In Apocalypse Now, Captain Willard is called back to Vietnam and given a secret mission in a smoke-filled room. His mission is to terminate, “with extreme prejudice”, the command of Colonel Kurtz, a former US colonel who has gone insane and is leading a commune deep in the jungle. Upon meeting Kurtz, as well as along the journey to get there, Willard begins to realize that there are more similarities between himself and Kurtz than he originally thought, and that there is a specific reason he was assigned this mission. Willard and Kurtz are set up as parallel figures through the establishment of their military record and through the depictions and descriptions of their mental health, leading to the harrowing thought that Willard could in fact one day end up very much like Kurtz.
Much of the beginning of the film is narrated by Willard, recounting the events of the film from an unspecified later date. After mentioning Kurtz for the first time, this older, wiser Willard says that “There is no way to tell his story without telling my own”. Willard has grown to acknowledge that he and Kurtz are parallel figures, and the story that Willard is going to tell, which are the events of Apocalypse Now, will serve as proof of this connection. The scene which directly follows this line of dialogue is a perfect example of this.
Willard is a member of special forces, and as he meets with his military superiors, they outline his impressive military record, both before and after he joined special forces. They recount a previous assassination mission that Willard was sent on, which Willard smartly refuses to confirm taking any part in. As it turns out, this is precisely what his superiors were looking for, as he had proven his trustworthiness. Not only did he engage in a top secret, morally-skewed US military-backed assassination, but he held up under questioning about. He showed reliability, mental fortitude, and dedication to the cause. In other words, he had not only established himself as the ideal US soldier, but the ideal assassin for the target they have in store for him.
After the film uses Willard’s superiors to introduce his military background and provide the viewer with some context, it then switches to providing some insight onto the film’s primary antagonist and the target of Willard’s mission: Colonel Walter Kurtz. As Willard’s superiors describe Kurtz’s own military background, it bears a striking resemblance to Willard’s. They describe Kurtz as an “outstanding officer” who also joined special forces, similar to Willard. The back-to-back nature of these character descriptions is done so in a way where it is impossible not to draw comparisons between Willard and Kurtz. Kurtz, like Willard, was a perfect soldier for the US military, and it’s safe to assume given his praise and special forces assignment that he engaged in missions similar to the one in which Willard just denied having any part of. Like Willard, Kurtz seemingly showed reliability, mental fortitude, and dedication to the cause. However, as his superiors go on to explain, his failure to continue to demonstrate these qualities is what led to his unfortunate divorce from US Army command and what has made him the subject of Willard’s assassination mission.
Willard’s commanding officers tell him that Kurtz has gone insane, that he has abandoned any sense of decency and is operating without restraint and without the backing of the US Military. They describe Kurtz as succumbing to the horrors of the Vietnam war, and that the human mind can only handle so much horror before it breaks. As one of Willard’s superiors puts it, “Every man has a breaking point. You and I have one. Kurtz has reached his”. It is only when Willard agrees that Kurtz has gone insane that he is given more information on the mission. He has proven that he has, in the eyes of the US military, sound of mind and able to fulfill his mission. More than that, he has proven that he can follow instructions and believes what his military superiors tell him. If they tell him that Kurtz is insane, then he must believe Kurtz is insane in order to complete his mission.
What Willard’s superiors don’t know, and what Willard himself probably won’t let himself admit, is that he has also begun to fall victim to the horrors of the Vietnam war and the nature of the missions that the military keeps sending him on. The film opens with Willard living as a recluse in a hotel, drinking madly and peering out the window through the blinds. In a particularly disturbing sequence, set brilliantly to “The End” by The Doors, Willard thrashes and fights shadows and shatters a mirror, injuring himself in the process. In his narration, Willard describes how he missed fighting in Vietnam when he was sent back to America in between his tours. In the western movie genre, this is a very common trope, where the cowboy or explorer craves the ruggedness and harshness of the frontier, and feels unfit to live back at the homestead in normal society. This is especially true of those who are out on the frontier doing something to protect the homestead, as the manner in which they provide this protection often makes them feel unfit to live in society itself. So, while Willard feels a draw to the frontier, Kurtz has been completely absorbed by it. He has become yet another part of the frontier for the cowboy to overcome. Willard’s craving to be on the frontier, to be fighting in Vietnam and to be given more missions by the military will eventually lead to his breaking point, just as it did to Kurtz.
When we first meet Kurtz, he is also living as a recluse, but not like Willard. Kurtz is calm, collected, and surrounded by the members of his makeshift commune in the jungle. His insanity is prevalent through what he says, but not necessarily through his actions. His words are poetic and vague and allude to horrors beyond comprehension, and Willard seems to register all this without much hesitation. Watching Kurtz and Willard interact is like watching a man meet his younger self, who also just happens to have been sent on an odyssey to kill him. Kurtz accepts very early on that Willard is there to kill him, and almost seems to welcome it. He is determined, however, to make his points known to Willard, to prove that he is not some violent lunatic as Willard’s superiors would have him believe. He’s just a man sent on one too many missions.
How many missions can a man like Willard go on before he inevitably becomes Kurtz? Is this the nature of war, or of the Vietnam War, specifically? Was Kurtz insane, and can a man who has lived the life that Kurtz has lived ever truly be sane again? These are the questions that Apocalypse Now seeks to answer through the parallel development of Colonel Kurtz and Captain Willard. Willard’s own military background and descent into madness mirrors that of Kurtz, and both represent different stages of assimilation with the frontier and of the nature of war. Although it’s not said where Willard is sailing to after he kills Kurtz and escapes the temple, the end to Kurtz’s arc provides the viewer with closure for Willard’s. Having just killed the man who was sent on too many missions, Willard returns to his superior officers to receive another mission. And so, the cycle continues.