O'Brien 13). Bowler had been a very good-natured person in civilian life, yet war makes him into a very hard-mannered, emotionally devoid soldier, carrying about a severed finger as a trophy, proud of his kill. The transformation shown through Bowler is an excellent indicator of the psychological and emotional change that most of the soldiers undergo. To bring an innocent young man from sensitive to apathetic, from caring to hateful, requires a great force; the war provides this force. However, frequently are the changes more drastic. A soldier named "Ted Lavender adopted an orphaned puppy. . .Azar strapped it to a Claymore antipersonnel mine and squeezed the firing device"(O'Brien 39). Azar has become demented; to kill a puppy that someone else has adopted is horrible. However, the infliction of violence has become the norm of behavior for these men; the fleeting moment of compassion shown by one man is instantly erased by another, setting order back within the group. O'Brien here shows a hint of sensitivity among the men to set up a startling contrast between the past and the present for these men. The effect produced on the reader by this contrast is one of horror; therefore fulfilling O'Brien's purpose, to convince the reader of war's severely negative effects.
Costello, Mary. "Vietnam Aftermath." Editional Research Reports 1974 1 (1974): 1. CQ Researcher Online. Web. 5 Mar. 2014.
In the beginning chapter, O’Brien rambles about the items the soldiers carry into battle, ranging from can openers, pocketknives, and mosquito repellent to Kool-Aid, sewing kits, and M-16 assault rifles. Yet, the story is truly about the intangible things the soldiers “carry”: “grief, terror, love, longing. shameful memories (and) the common secret of cowardice” (Harris & O’Brien 21). Most of the soldiers did not know what the overall purpose was of fighting the Vietnamese (Tessein). The young men “carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing”.
Among the necessities or near-necessities were P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs… …and two or three canteens of water. Together, these items weighed between 12 and 18 pounds. They all carried steel helmets that weighed 5 pounds. On their feet they carried jungle boots—2.1 pounds. (O’Brien 2)
revenge he goes to the lake and takes on the challenge. He shows the great
Power this is what kept Kurtz in the jungle for such a long period of time. Determined not to become another causality he becomes allies with the natives through fear. Kurtz is a brilliant man who did not have to adapt to his environment but had it adapt to him. On top of a hill his hut is surrounded by the heads of men who have betrayed in him some sort, this serves as a reminder to anyone who contemplates going against his wish.
The setting remains the same throughout this chapter but the scenery changes quite dramatically. From varnished wood and stripes and painted circles the scenery transforms into army cots and army issue blankets. This seems to cry out a lot of powerful emotion to the reader as the army image continues to come up, keeping a clear focus on what main be one of the main issues of the story.
...table intention. It looked at you with a vengeful aspect.” Although the time period and place were completely different, this description of the river is very similar to what the viewer experiences in the movie. The foreshadowing of the mist in both the movie and book show something bad is about to happen: the ambush of the natives.
creates the mood of sadness and hatred in Lancelot, and a dark evil kind of
Also, in the narrative Kurtz and Willard share similar plot points. For example, Lev states that “we cannot believe in Colonel Kurtz, the charismatic leader gone mad, and this throws us back to the incoherent experience of the ordinary soldier” (126). Willard experiences this first hand as he and the team travel to Do Lung Bridge in hopes of finding aid. However, Willard and the rest onboard the boat come across men that instead are trying to board their boat begging them to get them out of Vietnam. Meanwhile, other “American soldiers fight Charlie every night at the Do Lung bridges, and Willard learns that ‘No one is in command’”
...martyrdom and so the story ends, leaving the reader in anger about the carelessly spoken words of Lancelot.
As we got further and further into the Vietnam War, few lives were untouched by grief, anger and fear. The Vietnamese suffered the worst hardship; children lay dead in the street, villages remained nothing but charred ashes, and bombs destroyed thousands of innocent civilians. Soldiers were scarred emotionally as well as physically, as
Before the boat can reach Kurtz's outpost, it is "attacked" by the local natives. M...