Apocalypse Now as a retelling of Inferno

   Apocalypse Now review 1

   Apocalypse Now review 2

Countless reviews of Francis Ford Coppola’s cinematic masterpiece Apocalypse Now cite Dante’s Inferno as an inspiration. I’ve included two such reviews in this post, but I don’t think either of them go far enough to explain the parallels between Apocalypse Now and Inferno. They only mention in passing what is essentially Apocalypse Now's backbone. The film, which chronicles an American riverboat captain’s journey through hostile territories in the Vietnam War, is essentially a modern re-telling of Dante’s classic text. This explicit, gritty war picture gives us a journey through the darkest depths of humanity that strikes many of the same chords as Dante’s Inferno.

            The film begins with a monologue by Capt. Willard, the protagonist, as he is stationed at a military base in Vietnam. He explains that he has already gone back home, but returned because he couldn’t function in the normal world after having seen so much action. During this monologue he is seen lying in his room, in the dark, crying out in despair. This is already so much like Dante, who at the beginning of Inferno finds himself lost in darkness, without hope. Willard is called up on a mission to assassinate a colonel who has gone insane and created his own army of Vietnamese natives. For this mission, Willard has to navigate a riverboat deep into enemy territory. He accepts, and embarks on a journey that displays some of the most horrifying aspects of humanity. Again, like Dante, Willard is called up from a higher power to embark on a perilous journey.

As he carries out his mission and goes deeper and deeper into enemy territory, eventually reaching Cambodia, Willard encounters a variety of sinners; among them are his army brethren. They display sins of lust (notably when they are going crazy for two playmates who arrive on a U.S. open tour), drug abuse, anger and violence. He also faces attacks from Viet Cong and various locals. Despite certain similarities between the people Willard encounters and the various sinners and demons in Inferno, what really strikes the viewer is Willard’s spirituality. As Willard continues through this hellacious landscape and witnesses more and more depravity, he appears to grow less afraid of death. As he begins to deteriorate physically, he becomes more introspective and spiritually aware. Also noteworthy is the lack of hope seen throughout the film. As the men on Willard’s riverboat witness more and more horrors, they become fully dispirited and let themselves get killed. Willard also comes to understand that the man he was sent to kill went crazy because he lost hope in his society, and everything he had previously stood for. This lack of hope we see is like a punishment for sins committed, as in Inferno. Some soldiers also exemplify a disconnection from reality that is rampant in the condemned souls of the Inferno. A number of men go surfing during an air strike, and carelessly ride through waves while sustaining heavy enemy fire. This comedic myopia is reminiscent of the sinners in Canto VII, who are made to push heavy boulders around a ring until they collide with one another.

Maybe Coppola made this film to show us that war is the closest thing we have to hell on earth, not just because of the fire and pain and misery, but because it’s where we see the extent of the darkness that lurks within the human spirit. That, I think, is a large part of what Dante wanted to convey in Inferno. This fantastic film has held up so well over time, probably because its creators had read and understood Inferno, transcending some of its main points into this modern horror story.