This paper is about the film “Apocalypse Now” by Coppola, which is about the war in Vietnam. If talking about the word Apocalypse in the title of the movie, it might represent a couple of meanings that are labeled in the film.
As the war in the film portrayed as the end of everything human in people, Apocalypse, if interpreted as the end of the world can be labeled to all the ongoing events in the movie. Where every person in the film watches the destruction of his usual and regular values that meant something back home and the human life turns out to be so cheap. This can indicate the apocalypse in the form that relates to the participants of the events.
The usage of the word “now” can imply that there is no need to wait for the “Apocalypse” to happen as it is already now at the present time. The other interpretation of Apocalypse, as a form of revelation of something previously hidden, is the changes in thoughts and views of Captain Willard. Through his journey to assassinate Kurtz, Willard as he watches all the horrifying events of the war, reaches the point where he no longer has the belief in the propriety of his mission.
The Vietnamese in the film are somewhat a decoration or an obstacle in a way that shows that they have no real value. The film in a certain way is not about specific categories of people whether Vietnamese or Americans, though the latter have the most screen time. The film shows that in a war the human life can worth nothing at all. In general most of the time the Vietnamese are portrayed as innocent victims, not victims of Americans, but rather victims of the war itself where both sides participated.