Villains Beginning With 'C'
Colonel Walter E. Kurtz
Apocalypse Now film (1979)
Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, a decorated officer, is said to have gone insane and is commanding a legion of his own Montagnard troops deep inside the forest in neutral Cambodia. U.S. Army Captain Benjamin Willard is ordered to undertake a mission to find Kurtz and terminate his command. Kurtz has assumed the role of a warlord and is worshipped by the natives and his own loyal men. Another officer named Colby, sent earlier with the same orders, has become one of his lieutenants.
Willard begins his trip up the Nung River on the PBR (Patrol Boat, River) Erebus, with an eclectic crew composed of by-the-book Chief Phillips, a Navy boat commander; GM3 Lance B. Johnson, a tanned all-American California surfer, the Cajun Engineman, Jay "Chef" Hicks, and GM3 Tyrone Miller, also known as "Mr. Clean", a 17-year-old from "some South Bronx shithole."
They eventually arrive at Kurtz's compound: rotting bodies and the stench of blood and decay are everywhere, yet Kurtz's followers seem oblivious to the horrors around them. Willard is met by a burned-out hippie freelance photographer who defends Kurtz, arguing that he is a great man with profound philosophical insight. Willard leaves Chef behind with orders to call in an air strike on the village if he does not return. Chef remains on the PBR while Johnson mingles with the natives, eventually blending in with them. While Willard initially walks freely among Kurtz's men and followers, they eventually seize him and bring him to Kurtz. It is apparent that Kurtz fully expected someone like Willard to be sent again. Kurtz also lectures him on his theories of war, humanity, and civilization.
Willard is imprisoned and bound roughly in a bamboo tiger cage. That night, Kurtz comes to the still-bound Willard and places the severed head of Chef in his lap. Soon thereafter he is released from the cage and brought back to Kurtz's temple. There he remains for days, watched, but essentially unguarded. Willard sits and listens to Kurtz read poetry and speak of war.
While the surrounding natives are in ceremony, Willard sneaks into the temple and kills Kurtz with a machete. Dying on the ground, Kurtz whispers "The horror... the horror".
SUMMARY
ARCH RIVAL : |
The U.S. army and government |
STRENGTHS : |
A brilliant soldier who was being groomed to be a general, but who became mentally unbalanced and brutal. A philosophical thinker and warlord who enjoys poetry. Kurtz has many followers who are ready to kill on his orders. |
WEAKNESSES : |
The cause of Kurtz's eventual break from reality is revealed earlier on: the nature of how the Vietnam conflict was fought caused Kurtz to become disillusioned with the military. Kurtz reveals that years earlier, while he was still following orders, he had taken his battalion to a South Vietnamese village to inoculate the local children for polio. Soon after they left, the battalion was called back by a crying old man from the village. What had happened was horrifying: the VC had come and cut off the inoculated arm of every inoculated child. But after crying, Kurtz, already mentally unstable, finally broke. He admired the will and brutality of the VC troops and realized that the Americans could never win the war against this kind of enemy unless they became equally brutal. |
WEAPONS : |
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QUOTE : |
"We must kill them. We must incinerate them. Pig after pig. Cow after cow. Village after village. Army after army!" |
EXTERNAL LINKS
Apocalypse Now film (1979) - IMDb
Apocalypse Now film (1979) - Wikipedia
Heart of Darkness novel (1899) - Wikipedia
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