SOURCE: "Narrative Structure in Apocalypse Now," in America Rediscovered: Critical Essays on Literature and Film of the Vietnam War, edited by Owen W. Gilman, Jr. and Lorrie Smith, Garland Publishing, 1990, pp. 225-37.

In the following essay, Whillock explores how Coppola set up oppositions in environment, characters, and story-motifs, and used mediators to bridge the opposites.

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

It smells like victory.

           Major Kilgore in Apocalypse Now

When Francis Ford Coppola made public his decision to produce and direct Apocalypse Now in 1975, there were only a few films that depicted the Vietnam conflict in any direct way. While The Boys of Company C and Go Tell the Spartans were released before Apocalypse Now, The Green Berets was the only film in release that directly treated America's involvement in combat during the Vietnam conflict. Because of Coppola's past cinematic success in The Godfather...