Fragments on Apocalypse Now

"Apocalypse Now" is a dark story. In fact, the original novel it draws from is called "Dark Heart", a work by Joseph Condela. I have always guessed that when Francis Coppola read this novel for the first time, he was determined to put it on the screen. I just can't be sure that when he read the novel, it was before the Vietnam War or after the Vietnam War. However, fortunately, there is no essential difference between the Congo River in "Dark Heart" and the Mekong River in "Apocalypse Now". The climates of the African jungle in the 19th century and the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia in the 20th century are so similar. The most important thing is people. The heart is the same. Along the Congo River, it is surrounded by the unique bushes of Black Africa and the local indigenous people like ghosts. Along the Mekong River, it is also surrounded by endless swamps, low bushes and ghost-shaped woods. Vietnamese civilians, there is a unique rhythmic sound of artillery fire. Sitting on a small boat like this, whether it is the most primitive canoe or a diesel boat with mechanical assistance, people will inevitably have such strange thoughts as if they have become a lone tree, a river. It has become a branch nerve in the brain, and he is falling along the darkest and most easily aroused primitive desire in human nature.
"Apocalypse Now" is the confrontation between primitive and civilized, the confrontation between reason and instinct. A battle hero who once made great achievements in battle, in the fierce and cruel war, found the true desire deep in his heart, or as Stephen King said, "Actually, the devil in your heart found you", he found that since War is so perverted, human nature and so-called good reason give way to madness. Under the supremacy of the state, all truth, goodness and beauty are strangled, so instead of being a victim, it is better to create a world by yourself and let others become your own victim. This is a very normal reasoning conclusion, and it is also the inevitable belonging of the dictator.
We found that "Apocalypse Now" turned out to be such a story. In the deepest part of the Vietnam War, in the deepest part of the Mekong River, in the deepest part of human nature, Satan was sitting there, waiting for a soldier to kill him, or waiting An inheritor.
There is a view that rationality is just a flower in a greenhouse. People start talking about the light of rationality when they are full of food and drink, and worry about food and clothing. People are human because they get rid of the animal instinct. And how people should establish a complete set of ethical systems, but if everyone is placed in a desperate and helpless environment, the so-called human rationality will all collapse, and what is left is pure and simple animalism— -The instinct to survive, the instinct to hunt, and then the instinct to kill.

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