Information
| Year: | 1979 |
| Rating: | 8.6(172694) |
| Listed in: | Drama, War |
| Directed by: | Francis Ford Coppola |
| Actors: | Marlon Brando Martin Sheen Robert Duvall Frederic Forrest |
| "The Horror. . . The Horror. . ." | |
Cast
| Directed by | |
|---|---|
| Francis Ford Coppola | |
| Actors | |
| Marlon Brando | as Colonel Walter E. Kurtz |
| Martin Sheen | as Captain Benjamin L. Willard |
| Robert Duvall | as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore |
| Frederic Forrest | as Jay 'Chef' Hicks |
| Sam Bottoms | as Lance B. Johnson |
| Laurence Fishburne | as Tyrone 'Clean' Miller |
| Albert Hall | as Chief Phillips |
| Harrison Ford | as Colonel Lucas |
| Dennis Hopper | as Photojournalist |
| G.D. Spradlin | as General Corman |
| Jerry Ziesmer | as Jerry, Civilian |
| Scott Glenn | as Lieutenant Richard M. Colby |
| Bo Byers | as MP Sergeant #1 |
| James Keane | as Kilgore's Gunner |
| Kerry Rossall | as Mike from San Diego |
| Ron McQueen | as Injured Soldier |
| Tom Mason | as Supply Sergeant |
| Jack Thibeau | as Soldier in Trench |
| Glenn Walken | as Lieutenant Carlsen |
| George Cantero | as Soldier with Suitcase |
| Damien Leake | as Machine Gunner |
| Herb Rice | as Roach |
| William Upton | as Spotter |
| Larry Carney | as MP Sergeant #2 |
| Marc Coppola | as AFRS Announcer |
| Daniel Kiewit | as Major from New Jersey |
| Father Elias | as Catholic Priest |
| Bill Graham | as Agent |
| Jerry Ross | as Johnny from Malibu/Mike from San Diego |
| Dick White | as Helicopter Pilot |
| Christian Marquand | as Hubert de Marais (Redux version only) |
| Michel Pitton | as Philippe de Marais (Redux version only) |
| Franck Villard | as Gaston de Marais (Redux version only) |
| David Olivier | as Christian de Marais (Redux version only) |
| Robert Julian | as The Tutor (Redux version only) |
| Yvon LeSeaux | as Sergeant Le Fevre (Redux version only) |
| Roman Coppola | as Francis de Marais (Redux version only) |
| Gian-Carlo Coppola | as Gilles de Marais (Redux version only) |
| Henri Sadardeil | as French Soldier #1 (Redux version only) |
| Gilbert Renkens | as French Soldier #2 (Redux version only) |
| Don Gordon Bell | as Soldier |
| Francis Ford Coppola | as Director of TV Crew |
| R. Lee Ermey | as Eagle Thrust Seven Helicopter Pilot |
| Jim Gaines | as Extra |
| Evan A. Lottman | as Soldier |
| Nick Nicholson | as Soldier |
| Linn Phillips III | as Guitarist in Band |
| Pierre Segui | as French Soldier (Redux version only) |
| Vittorio Storaro | as TV Photographer |
| Henry Strzalkowski | as Bit Part |
| Lonnie | as Helicopter Skid Marine |
| Actresses | |
| Cynthia Wood | as Playmate of the Year |
| Colleen Camp | as Playmate, Miss May |
| Linda Carpenter | as Playmate |
| Hattie James | as Mrs. Miller, Clean's Mother |
| Aurore Clément | as Roxanne Sarrault (Redux version only) |
| Chrystel Le Pelletier | as Claudine (Redux version only) |
Movie info
| Languages: | English, French, Vietnamese, Khmer |
| Filming dates: | February 1977 - May 1977 (Pagsanjan, Laguna, Luzon, Philippines) March 1976 - 21 May 1977 |
| Budget: | USD 31,500,000 |
| Gross: |
USA - 96,992 USD (5 August 2001) (re-issue) UK - 415,486 GBP (2002) Australia - 549,170 AUD (2001) Hong Kong - 2,152,364 HKD (1980) Italy - 421,270,000 ITL (1982) Japan - 21,000,000 USD (1980) Sweden - 8,252,654 SEK (1980) West Germany - 14,000,000 USD (1979) |
| Plot: | Vietnam, 1969. Burnt out Special Forces officer Captain Willard is sent into the jungle with top-secret orders to find and kill renegade Colonel Kurtz who has set up his own army within the jungle. As Willard descends into the jungle, he is slowly over taken by the jungle's mesmerizing powers and battles the insanity which surrounds him. His boat crew succumbs to drugs and is slowly killed off one by one. As Willard continues his journey he becomes more and more like the man he was sent to kill. |
View Online
|
Tudou
|
|||||
Tags
Original Soundtracks
|
"The End" by The Doors Performed by The Doors Courtesy of Elektra/Asylum Records "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards Performed by The Rolling Stones Courtesy of ABKCO Records "Love Me, And Let Me Love You" by Robert Duvall "The Ride of the Valkyries" from "Die Walküre" Composed by Richard Wagner Conducted by Georg Solti Performed by Wiener Philharmoniker (as The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra) Courtesy of Decca Record Company Ltd/London Records Inc. "Let The Good Times Roll" by Leonard Lee "Suzie Q" By Dale Hawkins, S. J. Lewis, E. Broadwater Performed by Flash Cadillac Courtesy of Private Stock Records "Excerpts from 'Mnong Gar Music from Vietnam'" Courtesy of OCORA Radio France "Collection Musee de l'homme" Zoetrope Music Company "Surfin' Safari" Brian Wilson and Mike Love Guild Music (BMI) c/o Original Sound Entertainment |
Goofs
|
Continuity: The blades of the Huey helicopter when the Playmate of the Year arrives. Crew: When pulling out from the Dulong bridge you can see the wake caused by the camera boat when the camera shows the boat pulling away. Continuity: SPOILER: Thickness of pages when Willard flips through Kurtz's manuscripts after he is killed. Fact errors: The maximum gross weight of a Huey helicopter is 10,500 pounds. It would be impossible for such an aircraft to lift a Patrol Boat, Riverine (PBR) which weighs anywhere between 15,000 and 19,000 pounds. Continuity: After the canopy of the boat is destroyed and is replaced by giant leaves, the canopy reappears while they are at the bridge. In subsequent shots after, the canopy is gone again and replaced by the leaves. Continuity: When attacking the village, Kilgore's helicopter has rocket pods on each side and no surfboards. When it lands it has surfboards on each side and no rocket pods. FAIR: As Willard flips through Kurtz's dossier, the voiceover says, "Third generation West Point, top of his class" while the dossier clearly reads, "Graduates West Point; second in class." Second is still reasonably considered "top of the class." Revealing mistakes: The tape player that "Clean" picks up to play his mother's taped letter has no batteries in the bottom. Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: When Willard kicks The Chef's severed head off his legs his neck can be seen breathing in and out. Revealing mistakes: As Willard reads the newspaper articles about Kurtz, the text of one article is about West German, Iranian & US discussions about nuclear energy. It has nothing to do with Kurtz. DATE: In Kurtz's dossier the cover letter in one section is a commendation to Col Kurtz for arranging a fly-by of Cobra gunships for a celebration or parade on "30 Aug 65." The first prototype of the Cobra gunship didn't fly until 7 Sep 65. Continuity: The length of Willard's cigarette while he is trapped in the bamboo cage, talking to the freelance photographer. Continuity: Willard's band-aid on his face appears out of nowhere during the battle scene with Kilgore, a few moments after their helicopter lands. Continuity: Broken radar dome on the boat reappears later in the film. Continuity: SPOILER: After Clean is shot, blood spatters on boat panel disappear and reappear. Continuity: When attacking the village, the helicopters alternate from flying at high altitude to sea level several times. Crew: Shadow of dolly and crew just before the scene with the news crew. Continuity: When Willard grabs the sergeant to get fuel for his boat (just before the scene where the playmates dance for the soldiers) his cigarette disappears and reappears between shots. BOOM: When the Kilgore character is first introduced getting off a chopper you can see a reflection of a boom mic in his glasses. Crew: When the Playboy chopper takes off with the two men holding on you can see a safety wire holding the man who partially drops when the pants of the other man partially give way. Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: When Willard looks through Kurtz' book at the end, two of the pages are identical. Continuity: When Roxanne Sarrault smokes a cigar during dinner, when only she, her father and Willard are present at the table. At the same time we see the arm of the man who earlier sat next to her, but in the next shot he is gone again. Crew: When Willard and his crew meet Kilgore and the cavalry for the first time and walk onto the beach, long shadows (caused by the setting sun) of the camera and its crew are visible where the soldiers walk. Continuity: After the massacre on the sampan, Mr. Clean is seen opening and closing the breech on the M-60 machine gun twice. Continuity: When Kilgore calls for an air strike, the number of planes attacking varies between four and five in different shots. Continuity: In the opening montage two different ceiling fans are seen. One is light colored with a louvered housing on the motor. The other is black with no visible motor housing, and is spinning counterclockwise. SYNC: During Willard's briefing in Nha Trang, every time someone mentions the name "Kurtz" on the soundtrack, on screen they are mouthing "Lieghley", the original name of Col. Kurtz's character in the script during the early part of the shooting. Revealing mistakes: When Kilgore calls for the soldier to start The Ride of the Valkyries, the soldier starts the reel-to-reel tape. Unfortunately, none of the tape actually touches a playback head. Instead the tape is wound underneath a tension bar and on to the take-up reel. Continuity: When the photojournalist welcomes Willard, his bandana is clearly rolled. A few shots later it appears flat on his forehead, and in the next shot it is back rolled again. Continuity: SPOILER: Near the end when Willard gets of the boat to kill Kurtz, he doesn't wear camouflage make-up on his face. When he emerges from the water, he does. Fact errors: During the air-strike on the village, Kilgore calls for "20 mike-mike Vulcan" to be shot from the Huey gunship. The UH-1 Huey does not carry an M-61A1 20mm Vulcan cannon. The Gatling gun which that is shown being shot is a Minigun, which shoots a 7.62mm NATO (.308 cal. Winchester) cartridge. DATE: Willard is reading info about Kurtz while eating a Hershey's bar that has a modern UPC bar code on it. Crew: In Cambodia, when the crew is reading mail, then coming under fire and escaping, spray from the camera boat can be seen twice. Continuity: LTC Kilgore's stetson hat has a rank insignia on it when he is first seen, but the rank is missing in the Ride of the Valkyries attack. Fact errors: The Viet Cong's tracer bullets, seen quite often throughout the film, notably when the PT boat is "sprayed" with enemy fire, appear to be red in color. In reality, the Viet Cong used green tracer ammunition while the American's used red tracer ammunition. Continuity: When the helicopter drops the PBR onto the water, the superstructure with the radar mast collapses, but in the next shot the boat is fine. Crew: When a helicopter is traveling over the hills in the distance after Willard's mission briefing from the high rankings, in the bottom right of the shot you can make out the shadow of another helicopter traveling away from Willard's one. This is possibly a camera helicopter. Fact errors: Many M16 rifles are shown with 30-round magazines installed. These were rarely used in Vietnam. The standard magazine of the Vietnam era was shorter, and held 20 rounds. Revealing mistakes: Kilgore's helicopter attack scene, according to the dialogue between him and Willard the previous night, states that the attack will take place at dawn. Yet most of the scene itself was clearly filmed at high noon. FAIR: SPOILER: During Clean's funeral, the Chief folds the tattered American flag from the stars end to the stripes end. Even a Cub Scout knows you fold the flag from stripes to stars, leaving the blue field on the outside. A Navy Chief Petty Officer would certainly know this. This was almost certainly intentional on the director's part; it may symbolize the chief's disaffection with the war, or at least with his mission (similar to flying a flag upside-down as a sign of distress). Fact errors: In the scene the morning after the Do Long bridge incident, following Lance's popping smoke ("purple haze," he calls it), Clean is shown about to listen to his tape and an M-60 is shown on the left with linked ammo dangling and draped over the boat's side panel. However, the ammo rounds are clearly blanks with the characteristic blunt bottle-nose tips, not real rounds. Continuity: In the opening scene when Willard is in his apartment, before he punches the mirror there is already a blood stain on his sheets. CHAR: When Willard is looking through the dossier at the times that Kurtz was denied a transfer to Special Forces ("jump school"), the reason for disapproval is written: "The Army feels, all maters of age and fitness aside..."; "matters" is misspelled. Continuity: When Johnson is painting the Playmate of the Year's face, you see a shot of her forehead already painted black. About a minute later, her forehead is clean and he is applying the black makeup, seemingly for the first time. Revealing mistakes: Much of the rockets and arms fire are represented by firecrackers. This can be most clearly seen by the highly curved paths they make. Revealing mistakes: In the Redux version, there is a scene where Capt Willard is walking through a heavy downpour at the Playmate/Medevac helicopter site. His M16 is slung over his shoulder with the muzzle pointing upward. This allows rain to enter the rifle's mechanism, resulting in rust and and eventual jamming. Real combat troops carry their rifles with the muzzles down while in the rain to prevent this from happening. Revealing mistakes: When Cpt. Willard is approaching Colby, (the American soldier who was sent to kill Kurtz, but joined him instead) several of the women and children surrounding Colby look directly at the camera. Continuity: When the helicopters are shown flying toward the village for the attack, the helicopter carrying Willard's boat is not among them. Continuity: In the shots where the Northrup F-5s drop the napalm, the number of jets varies between three and five. Also, their formation changes as well. Continuity: When the PBR leaves the Do Lung bridge, it has a radar dome. When they cut to the next river day scene, it doesn't. then, when chef hands out the mail, it does. For the rest of the trip, it's not there. Captain Willard even sits on where it should be when they reach Kurtz's lair. Continuity: During the helicopter attack scene, an American soldier gets wounded in the courtyard. Shortly afterward you see the courtyard designated by the yellow smoke of a smoke grenade. However, the next shot is of the courtyard and there is no yellow smoke yet and you can see a soldier toss the smoke grenade onto the ground. It just barely ignites before the scene cuts to the next shot. CHAR: When Bill Kilgore asks about the 6 foot peak, he asks Mike about the point. Earlier, Kilgore introduces Lance Johnson to Johnny from Malibu and Mike from San Diego and Johnny is really the one he asks, not Mike. Continuity: In addition to Willard's Band aid on his cheek appearing out of nowhere, if you watch the laceration on his cheek, it is more healed early in the movie, and more raw later in the movie. Revealing mistakes: According to the identity cards Willard thumbed through, one of the Vietnamese spies Kurtz assassinated in November 1968 was Vo Van Sau, born on 30 September 1947. However Vo's photograph is of a balding man who certainly looks no younger than thirty. GEOG: There are no waterways linking the Central Coast (where the only surfable beaches in South Vietnam are situated) with Cambodia. DATE: During the scene before the Playboy show where the crew is trying buy fuel from the quartermaster, the Playboy Playmate centerfolds hanging on the wall behind him are from the mid '70s, rather than the late '60s. Continuity: LTC Kilgore's helicopter wasn't carrying surfboards. He sent his helicopter with the injured child and his mother. His helicopter carried rocket pods which weren't present when it left (could have been released after the pods were emptied). The surfboards were on a helicopter to the left of Kilgore's. Fact errors: While Col. Kurtz's hat and decoration changes, earlier having oak leaves and crossed sabers (as would be seen with having different hats for when one became sweat soaked in Vietnam) and later just larger crossed sabers; it is most noticeable after he lands following the napalm use. It is seen earlier with the hat cords for a warrant officer which are silver/black instead of gold/black for officers of Lt. Col rank. (This is only readily-visible in the "Redux" restored version.) In one scene, he is shown with the hat acorns near-joined together on the brim as worn in the WW I M1903 campaign hat similar to that worn by highway patrolmen. Military hat cords of a cavalryman would never have been permitted to do this. DATE: They pass a downed B-52 while going up the river. The movie takes place in 1969, but the first B-52 did not go down in Viet Nam until 1972. FAIR: After the helicopter carrying the wounded child leaves, Lance's clothing has changed from his Army fatigues to a pair of shorts (this is because of a cut scene in which Kilgore gives him a pair of shorts to surf in. The scene was restored in the Redux edition.) Fact errors: When Willard is showing a map to LTC Kilgore on the night of the Huey attack, it is impossible for both to see the map because of the light angle caused by the fire. The map must have been completely dark from the actors' point of view. CHAR: When Kilgore wants the tree-line bombed with napalm to the stone age, he asks for "Dove Four" and the pilots respond with "Dove One-Three", and "Dove Four" is never referred to again. Fact errors: One of the officers who briefs Capt Willard on his mission to find Col Kurtz is a full colonel named Lucas ('Harrison Ford (I)' (qv)). At about 35 years of age, Lucas/Ford would have been too young to have held such a high rank during the Vietnam War (although this did happen in World War II). CHAR: When Captain Willard first meets Colonel Kilgore, they exchange salutes while they are still in a combat zone. It is usually military protocol not to salute in a combat zone. Saluting would show a possible sniper who the commanding officer is. (e.g. in Forrest Gump (1994) Lt. Dan correctly instructed Gump and Bubba not to salute him in the field.) |
Quotes
|
[while flying in a helicopter with Air Cavalry soldiers] Chef: Why do all you guys sit on your helmets? Soldier: So we don't get our balls blown off. [first lines] Willard: [voiceover] Saigon... shit; I'm still only in Saigon... Every time I think I'm gonna wake up back in the jungle. Willard: When I was home after my first tour, it was worse. I'd wake up and there'd be nothing. I hardly said a word to my wife, until I said "yes" to a divorce. When I was home after my first tour, it was worse. [grabs at flying insect] I'd wake up and there'd be nothing. I hardly said a word to my wife, until I said "yes" to a divorce. When I was here, I wanted to be there; when I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the jungle. I'm here a week now... waiting for a mission... getting softer. Every minute I stay in this room, I get weaker, and every minute Charlie squats in the bush, he gets stronger. Each time I looked around the walls moved in a little tighter. Kurtz: I've seen horrors... horrors that you've seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that... but you have no right to judge me. It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror... Horror has a face... and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies! I remember when I was with Special Forces... seems a thousand centuries ago. We went into a camp to inoculate some children. We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn't see. We went back there, and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile. A pile of little arms. And I remember... I... I... I cried, I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out; I didn't know what I wanted to do! And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it... 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 my forehead. And I thought, my God... the genius of that! The genius! The will to do that! Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we, because they could stand that these were not monsters, these were men... trained cadres. These men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love... but they had the strength... the strength... to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men, our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral... and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling... without passion... without judgment... without judgment! Because it's judgment that defeats us. [last lines] Kurtz: [voiceover] The horror... the horror... [Redux version] [after Roxanne asks if Willard will go back to America after the war and he replies no] Roxanne: Then you are like us; your home is here. Kurtz: We must kill them. We must incinerate them. Pig after pig... cow after cow... village after village... army after army... Photojournalist: What are they gonna say about him? What are they gonna say? That he was a kind man? That he was a wise man? That he had plans, man? That he had wisdom? Bullshit, man! Willard: Could we, uh... talk to Colonel Kurtz? Photojournalist: Hey, man, you don't talk to the Colonel. You listen to him. The man's enlarged my mind. He's a poet warrior in the classic sense. I mean sometimes he'll... uh... well, you'll say "hello" to him, right? And he'll just walk right by you. He won't even notice you. And suddenly he'll grab you, and he'll throw you in a corner, and he'll say, "Do you know that 'if' is the middle word in life? If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you"... I mean I'm... no, I can't... I'm a little man, I'm a little man, he's... he's a great man! I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across floors of silent seas... Kurtz: [intercepted radio message] I watched a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor. That's my dream; that's my nightmare. Crawling, slithering, along the edge of a straight razor... and surviving. Willard: [voice-over] I was going to the worst place in the world and I didn't even know it yet. Weeks away and hundreds of miles up a river that snaked through the war like a main circuit cable plugged straight into Kurtz. It was no accident that I got to be the caretaker of Colonel Walter E. Kurtz's memory any more than being back in Saigon was an accident. There is no way to tell his story without telling my own. And if his story really is a confession, then so is mine. Willard: [voice-over] How many people had I already killed? There were those six that I knew about for sure. Close enough to blow their last breath in my face. But this time, it was an American and an officer. That wasn't supposed to make any difference to me, but it did. Shit... charging a man with murder in this place was like handing out speeding tickets in the Indy 500. I took the mission. What the hell else was I gonna do? Kurtz: What do you call it when the assassins accuse the assassin? A lie. A lie and we have to be merciful. Willard: [voice-over] If that's how Kilgore fought the war, I began to wonder what they really had against Kurtz. It wasn't just insanity and murder; there was enough of that to go around for everyone. Willard: Oh man... the bullshit piled up so fast in Vietnam, you needed wings to stay above it. Willard: No wonder Kurtz put a weed up Command's ass. The war was being run by a bunch of four star clowns who were gonna end up giving the whole circus away. Willard: [voice-over] It's a way we had over here for living with ourselves. We cut 'em in half with a machine gun and give 'em a Band-Aid. It was a lie. And the more I saw them, the more I hated lies. Lance: Disneyland? Fuck, man, this is better than Disneyland! Chef: This Colonel guy? He's wacko, man! He's worse than crazy. He's evil. It's fuckin' pagan idolatry. Look around you. Shit! He's loco... I ain't afraid of all them fuckin' skulls and altars and shit. I used to think if I died in an evil place, then my soul wouldn't be able to make it to Heaven. But now? Fuck! I mean, I don't care where it goes, as long as it ain't here. So whaddya wanna do? I'll kill the fuck. Francis de Marais: Why don't you Americans learn from us - from our mistakes? Mon Dieux! With your Army, your strength, your power, you could win if you want to! You can win! Hubert de Marais: The Vietnamese... we worked with them, made something - something out of nothing... We want to stay here because it's ours - it belongs to us. It keeps our family together. I mean, we fought for that. While you Americans... you are fighting for the biggest nothing in history! Willard: [voice-over] He was close, real close. I couldn't see him yet, but I could feel him, as if the boat were being sucked upriver and the water was flowing back into the jungle. Whatever was going to happen, it wasn't gonna be the way they call it back in Nha Trang. Photojournalist: He likes you because you're still alive. Willard: [voice-over] The machinist, the one they called Chef, was from New Orleans. He was wrapped too tight for Vietnam; probably wrapped too tight for New Orleans. Lance, on the forward .50s, was a famous surfer from the beaches south of LA. One look at him and you wouldn't believe he ever fired a weapon in his whole life. Clean... Mr. Clean... was from some South Bronx shithole and the light and space of Vietnam really put the zap on his head. Then there was Phillips, the Chief. It might have been my mission, but it sure as shit was the Chief's boat! Chief Quartermaster (QMC) Phillips: My orders say I'm not supposed to know where I'm taking this boat, so I don't! But one look at you, and I know it's gonna be hot! Willard: I'm going 75 klicks above the Do Lung bridge. Chief Quartermaster (QMC) Phillips: That's Cambodia, captain. Willard: That's classified. Kilgore: You can either surf, or you can fight! Willard: Are you crazy, Goddammit? Don't you think its a little risky for some R&R? Kilgore: If I say its safe to surf this beach, Captain, then its safe to surf this beach! I mean, I'm not afraid to surf this place, I'll surf this whole fucking place! Kilgore: Charlie don't surf! AFRS Announcer: [radio announcer] And now here's another blast from the past coming out to Big Cind, all alone in the men's room out there with the First Battalion, Thirty-fifth Infantry, and dedicated by the fire team at An Khe to their groupie CO, Fred the Head: The Rolling Stones' Satisfaction. Willard: Everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted a mission, and for my sins, they gave me one. Brought it up to me like room service. It was a real choice mission, and when it was over, I never wanted another. Willard: [voice-over] "Never get out of the boat." Absolutely goddamn right! Unless you were goin' all the way... Kurtz got off the boat. He split from the whole fuckin' program. Willard: [voice-over] They were gonna make me a Major for this, and I wasn't even in their fuckin' army anymore. Willard: [voice-over] Charlie didn't get much USO. He was dug in too deep or moving too fast. His idea of great R&R was cold rice and a little rat meat. He had only two ways home: death, or victory. Photo Journalist: One through nine, no maybes, no supposes, no fractions. You can't travel in space, you can't go out into space, you know, without, like, you know, uh, with fractions - what are you going to land on - one-quarter, three-eighths? What are you going to do when you go from here to Venus or something? That's dialectic physics. Kurtz: We train young men to drop fire on people, but their commanders won't allow them to write "fuck" on their airplanes because it's obscene! Photo Journalist: There's mines over there, there's mines over there, and watch out those goddamn monkeys bite, I'll tell ya. Colonel Lucas: Your mission is to proceed up the Nung River in a Navy patrol boat. Pick up Colonel Kurtz's path at Nu Mung Ba, follow it and learn what you can along the way. When you find the Colonel, infiltrate his team by whatever means available and terminate the Colonel's command. Willard: Terminate the Colonel? General Corman: He's out there operating without any decent restraint, totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct. And he is still in the field commanding troops. Civilian: Terminate with extreme prejudice. Colonel Lucas: You understand, Captain, that this mission does not exist, nor will it ever exist... Kilgore: Smell that? You smell that? Lance: What? Kilgore: Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. [kneels] Kilgore: I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like [sniffing, pondering] victory. Someday this war's gonna end... [suddenly walks off] Kurtz: Did they say why, Willard, why they want to terminate my command? Willard: I was sent on a classified mission, sir. Kurtz: It's no longer classified, is it? Did they tell you? Willard: They told me that you had gone totally insane, and that your methods were unsound. Kurtz: Are my methods unsound? Willard: I don't see any method at all, sir. Kurtz: I expected someone like you. What did you expect? Are you an assassin? Willard: I'm a soldier. Kurtz: You're neither. You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill. Willard: On the river, I thought that the minute I looked at him, I'd know what to do, but it didn't happen. I was in there with him for days, not under guard; I was free, but he knew I wasn't going anywhere. He knew more about what I was going to do than I did. If the generals back in Nha Trang could see what I saw, would they still want me to kill him? More than ever, probably. And what would his people back home want if they ever learned just how far from them he'd really gone? He broke from them, and then he broke from himself. I'd never seen a man so broken up and ripped apart. Kurtz: I worry that my son might not understand what I've tried to be. And if I were to be killed, Willard, I would want someone to go to my home and tell my son everything. Everything I did, everything you saw, because there's nothing that I detest more than the stench of lies. And if you understand me, Willard, you will do this for me. Willard: Everybody wanted me to do it, him most of all. I felt like he was up there, waiting for me to take the pain away. He just wanted to go out like a soldier, standing up, not like some poor, wasted, rag-assed renegade. Even the jungle wanted him dead, and that's who he really took his orders from anyway. Kilgore: What the hell do you know about surfing, Major? You're from goddamned New Jersey! Photo Journalist: This is the way the fucking world ends! Look at this fucking shit we're in, man! Not with a bang, but with a whimper. And with a whimper, I'm fucking splitting, Jack. Willard: My mission is to make it up into Cambodia. There's a Green Beret Colonel up there who's gone insane. I'm supposed to kill him. Chef: What? Oh, that's typical! Shit! Fuckin' Vietnam mission! I'm short, and we gotta go up there so you can kill one of our own guys? That's fuckin' great! That's just fuckin' great! Shit! That's fuckin' crazy! I thought you were going in there to blow up a bridge, or some fucking railroad tracks or something! Willard: I'm sorry. Look, I'll cut you loose here and you can turn around and... Chef: [interupting] No, no, we go together... on the boat! We came this far, so we go together. All the way! We'll take you up there, we'll go with you... but on the boat! Okay? Kilgore: How're you feeling, Jimmy? Door Gunner: Like a mean motherfucker, sir! Roxanne: There are two of you, don't you see? One that kills... and one that loves. [the boat has arrived at the Do Lung bridge, which is a combat zone] Chef: Lance! Hey, Lance! What do you think? Lance: It's beautiful! Chef: What's the matter with you? You're acting kinda weird! Lance: Hey, you know that last tab of acid I was saving? I dropped it. Chef: You dropped acid?... Far out! Willard: The crew were mostly kids; rock & rollers with one foot in their grave. Willard: The First of the Ninth was a old calvary division that traded in their horses for helicopters and went tear-assing around 'Nam looking for the shit... Willard: Part of me was afraid of what I would find and what I would do when I got there. I knew the risks, or imagined I knew. But the thing I felt the most, much stronger than fear, was the desire to confront him. Roxanne: Do you know why you can never step into the same river twice? Willard: Yeah, 'cause it's always moving. Roxanne: The war will still be here tomorrow. Lt. Carlsen: You're in the asshole of the world, Captain! Colonel Kilgore: [Explaining why the helicopters play music during air assaults] We use Wagner. It scares the shit out of the slopes. My boys love it! Willard: Hey soldier, do you know who's in command here? Soldier: Ain't you? Clean: This is sure enough a bizarre sight in the middle of all this shit! Willard: [voice-over] "Someday this war's gonna end". That'd be just fine with the boys on the boat. They weren't looking for anything more than a way home. Trouble is, I'd been back there, and I knew that it just didn't exist anymore. [quoting Kurtz] Willard: In a war there are many moments for compassion and tender action. There are many moments for ruthless action - what is often called ruthless - what may in many circumstances be only clarity, seeing clearly what there is to be done and doing it, directly, quickly, awake, looking at it. [quoting Kurtz] Willard: As for the charges against me, I am unconcerned. I am beyond their timid lying morality, and so I am beyond caring. [apologizing for severed heads adorning Kurtz's headquarters] Photo Journalist: The heads. You're looking at the heads. Sometimes he goes too far. He's the first one to admit it. [the redux version] Willard: Who's in charge here? Soldier: In charge? I don't know, man. I'm just doing what I'm told - I'm just a working girl. [the redux version] Hubert de Marais: Communist traitor's at home! Kilgore: I will not hurt or harm you. Just give me back the board, Lance. It was a good board... and I like it. You know how hard it is to find a board you like... Kurtz: Have you ever considered any real freedoms? Freedoms from the opinion of others... even the opinions of yourself? Colonel Lucas: Your report specifies intelligence/counterintelligence with ComSec I-Corps. Willard: I'm not presently disposed to discuss these operations, sir. Colonel Lucas: Did you not work for the CIA in I-Corps? Willard: No, sir. Colonel Lucas: Did you not assassinate a government tax collector in Quang Tri province, June 19th, 1968? Captain? Willard: Sir, I am unaware of any such activity or operation... nor would I be disposed to discuss such an operation if it did in fact exist, sir. Kilgore: [after the Red Team gunship spectacularly knocks out a heavy AA artillery unit] Outstanding, Red Team, outstanding! Get you a case of beer for that one. Kilgore: Lieutenant, bomb that tree line about 100 yards back! Give me some room to breathe! Clean: Run, Charlie! Photo Journalist: I wish I had words, man. I wish I had words... I can tell ya something like the other day he wanted to kill me. Somethin' like that... Willard: Why'd he wanna kill you? Photo Journalist: Because I took his picture. He said "If you take my picture again, I'm gonna kill you." And he *meant* it. Willard: [about Colonel Kilgore] Well, he wasn't a bad officer, I guess. He loved his boys, and he felt safe with 'em. He was just one of those guys with that weird light around him. He just knew he wasn't gonna get so much as a scratch here. Playmate of the Year: [as couple gets steamy, another soldier peers into window] Who are you? Clean: I'm next, ma'am. Photojournalist: The man is clear in his mind, but his soul is mad. Hubert: [rebuffing Willard's inquiry as to when his family might return home to France] You don't understand our mentality - the French officer mentality. At first, we lose in Second World War. I don't say that you Americans win, but we lose. In Dien Bien Phu, we lose. In Algeria, we lose. In Indochina, we lose! But here, we don't lose! This piece of earth, we keep it. We will never lose it, never! Gaston de Marais: You Americans. In 1945, yeah, after the Japanese war, your president Roosevelt didn't want the French people to stay in Indochina. So, you Americans implant the Vietnam. Willard: [to Hubert] What's he mean? Hubert: Yeah, that's true. The Vietcong were invented by the Americans, sir. Willard: The Americans? Gaston de Marais: And now you take the French place. And the Vietnam fight you. And what can you do? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Hubert: The Vietnamese are very intelligent. You never know what they think. The Russian ones who help them, "come and give us their money. We are all Communists. Chinese give us guns. We are all brothers."... They hate the Chinese! Maybe they hate the American less than the Russian and the Chinese. I mean, if tomorrow the Vietnamese are Communists they will be *Vietnamese* Communists. And this is something you never understood, you American. Gaston de Marais: I don't know. Maybe in the future we can make something with the Vietnam. Philippe de Marais: Don't you understand? The VC say, "go away, go away". That's finish for all the white people in Indochina. If you're French, American, that's all the same. "Go." They want to forget you. Look, Captain. Look, this is the truth. An egg. [cracks it, draining the egg white] The white left, but the yellow stays. [stomps off] Chief Quartermaster (QMC) Phillips: [Redux version] Captain, are you giving away our fuel for a Playmate of the Month? Willard: No, Playmate of the Year, Chief! [Willard takes a swig from a beer bottle] [the patrol boat's crew are lighting up a joint] Lance: Buddha Time! Willard: [incredulous] What are you talking about? Chief Quartermaster (QMC) Phillips: We're taking her to some friendlies, Captain. She's wounded, she's not dead. Willard: Get off there, Chef. [Willard shoots the injured girl] Chef: Fuck it! Willard: [to Chief] I told you not to stop. Now let's go! General Corman: Well, you see, Willard, in this war, things get confused out there. Power, ideals, the old morality, and practical military necessity. But out there with these natives, it must be a temptation to be God. Because there's a conflict in every human heart, between the rational and irration, between good and evil. And good does not always triumph. Sometimes, the dark side overcomes what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature. |
Comments
No comments yet.
