Camille Gross: Apotheosis 25 April

       In Apocalypse Now, we see Captain Willard on his mission to assassinate a Colonel from their own military. On one hand, he is killing one of his own men. On the other hand, Colonel Kurtz is a dangerous man who has lost his mind and has become too power hungry. Willard ended up killing Kurtz but I still wonder how he dealt with his actions afterwards. Also, did he make the right decision?
Kurtz was very intelligent and sounded as if he despised the war. One of his best quotes was, “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!” and of course his monologue about the horrors he has seen. I was reading someone’s presentation online about religious themes seen in the movie. They focused on the chakra system and relating it to Willard’s spiritual journey. They look at the opening shot of Willard upside down and the last shot of the film features Buddha. The person who created this presentation said this was to represent Willard achieving “apotheosis” because by killing Kurtz, Willard killed the dark part of himself.

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