It took me watching 'Apocalypse Now' three times, to really get into it. I appreciated the transformation of Captain Willard; however the ending with Kurtz left too much unsaid.
The beginning in Saigon showed Willard as a man with little to live for. He wouldn't/couldn't cope with civilization, and eventually he received the assignment he had waited for, only it wasn’t one he necessarily wanted. He was ok killing people, however the idea of killing a man he identified with, made him consider his target. Willard researches Kurtz and becomes more enamored with him as the movie goes on. I think that Willard was fascinated with the fact that Kurtz made his own choices, separate from the desires of the Army. I still don’t quite get it, but Kurtz’s transformation began before he left the army. (I understand this through his want to change positions, from a higher-up, to a lower position.)Willard also wants to understand why. When he finally confronts Kurtz, he doesn’t know what to do with him really, so Kurtz makes Willard a P.O.W.
The interesting turn around is when Willard becomes Kurtz Savior in a sense. Kurtz wanted to die, and Willard’s mission was to kill Kurtz. Willard does not fulfill his mission the way the army wanted him to, he fulfills his mission the way he wanted to, and the way Kurtz wanted him to. Willard wanted to give Kurtz the end he wanted, had Kurtz not wanted death, I am pretty certain that Willard would have stayed there with him, and not returned. I’m not sure though what Kurtz was trying to accomplish. I think he wanted Cambodia to be bombed, and I think that Kurtz had written what he had so it could be an account for his son. Also if I am not mistaken Kurtz implicitly told Willard to tell his story to his son. Not really sure. I had to think really hard to understand this film.
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