By Denis Chericone The war in Vietnam—brought to you by United Artists, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen and Robert Duvall—has finally blazed its way across the movie screens of America. Shot at a cost of $30 million ($18 million over original estimates) and requiring four years to complete. Apocalypse Now was perhaps the most eagerly awaited war film in the history of the cinema. It was being directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola. whose Godfathers I and II were acclaimed by critics and at the box office alike. It was about American military operations in South Vietnam, and the film’s price tag could have financed a small war in itself. Bignamestars were in the leads. The film held the promise of explaining the nature of the dark stain that had crept into America's memory and conscience as a result of Vietnam. It had enough going for it. But Coppola didn’t want a movie that offered explanations. What he desired was a work of art; a film that transcended reality and expressed itself through surrealistic images and stunning technical effects. He wanted a film that was not so much a statement as it was an experience, and he certainly lived up to his expectations. Fhe story depicts the journey of a Capt. Willard (Sheen) up the Nung River in search of renegade Green Beret Col. Kurtz (Brando). Willard has been given orders by the American High Command to “terminate with extreme prejudice” the command of Col. Kurtz. It seems that Kurtz has stepped over the line and has taken matters into his own hands. With an army of native Montangnards, Kurtz has been waging the war against the Vietnamese his own way, a way that doesn't quite fit with the plans of the American generals. He has repeatedly ignored efforts by the High Command to bring him into the fold, and now he poses a threat to the implementation of their military strategy. Willard, a professional army assassin. is given the complete dossier on Kurtz to examine on his trip up the river. It is through the dossier that Willard and the viewer are introduced to the mystery of Col. Kurtz. Kurtz is an enigma. His record was spotless and filled with decorations and commendations. He is third-generation West Point, a Korean War hero. What happened to make him stray from the path? What made him chuck a very promising military career in favor of leading a renegade army? The answer lies at the end of the river with Kurtz, and as Willard begins his journey he rqaliz.es that he wants an explanation of Kurtz's behavior more than a successful mission. Upon reaching his quarry, Willard gets his explanation; but only after suffering through two hours of Francis Ford Coppola’s Hollywood Vietnam, Based loosely on Joseph Conrad’s Heart o f Darkness, Apocalypse Now is less a war story than a tale of two men's struggle with the moral implications of war. And although it does manage to show some of the most vivid and memorable combat footage ever seen in a war film, it neglects by artistic design to portray any reality or judgment. Coppola’s view of Vietnam is one from the outside looking in. Vietnam and its people are seen through the eyes of the American military. The Vietnamese are portrayed as Coppola 's wet dream: Apolcalypse Later Ego Now “the enemy.” Human qualities—and consequently sympathies—are given to the Americans. What Coppola has studiously avoided is any reference to the destruction of a culture. When Vietnamese villages and people are being reduced to extinction, Coppola becomes more concerned with the artistic effect of the destruction rather than the emotional effect. This would be understandable if Vietnam had simply been a fantasy thought up in the imagination of some Hollywood scriptwriter. But Vietnam was real. It never approached surrealism for its victims; although some might say that the totality of the American destruction upon the country certainly did reside in the realm of surrealism. Coppola chooses to deal with morality on another level. As Willard is traveling upriver toward Kurtz, it becomes all too clear to him that Kurtz is the logical extension of American strategy. The war that Coppola has created for Willard to view is one of absurdity after absurdity. No wonder Kurtz is fighting it his own way. There seems to be no other choice for a true soldier, and the dossier convinces Willard that Kurtz is a soldier. But the dossier can’t tell Willard Kurtz’s personal motivations in becoming a renegade. and by the time Willard reaches Kurtz, Willard has completely abandoned any ideas of killing him. He wants answers from Kurtz. It’s almost as if he wants Kurtz to confirm his suspicions concerning the naturp of the war. Kurtz’s characterization by Brando is effective, yet understated. Brando is only in the film for about 15 minutes, and most of his shots are from the neck up. However, he is convincing enough to give the audience perhaps the only naked look at the truth in the whole film. He explains his reasons to Willard: “We went into a camp to inoculate some children with polio vaccine. It seems a thousand centuries ago. And we inoculated them all. And then we left and this old man came running after us, and he was crying; he couldn’t see. We went back there. And they [the V.C.] had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were, in a pile, a pile of little arms—I-I cried, I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was so filled with—there’s no word for that, there’s no word that describes that. And I want to remember. I never want to forget that, I never want to forget. And then I realized, like I was shot, like I was shot with a diamond, a diamond bullet right through the forehead. And I thought, my God, the genius of that, the genius, the will to do that. . .perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline pure. Then I realized that they were stronger than us because they could stand that. These were not monsters; but men, trained cadres. These men fought with their hearts. They had families, had children, were filled with love. They had the strength, the strength. . .to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men, then our troubles here would be over very quickly. . . . They have utilized their primordial instincts to kill without feeling, without passion, without judgment, without judgment... because it’s judgment that defeats us.” Through an isolated act of terrorism, Kurtz has managed to reach the bottom line of the war. This one event has convinced him that there is no way the American army is going- to defeat the Vietnamese. He understands that there is no choice for the Vietnamese. They either fight or they die. But again Coppola has chosen the sensational over the routine. North Vietnamese troops marched down from the north along what is commonly known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Some experts claim that its road extended over 2,000 miles. The NVA troops would travel in groups of three. Two would walk while the third slept in a makeshift litter slung between the walking two. This way they could travel without stopping. Aside from carrying a comrade, all three would carry between 60 and 80 pounds of equipment. They could walk a thousand miles in 30 days, and this was usually under the most unfavorable of conditions: round-the- clock U.S. airstrikes, monsoon rains and one handful of rice a day. This is the determination that Kurtz understood. This is the pure, crystalline will that he refers to. and even though Coppola has touched it, he by no means has realized it. Coppola, like the American military themselves, has failed to grasp the nature of the struggle. They couldn’t see behind the face of the people. Vietnamese strategy depended on and was rooted in the people themselves. Mobile guerrilla warfare does not succeed if it does not have the cooperation of the local inhabitants. The American strategists would never understand this, and since Coppola has chosen to view this war through the eyes of Americans, the nature of the war will still be elusive. The Vietnamese defeated us fair and square on the battlefield, and through Francis Ford Coppola’s surrealism and detachment, they have returned to defeat us again. Denis Chericone is a former Green Beret sergeant. He was involved in reconnaissance and terrorist activity on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. 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