I don’t get the ending to Apocalypse Now

[TheFireCar]

The entire movie was hyping up Colonel Kurtz as a badass Green Beret who finished the brutal training course at the age of thirty something, led his special forces to victories without authorization from chief of staff, is being treated and feared as a god by the locals etc.

When the boat finally reaches the destination, like a normal person, I was thinking sh*t would go down. Nothing happens. You have Dennis Hopper talking nonsense, Kurtz being philosophical in a dark room and Willard just staring in front of him. When Willard finally comes to his senses, he confronts Kurtz.
What the fu*k? Kurtz did nothing back. Did he want to die? Was he startled by the ambush? This man was literally sent to k*ll you. He knows this since this isn't the first a*sassination attempt. Martin Sheen's character was monologuing that even the jungle wanted him dead, without any sort of setup by the movie prior. The final line of Kurtz ends up being: The horror... the horror...

 

[Dorian Breh]

shyt was GOAT right up until the end. Then fat Brando showed up looking like Larry Holmes and it was over @Big Boss

 

[Piffiztheanswer]

He was tired of all the killing, horrors etc. Of this world and wanted willard to 187 his ass

Same thing i got from the book... some ppl after seeing and being apart of so much demonic fukkery said fukk it im out take me out

 

[Max.]

Yeah that was mid at the end

 

[Lurking Class Hero]

Agreed. The ending take the movie down a tier.

He was tired of all the killing, horrors etc. Of this world and wanted willard to 187 his ass

Same thing i got from the book... some ppl after seeing and being apart of so much demonic fukkery said fukk it im out take me out

This makes sense, but from a viewers perspective, the character just isn't that engaging considering the build up. I think Coppola himself said that he struggled with the ending.

 

[Marks]

He was tired of all the killing, horrors etc. Of this world and wanted willard to 187 his ass

Same thing i got from the book... some ppl after seeing and being apart of so much demonic fukkery said fukk it im out take me out

Yeah he was consumed by darkness, thats why Coppola shot him that way too, shrouded in darkness, bobbing his head out to talk to Willard. He's going, he's gone.

 

[Piffiztheanswer]

Yeah he was consumed by darkness, thats why Coppola shot him that way too, shrouded in darkness, bobbing his head out to talk to Willard. He's going, he's gone.

Also cuz brando showed up on set fat as fukk

 

[Piffiztheanswer]

Agreed. The ending take the movie down a tier.



This makes sense, but from a viewers perspective, the character just isn't that engaging considering the build up. I think Coppola himself said that he struggled with the ending.

Agreed in the end its about the journey not the destination in a movie like this.

 

[Amerikan Melanin]

Iconic movie though.

 

[KalKal]

When I saw this thread about the "End" of the movie, I thought it would be about the "old" ending of the movie that I grew up seeing on TV:


In that ending, the air strike gets called in and blows up Kurtz' whole compound.
Coppola didn't like the idea of Willlard murdering all the natives, so they removed it from the Director's cut.

 

[Able Archer 83]

What the fu*k? Kurtz did nothing back. Did he want to die? Was he startled by the ambush? This man was literally sent to k*ll you. He knows this since this isn't the first a*sassination attempt. Martin Sheen's character was monologuing that even the jungle wanted him dead, without any sort of setup by the movie prior. The final line of Kurtz ends up being: The horror... the horror...

Here's how I interpret it: Kurtz is trapped. He's reached the depths of nihilism and despair ("He's dying, I think. He hates all this. He hates it!"), yet is still bound by a threefold duty: his duty to his own desire to eliminate the "horror" ("We must kill them. We must incinerate them. Pig after pig... cow after cow... village after village... army after army..."), his own vestigial, yet highly-developed duty as an American Army officer ("Airborne? He was thirty-eight years old. Why the f--k would he do that? 1966: Joined Special Forces, returns Vietnam..."), and his own duty as a god ("This Colonel guy? He's wacko, man! He's worse than crazy. He's evil. It's fukkin' pagan idolatry. Look around you."). He knows Willard is there to kill him; as you note, Willard isn't even the first one to try (cf. Colby, the Green Beret who previously tried ultimately became one of Kurtz' acolytes). Like Colby, Willard hesitates, and is torn by the same duties that trapped Kurtz...but Willard ultimately succeeds. He eliminates the horror (as represented by Kurtz), he fulfills his duty as an officer (by eliminating Kurtz), and--most importantly--he shuns godhood and the worship of Kurtz' followers, rejoining the world.

In that sense, it was never about a big action movie showdown between Willard and Kurtz. It was ultimately about Willard's desire to hang onto his humanity and sanity in an environment and war which ultimately drained the humanity and sanity out of everyone involved. He succeeds, ultimately by slaying Kurtz, his shadow, and rejecting Kurtz' entire philosophy and lifestyle.

 

[Geek Nasty]

IMO

After seeing the brutality of the Viet Cong (the vaccination story), Kurtz realized the best way to defeat them was to be even more brutal. He looked in the mirror and hated what he saw after he tried that. He couldn't go home and didn't want to lead his guerilla army anymore. So he wanted Sheen's character to kill him and tell his son the lesson. The ending was great to me because Sheen is just as delusioned with the war as Kurtz was and his fascination with the man ends as soon as he sees how demonic and brutal his camp is.

It's almost a hopeless situation. There is no good way to win in Vietnam. The status quo obviously wasn't working. It's kind of an argument against all the "well, we should just bomb them MORE!" crowd.

Probably in my top 3 movies BTW

 

[OmegaK2099]

I love this movie

 

[I love Latina women]

Film is a masterpiece

 

[Bruce LeRoy]

The director wasn't clear on the ending either.. that's exactly why their's a 100 different edits of this movie.

I think that's kind of the point tho, the movie shows you the decent into insanity through war and the desensitization of violence