Apocalypse Now Article

Vietnam and the Hollywood Genre Film: Inversions of American Mythology in the Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now
Author(s): John Hellmann Source: American Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Autumn, 1982), pp. 418-439 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2712690 . Accessed: 05/04/2013 08:36
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VIETNAM AND THE HOLLYWOOD GENRE FILM: INVERSIONS OF AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY IN THE DEER HUNTER AND APOCALYPSE NOW
JOHN HELLMANN Lima Ohio State University,
widerecognition as conmarkable popular and critical success.Buttheir bya correspondtemporary cinematic masterpieces hasbeenaccompanied In and coherence. ingcontroversy regarding their thematic significance ofthesetwoepic-scale films addition, noneofthecommentaries on either abouttheVietnam forpossibleconnections between Warhas searched in thisessay is to showthateach film drawsits them.My first purpose withthe separate a popularAmerican formula, designfrom narrative formulas thebasisfor thedifferences between TheDeer Hunter providing War.I further wish andApocalypse oftheVietnam Nowas interpretations an underlyto demonstrate that a link between thoseformulas establishes their essential aesthetic ingrelation betweenthe two films, embodying of the Vietnam presentation War through the populargenreforwhich Tales aretheprototype: thewestern. Similarly, Cooper'sLeatherstocking theopening thepresentation ofthe scenesofApocalypse Now establish ofHeartofDarkness, itself tale, symbolic journey an adventure/mystery thespecific conventions ofthehard-boiled detective formula. This through use ofpopular American myths ofthe genresthatare related as central and twentieth nineteenth centuries connects thetwofilms. A popular defines it,is "a certain genre, as Stanley Solomon succinctly on a core of narrative meaning found in those mythic structure, formed 1 As works that arereadily as related andbelonging toa group." discernible
3.
IStanley Solomon,Beyond Formula: AmericanFilm Genres (New York: Harcourt,1976),
Deer Hunter and Francis Coppola's Apocalypse Now have enjoyed re-
SINCE THEIR RESPECTIVE
RELEASES
IN 1978 AND 1979, MICHAEL CIMINO'S
The allusion of The Deer Hunter to The Deerslayer signalsthe strategy.
Vietnamand the Hollywood Genre Film
419
Hollywood pulp literature, genresof American thetwo mostenduring seriesup to the timeof the VietnamWar,the movies,and television and TheDeer Hunter provide detective formulas western andhard-boiled a naresonant meansforinterpreting a culturally Now with Apocalypse they ofromance, formulas aregenres Andbecauseboth tional experience. allegorical,and symbolistic withthe "mythic, providethe directors oftheAmerias themainstrategy Chasehas traced forms"2 that Richard and extreme the contradictions forencountering can literary tradition is a recent Vietnam ofwhich and experience, culture ranges ofAmerican example. and particularly traumatic
* * *
has been the major Despiteits declinein recentyears,the western anda half, last century culture over the formula of American popular story than a single Rather its central as American myth. significance establishing of its the influence instead by defined of the western is pattern action, upona andwilderness, civilization between landscape, a frontier symbolic of thesebasic forcescreatesa sharply lonelyhero.3The confrontation andplotconofstockcharacters conflict in a variety resulting delineated of the heroto a frontier on the relation Withits emphasis figurations. createdby the dominant deals withthe conflict landscape,the western from community (Europe,the ofAmerican experience, theflight direction freetheWest, (America, intoa wilderness theconscious) East,restraint, dom,theunconscious). America's to thegenre, with notorious presents turned ambition directly While of the western. in Vietnam the conventions through experience out the connection has pointed on thefilm everycommentary virtually
of The Deerslayer and The Deer Hunter,to my betweenthe protagonists WithThe Deer Hunter,Cimino,who in the subsequentHeaven's Gate
in separate articles, onlyDavidAxeenand ColinWesterbeck, knowledge in the is presented that thefilm thisto theperception havegonebeyond thespecific ofexploring Butinstead oftheform Cooperinvented. terms for as film the todismiss both usetheobservation being, elements involved, oversimplified": Axeenphrases it, "fatally
2Richard Chase, The American Novel and Its Tradition (Baltimore:JohnsHopkins Univ. Press, 1957), 13. 3For my definitions and discussions of the characteristic elements of the western and hard-boileddetectivegenres, I draw largelyon Solomon's Beyond Formula and JohnG. Cawelti's Adventure, Mystery, and Romance: Formula Stories as Artand Popular Culture (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1976). My discussion of the hard-boiled detectivegenre also draws on George Grella's fineessay, "Murder and the Mean Streets:The Hard-Boiled Detective Novel," in Detective Fiction: Crimeand Compromise,ed. RichardStanleyAllen and David Chacko (New York: Harcourt, 1974), 411-29.
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American Quarterly
our Western is that itasks us to suspend with theCooper-Cimino The problem ofsocial structure.... Neither therealities ofhistory, and ignore knowledge in control. really to consider thepeopleand forces wants CoopernorCimino instill unspoiled as natural aristocrats with their heroes us toidentify Theywant 4 domains. wilderness tradition ofAmericanliteraThis familiar criticism leveled at theromantic ture identifiesthe link between that traditionand Cimino's use of the westernin The Deer Hunter. As Leslie Fiedler has shown, the "low" those emphasizingviolence and particularly formsof fantasyliterature, have provided symbolicvehicles forthe explorationof basic conterror, of the flictswithinthe American consciousness.5 Althoughthe function as JohnCaweltihas observed,is "to resolve some ofthe popularwestern, unresolvable contradictionsof American values that our major writers suchas practitioners have laidbare,' thegenrehas, inthehandsofliterary such as JohnFord, served as a vehicle for Owen Wisterand filmmakers sophisticatedpopular art. In addition,it has also provided an important explorationsof American influenceand impetusforthe more disturbing foundin Hawthorne,Melville,Twain, Hemingway,and Faulkner. culture of the centralnational Ciminothe strengths The westernformulaaffords in dealingwithVietnamas a collectiveAmericantrauma.Atthesame myth ofpast myth by time,The Deer Hunterachieves morethana perpetuation of and its criticalexamination oftheessence ofthe myth itsunderstanding it. Unlike The GreenBerets,an unthinking use ofthewestern The formula, Deer Hunter is a westernaffectedby the shiftin landscape. The Deer ofthewarpreciselybecause it Hunteris an important artistic interpretation so fully comprehends the essence of its source and self-consciously explores its meaningin referenceto recent Americanexperience. In The Deer Hunterthe actions and characterofa lonelyhero,Michael Vronsky(Robert De Niro), are closely associated withwildernesslandand sharpoppositions. ofviolentconflicts scapes, thebasis fora structure The filmturns on such characteristicdevices of the western as male of bonding,therepressedlove ofthehero fora "good woman," theterror confrontation withsavage denizens ofa hostilelandscape, dancehallgirls, room.But even as even a " shoot-out"across a tablein a crowdedgambling Ciinino thus sets the Vietnam experience squarely in the contextof the
'6
4David Axeen, "Eastern Western," Film Quarterly,32 (1979), 17. Westerbeckcalls the filma western,but only to attack it as a simplistic and "sickening," cowboys-and-Indians melodrama.See his "Peace withHonor: Cowboys and Viet Cong," Commonweal,2 March 1979, 115-17. 5Leslie Fiedler,Love and Death in the American Novel, rev. ed. (New York: Stein and Day, 1975), 142-82. 6Cawelti,Adventure,Mystery, and Romance, 194.
421
on its he stands thegenre tradition, historical/mythic American dominant consciousintotheAmerican experience theVietnam head. Assimilating forits Cimino substitutes formula, it in thewestern ness by embodying consciousofwhite triumph theinevitable (implying plotmotifs traditional madeagainst ofracism Theaccusations captivity. oftraumatic ness)a story orsocialsense;Vietnamese ina political arenotcorrect TheDeer Hunter of the Viet Congin theRussianroulette are shownamongthevictims armsin themilitary soldierwithout scenes,a black American captivity and warin thefilm, against is one ofthemostvividstatements hospital Russian betsinthefinal placing shown are prominently Americans white that has obsessedthe theimagery does employ scene.Butthefilm roulette with a violent from itsbeginnings literature ofAmerican tradition romantic and civilization the consciousand unconscious, confrontation between light between as a struggle imagination playedoutinthewhite wilderness, Vietpresents formula, through thewestern and dark.TheDeer Hunter, of white struggle of an internal projection historic nam as yet another overnature ofmastery thedream butonewhere consciousness, American with is them, communion ofbenign and theunconscious, oralternatively of captivity. intoa nightmare upside-down turned in The Deer presented are first of the western The defining elements livesonan thehero, Michael, ina timelessly configuration: Hunter mythic named steeltown The Pennsylvania civilization andnature. edgebetween and both Europeantradition Clairton wherehe was raised represents forest embodies mountain and thesurrounding industrialization, modern to that he explained has written Cimino theoriginal American wilderness. aboutlocation, myfeelings "at thebeginning ofphotography hisdirector in a oflandscape ofsize and presence abouttheimportance myfeelings realizing anyone landscapemakes,without that film-and thestatement ofa Pennsylbyhisrepresentation areasserted it."7 His mythic intentions Clevefrom locations separate ofeight a composite vaniasteeltownwith of withthe Cascade Mountains of the Alleghenies land to Pittsburgh, wildlife from a state,and of the deer witha stagimported Washington authentic setting thatsacrifice in New Jersey-representations preserve landscape.8 fora morepowerfully symbolic in his Cooper traits embodied has thesalient himself The deerhunter ontheouter hero tofollow. western Living andinvirtually every prototype is clearly andyet heis a part ofthecommunity, ina trailer, edgeofthetown and by his strict its corruption from from it by his alienation separated adherence to a personalcode closelyassociatedwiththe uncorrupted he despisesall ofhis For example, inhabitants. anditsoriginal wilderness
Oct. 1978,1031. 7MichaelCimino,"Ordeal by Fireand Ice," AmericanCinematographer, "Ibid., 965, 1006-07.
422
American Quarterly
tounderstand for their Walken) except Nick(Christopher inability friends a deerwith"one shot." And at the of killing importance theritualistic from Cazale) Stanley (John to whispers he responds reception wedding childby running bride'sunborn of thepregnant abouttheactualfather from social flight a compulsive his clothes, off stripping downthestreet ofthe traditions in theold European Finding little relevance corruption. In the turned tonature. ancestor, has,likehisliterary Michael community, that they go on byinsisting hiscompanions sequenceheperplexes opening areanoldIndian a hunt that night becausethe"sundogs"he seesinthesky "9 tohischildren. sent bytheGreatWolf onthehunters of"a blessing sign ofthe rituals from theelaborate to hisdetachment contrast Andin strong aremocked bythepregnancy which heknows wedding, Orthodox Russian practice, in theproper preparation, involved ofthebride, he is intensely of Stanley thatMichael thetaunts ofthehunt.Finally, and culmination setMichael in with women clearly ofopportunities takeadvantage doesnot hero. ofthecelibate western thetradition from his community as separated by the Michaelis also characterized the characters of thewestern hero.Suggestively, traits moredisturbing his finding perplexity, awe anduneasy both respectful Michael with regard Fromthe prowessextraordinary. crazy and his hunting omen-reading have contradictory also, Michael'scharacteristics viewer'sperspective as in reckless activity, results His needto proveself-reliant significance. a livesby passing he riskshisownand hisfriends' in thescenein which attractive merely on a casualbet.Andhisdeerhunting, truck ontheinside deersprawled intheimage ofa gutted for itsskill andsenseofvalue,results road to across his old Cadillac's hood as it speeds downthemountain andconsequenthepractice for Even Michael'sdistaste singing. drunken for Nick's passion hisrepressed against is setoff ces ofsexualpromiscuity courting ofherduring inhischivalrous revealed (Meryl Streep), girlfriend andpistolpromiscuous, Indeed,thenarcissistic, reception. thewedding of reflection is also thedark whois Michael'santagonist, Stanley, flashing imageof the Michael'srepressed self,just as the outlawis the mirror womanizing with s obsession derides Stanley' Michael hero.When western this isn't "thisis this, andsaying upa bullet byholding andcarrying a pistol signifion thebullet'slack of symbolic something else," his insistence for the must be ironic rifle, hisdeer-slaying cradles he himself cance,while virtues hero,is a manofextraordinary Michael, likethewestern viewer. channeled intoa role aredangerous unlessproperly andresources, which ofthecommunity. protective Whilethedefining elements ofa frontier theinfluence ofthewestern,
fromthe films. 9Dialogue has been transcribed
423
and actions ofa lonelyhero,are thoseof The landscape upon thecharacter terms. Deer Hunter,theyare conceivedin morecomplexpsycho-symbolic projected the conflictsof the American The westernhas conventionally good and evil charactersrepresenting consciousness in black-and-white cavalryversusIndians,noble (heroversusoutlaw,lawmenversusrustlers, tribes)in a singlelandscape. Ciminouses Indian tribesversus threatening but dramatizesthe conflicts methodand terms, thesame psycho-symbolic within theconsciousness oftheheroand projectsthemin a divisionofboth thestockoppositions develops through characters and landscape. The film of the western,but theyare presented and melodramatic confrontations more explicitlyas external images of the protagonist'sconsciousness, projections of his impulses and thus of the national consciousness he in the filmas a as mythic hero. As a result,Vietnamfunctions represents upside-downthebenign mirror imageofAmerica,a darklandscape turning Alleghenies. landscape of Cimino's mythic heroto thelandscapes and secondary This relation ofMichael as western embodied in the remarkable charactersof The Deer Hunter is brilliantly Americato Vietnam. moves thefilm from cut withwhichCiminoabruptly is hunt, themountain to thebar from One moment returning Michael, after to melodic piano; the in a quiet reverieas he listenswithhis male friends by dead Americansoldiers,he lies unconsciousamidthe next,surrounded ofthecutis to have Michael wake ofVietnam.The effect horrors exploding inversion ofthelandscape hisdreamofthedeer hunt to a nightmare up from shows third of thefilm The first and itsrelation to theheroand community. but in a strongly to and strained, corrupt, Michael flight nature away from But, as Michael recovers consciousness, thatflight bonded community. has taken the viewer into hell. The camera shoots Michael from a to lifthimselffromthe downward-looking angle showinghim struggling angles of Michael jungle grass, a sharp contrastto the upward-looking a smallVietnamese the deer hunt.The community, againstthe skyduring mountain peaks not by snow-capped,pine-forested village,is surrounded but by dark jungle foliage. In contrastto the opening shots of the film fireto make steel, at the millharnessing showingMichael and his friends bombs. Steven's pregnow helicopters destroythevillagewithincendiary draggedhim fromthe and his motherliterally nant bride metaphorically NorthVietnamese cadre tosses a male haven of the bar; now a grinning grenadeintoa shelterfullof women and children.Michael and his friends over the a deer; now pigs fight in hunting and gutting found satisfaction entrailsof dead Americansoldiers. Nature and civilizationare the domibut in Vietnam nanttermsof boththe Americanand Vietnamesesettings, the asylum of naturehas become an invadinghell. Yet Michael is revealed as in his elementhere, for his influenceand landscape. His countenance impulseshave been unleashedin thisfrontier
424
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The westernmythdistilledin Horatio Greenough's Rescue Group, which stood at tlhiee inthe Vietnamcombatscenes of inverted nation'sCapitolforover a hundred years, is darkly The Deer Hunter:thehelplessSouth Vietnamesewomanand childare notrescuedbutkilled; thewhiterangerMichael killstheNorthVietnamesecadre onlyto findhimself helplessinthe hands of other"savages"; and "domesticated" natureis symbolizednot by a dog awaiting civilized command but ratherby pigs feedingon the entrailsof dead American soldiers. (Courtesyof the Libraryof Congress.)
who guidedhimself verifies this,forthehunter by Indianlore immediately now wears a clothheadband about his head and has war paint(forcamouand bothhis flage)streakedon his face. He is, in fact,an airborneranger, appearance and the term "ranger" link him to the traditionof Indian thecommuwho used Indian skills,became likeIndians,to protect fighters nityfromIndians. Michael, who like the Deerslayer and other western in social inherent threatof corruption heroes could only flee the internal on manfiring ofa darker-skinned relations, respondsto theexternalthreat a woman and child by literallypurginghim fromthe earth with fire. were manifested third ofthefilm Michael's intensecompulsionsin thefirst in reckless driving,excessive drinking, fromwomen, and a hunt flight intheimageofa gutted deer. Michael, likethewesternhero,finds resulting This scene a place forhis violentimpulsesonlyin a threatened community. hero protectinginnocent classically parallels the image of the frontier blast settlers the savage Indian. But Michaels' method,a furious by killing ofthescene-it from a flamethrower, visuallyassertsthedeeperambiguity
425
ofthickfoliagestate and background knife, prominent The clothheadband, streakedfrace, hero who became like an Michael's role in The Deer Hunter as descendantof the frontier Stills Archive.) Indian to huntIndians. (Courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art/Film
opened withthevillagebeingblownapartby Americannapalm.The North versionoftheevil thatMichael's Vietnamesesoldieris onlyan undisguised And both the "evil" NorthViet"'good" forcesbringto the community. namese and "'good" Americanhelicoptersact out the repressedhatreds foundin themale cultureof Clairton'sbars and hunts. againstcommunity ofthe"good" and "evil" based in a visual presentation This ambiguity, to relationto each other,is brought elementsofthewesternin clear mirror its fullestimplicationsin the central sequence of the film,the forced scenes. This scene has been thefocusofthemostoutraged Russian roulette attacks on the film,for it has to many critics seemed to presentwhite Americaas innocentvictimof the savage Viet Cong.10 And, indeed, itis a portrayal ofAmerica's experiencein Vietnamout ofthatearliestsource of the western,the Indian captivitynarrativein which innocentwhitesare this within subjected to hideous tortures.But thereare deep ambiguities between innocentwhites and dark savages. The apparentconfrontation their Viet Cong, as they grin,drinkbeer, and bet money while forcing
I See, forinstance,Marsha Kinder's "Political Game," Film Quarterly, 32 (1979), 13-17, and commentsin "Vietnam Comes Home," Time, 23 April 1979, 23.
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American Quarterly
captives to play Russian roulette,displaythe same impulseand even the inthebar in Clairtonwhen as did Michael and his friends same iconography they drank and bet on televised football. And the one-shot nature of Russian rouletteis a parallel to the one-shot value of Michael's hunt. intenseleader of loutish Finally,just as Michael has been the restrained, stupidbrutesexcept companions,theViet Cong have thelook ofgrinning, forthe impassive, controlledvisage of the leader. as demonicimagesofthelatent The effect is thattheViet Cong function as embodiedin thewestern impulsesof theAmericanculture,particularly hero,Michael. The Indiansand otherdarkerraces, closely associated with them,have the wildernesslandscape in whichthe whitecultureconfronts of Americancultureas symbolsof functioned in the mythand literature of forcesin the unconscious. The largersymbolicdesignand implications of those elementsof the western:the Vietnam the filmare a continuation ofthe inversion jungle and itssavage Viet Cong denizensare thenightmare American forestsand beautifuldeer. Nightmareand dream, both landare projected aspects of the unconscious, a scapes and theirinhabitants and limitsof the conscious mind regionbeyond the confines,restraints, The captivity scene, as did thePuritannarraembodiedin thecommunity. journey into the darker tives of Indian captivity,embodies a nightmare landscape (theunconscious)is implications ofwilderness.Ifthewilderness a place to whichthe hero goes in orderto dominatehis passions without externalrestraints, it can also be the place where he may findhimself becomes the hunted,the one captive to those same passions. The hunter shot of complete controlan emblem of self-destruction. narrative the centralepisode of the film,Cimino By makinga captivity was Whilethecaptivity narrative inverts thetermsofthewesternformula. thewestern a majornonfiction employsits genreofearlyAmericanwriting, thewestern plot in motion;in effect, horrors onlyto set therevenge/quest substitutes a fantasyemphasizingthe eventual assertionof whitepower and value for a genre of historicalnarrativethat had emphasized the dilemmaposed by the experience of complete passivitybefore an alien in whichthecaptivity culture.ConceivingoftheVietnamWaras a western experienceis thepivotalepisode, Ciminomakes The Deer Hunterdeeply disturbing on the most resonantlevel of culturalmyth. The finalthirdof the filmdevelops the consequences of the captivity landscape so experience. The Deer HunterpresentsVietnamas a frontier withdreamsof omnipotence, hostilethatAmerica,havingcome as hunter the fullimplications of its own is held captive in it and forcedto confront in The Deer Hunterbecause it would impulses.There is no revenge/quest how a culture proceeds once it be beside thepoint;thepointis to determine has experienced the inversion of its central assumptions about itself.
427
as westernhero enables him and Nick to kill Michael's resourcefulness theexperienceofbeingheld their captors,butnotbeforetheyhave suffered violence. Nick, who called Michael a "control captive to unrestrained the deer with"one shot" in freak" and resistedhis obsession withkilling favor of "thinkingabout the deer" and "the way the trees are in the mountains," is psychologicallydestroyed. In the Puritannarrativesof psychology as RichardSlotkinhas pointedout, "captivity Indiancaptivity, passive submissionor violent leftonlytwo responsesopen to thePuritans, retribution."1 Nick in effectfollows both courses. He firsthas to be beatinga Viet Cong corpse,butthen repeatedly by Michael from restrained turnsthe unleashed impulseto destroyback upon himself.Unable to call intodope and of Saigon, fading Linda, thenluredintotheRussian roulette death,Nick embodies an innocentacceptance ofnaturethatcannot finally survivethe dark revelationsof Vietnam. Michael, the hunterwho domicontrolledviolence (repression), nates nature(his unconscious) through thathe cannot be omnipotent. discovers in captivity For bothoftheseAdamic charactersVietnamis a "fall," butforMichael whichfollowsthe one. In the second deer huntof thefilm, it is a fortunate Vietnam captivityexperience, he does not shoot the deer despite his franticpursuitof it. Instead, when the deer faces him, he increasingly shoots into the air and says "okay," then sits by a streamand angrily "Okay" shoutstheword,whichis thistimeechoed back bythemountains. theecho is ofcourse an expressionofacceptance, and Leo Marx identifies of theestablishment representing as a standard device ofpastoralliterature with nature,the "pastoral ideal" of locating a a reciprocal relationship relationto, "middle groundsomewhere'between,' yet in a transcendent nature."12 When at the the opposingforcesof civilizationand [primitive] Michael once againfaces Nick across a table at a Russian climaxofthefilm to bringNick back fromhis roulettegame, he is desperatelyattempting captivityin the violent compulsions once latent but "controlled" in Russian roulette to Nick in thefirst transferred Michael and subsequently scene. While Michael has responded to the traumaby movingtoward a cautious version of the acceptance of nature that Nick had, Nick has Nick had become the alienated nihilistMichael had seemed potentially. abandoned the "one-shot" obsession of Michael for simple primitivist butthetraumatic experienceof communion withhisbenignideal ofnature, has turnedhis innocence intothe opposite extremeof an obsescaptivity
"'Richard Slotkin, Regeneration Through Violence: The Mythologyof the American Frontier,1600-1860 (Middletown,Conn.: Wesleyan Univ. Press, 1973), 145. '2Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden: Technologyand the Pastoral Ideal in America (New York: OxfordUniv. Press, 1964), 23.
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has The sameexperience to passivity. sionwith a "one-shot"submission instead led Michaelto abandonhis "one-shot"obsessionwithcontrol, a balance,or "middleground,"betweenthe consciousand accepting as TheSearchersand westerns A common devicein suchHollywood in Cooper's use of Natty Seven, perhapsoriginating The Magnificent 13 is the Bumppoand Duncan Heywardin The Last of theMohicans, at the heroridesoff theexperienced "doubling"ofthehero.Typically, a woman, downwith end,freebutalone,and the"novicehero" settles consciousofAmerican forces but"happy."Thisgivesboth domesticated choice. Ciminohas and thusavoids a cultural affirmation ness mythic hero giving with theexperienced ofthetwoheroes, reversed theusualfates andthenovice inorder to "settledown"inthecommunity up hisfreedom he has substito it.In addition, unableto return himself heronowfinding of a clearimage ofriding off into thesunset for theambiguous image tuted in an alienlandscape. self-destruction code ofthe In settling down,Michaeldoes notabandonthepersonal it to the myth.14 He insteadbrings hero based on the hunter western ofthedeer,a accepting thefreedom After ofthecommunity. preservation 15 hereturns oftheunconscious, principle symbol for thefeminine recurring to sexual in response to find Stanley, to his malecompanions thatnight mirror image In a rage at this Axel. at their friend hispistol taunts, pointing Stanley through has thrown Michael purges off, ofthecompulsion he just this with malesexualpower.With Russianroulette ofhisdarkobsession hisinitial confuself, Michaelis able to overcome ofhisdarker purgation to go back downintotownand join upon his return sion and passivity andthe thefeminine valuesoflove andcompassion Linda,whoembodies home thecrippled Steven relationship. He alsobrings ofa stable possibility returns hospital, andthen institution attheveterans themachine-like from is setagainst toVietnam inan attempt tobring backNick.Michael'sreturn during thefallofSaigon. from Vietnam flight ofAmerica's thebackground a crucial journeyThe Deer Hunter His agonizedfailure is nevertheless tofacethe experience toitsVietnam make, a return America must suggests head he holdsNick'sblood-soaked When factofitsdestroyed innocence. obsesofhisprior theresult recognize, Michael faces,and thuscan fully
sion.
and HistoricalProcess in The Last of the 13See Michael D. Butler's "Narrative Structure Mohicans," American Literature,48 (1976), 117-39. to the code of the westernhero see 14Fora discussion of the relationof the huntermyth "Book Two: The Sons of Leatherstocking" in Henry Nash Smith's VirginLand: The a Cross: American Westas Symboland Myth,49-120, and Slotkin's chapter"Man Without Myth(1823-1841)" in Regeneration ThroughViolence, 466-516. The Leatherstocking 15See Slotkin,Regeneration ThroughViolence, 429, 490.
unconscious.
429
jingoisticabsolution endingof thefilmis thusneither The controversial All the forAmerica's Vietnam involvementnor an ironic commentary. by the together characters,male and female,have been brought surviving male haven ofthebar. Close shotsofthetable heroto a table in theformer being set, chairslifted,and characterssqueezing in around the table emAccepting a community. phasize the daily heroisminvolvedin preserving In loss and trauma,the westernhero has takena place in the community. joining in the spontaneous singingof a tearful"God Bless America," by a smilingtoast to Nick, Michael also joins it in assertingthe finished continuing value oftheideal embodiedin a simplelove forAmerica,forthe landscape, but witha fullawareness both magnificent dreamofa benignly of thedangersof chaotic natureand of a person's, or society's, obsession with control.The basic impulse of the westernhas been the concept of violence. In The Deer Hunterthisconceptis stood on through regeneration results fromthe response of the hero to its head, for the regeneration violence turnedback on him. Purgationis replaced by shock, and then historicalnightmare acceptance. Vietnamis viewed as the self-projected of innocence into a its dream awaken from can which America through matureconsciousness.
* * *
The openingscenes ofApocalypse Now quicklydisabuse theviewer of a faithful willattempt thatthefilm adaptationofHeart of any expectations Darkness. Instead, they signal the developmentof the broad symbolic thespecificethos,imagery, and outlineofConrad's classic novellathrough have patternof the hard-boileddetectiveformula.Many commentators between the voice-over narrationspoken by Captain noted a similarity ofRaymondChandler'sdetective Willard(MartinSheen) and thenarration thefulluse ofthe PhilipMarlowe,butVeronica Geng,whilenotperceiving the most explicitparticularsof this source in the has identified formula, film: theweary, thesin-city talksin theeasyironies, Willard laconic,whysimiles, ofthepulpprivate eye.... Ourfirst language am-I-even-bothering-to-tell-you movie:his face seen of theprivate-eye is theclassic opening look at Willard fan. ., andthen a rotating tohislip,under stuck ceiling a cigarette down, upside bottle ofbrandy, overhisbooks,snapshots, ina tight thecamera closeup moving on therumpled bedsheets. revolver obligatory Zippo,and, finally, cigarettes, one-of Philip He is a parody-maybea self-created Thisguyis notMarlow. L.A. private Chandler's eye.16 Marlowe, Raymond
16Veronica Geng, "Mistuh Kurtz-He
Dead," New Yorker,3 Sept. 1979, 70.
430
American Quarterly
to transform as vaguely elements Gengsees theseprivate-eye functioning and comic ofpulpliterature thefilm intoa blackcomedy with overtones hard-boiled detective butthey theuse ofthe books, more specifically signal as the structural, and thematic center of thefilm, formula the stylistic, the the Vietnam specific source bywhich Coppolapresents subject through broad symbolic visionof Heart of Darkness. Once thisis perceived, orat least ofApocalypse elements Now that formerly appearedconfused as aspectsofa complex andgratuitous become puzzling apparent presentationofone sourcein theterms ofanother. in the Black Mask pulp The hard-boiled detective genre,originating in the 1920s,is a distinctly versionof the classic magazine American and level by DashiellHammett detective story, raisedto a highartistic Huston andHowardHawksin Raymond Chandler infiction, andbyJohn film. mind Theprivate eye,rather than thebrilliant oftheclassicdetective, and cynical, is a twentieth-century urban,and thusmoresophisticated thetough attributes descendant ofthewestern hero,combining necessary in his environment a strict based on a personal forsurvival with integrity in is a modern American code of ethics.The setting city,mostoften or"neonjungle"that southern anurban wilderness California, embodying is geographically, historically, and mythically correct forthegenre, bethat cause thehard-boiled movesthrough a corrupt has detective society replaced thefrontier. There are important similarities, reflecting theircommonsource in quest/myths, between Heart of Darknessand the hard-boiled detective formula. Bothhaveisolated whoare on a mystery/adventure protagonists intheemploy ofothers while actually preserving their personal autonomy In both theprotagonist ofjudgment. works encounters revelatory scenesof the depravity of his society in the courseof his journey.And thefinal ofthecriminal, whileon thesurface apprehension restoring moral order, endsin dissolution, with theprotagonist actually morecynical abouthis worldthanbefore.Thematically, both Conrad'snovellaand the hardboileddetective to be journeys are generally a genre understood through orhell, with anultimate horror attheendproviding a symbolic underworld, terrible illumination. In method bothcombine ofa theclassicquestmotif for a grail a modern, search with geographically recognizable locale.And while has on thesurface theclipped, slangy style ofthehard-boiled genre incommon little with theobscure, evocative style ofHeartofDarkness, with effect similar inthedreamlike they pursue purposes (ornightmarish) which they render reportorial detail.The one crucial distinction between Heart of Darknessand the hard-boiled genrelies in therelation of the protagonist to the criminal. The detective, despitehis similarity to the underworld in speechand appearance, remains sharply distinct from the murderer, forin notonlyexposing butalso judging themurderer he em-
431
f~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | _ i The mythicrole of in this shot from TheMaltese R the hard-boileddetective, apparent
from it.(Courtesyof TheMuseum ofModern Art/Film Stills Archive.) _separation
bodies themoral order oftheidealsofhissociety notfound initsreality;

Facn is to unoe th evi pervadin g his ::: soiet ::: 0:: wil minaig a ruhesl pure
ul ase Malts the hard-boiled paeti hsso forom detective, Nowf oplaue Ine Apohcarlype intora Darknhess the ofhiemarntaiofn for ervdn jiournety trnsfovrmn rvl mealcns i rier jouney Willad's cuture.Captai of te Amercan self-pojectin
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(representeby ithe society army)iand bothAmericeansoi ofde inviestigtieona ColoneKurtz [Mnarion Brando]) hina American (repestoiented fy idetalsm, Nowsful ofkns alustionstol Vietnam. The riv hin, Apocalypsear erejourney genaresl, wihil the wtheualsting ofthehard-bcoiled psouthernymCalifournia,
apparent wetcoas assocatewithrnthve and idrviug-akintgrt go-ormdanoing, hrockbmuicd fro Heart.o a drawknes rslteivrjurnieysa culture Cnadsnvlaipes sofctetime as asea anfiwentohoghVenmul detective thehadbie Darnes tpoakys o Caues of Darhallucinatoryn cultrebu theresistingne objHecrt thrnsoumighVenma raean rivter jorney)isd ofbtheAmerican CaeptaientWilad' sculue.y snes-projetion Theal tism rollar of th hard-boileddetective, The inthis shotnarm ttings
of ineralprsuitho thahulue handbold bouthexernCalifonvsigationsasttn detective hnveerot Wilardes athar-oie iDealinsm.
this
Vietnam a settin whrouinghe
432
American Quarterly
decadenceof his societyand so by the apparent becomestraumatized that idealism. Kurtzrepresents ofitslostpurposeful for thegrail searches If the of its hollowness. thehorrific self-awareness and finally idealism of eventherefuges society denied byhispervasive detective, hard-boiled tothewestern hero, is man"available with a "natural nature andfriendship intohis own of a corrupt societyto retreat by his investigation forced into thedetective Now forces Apocalypse idealism, strict moral ruthlessly itself. a questforthatidealism lacks thegenre it is clearthatWillard ofthefilm Fromthebeginning hasalready beento Willard ofhisownmoral position. certainty detective's thathome"just didn'texistanyhas found and upon leaving Vietnam, clearpurpose:"WhenI is without to Vietnam hisreturn more."Further, ofwas all I couldthink to be there, whenI was there was hereI wanted Wilestablishes backintothejungle." While theopening imagery getting verhisdiminished italso asserts detective, as hard-boiled lard'sidentity andof ofhisex-wife shots ofa photograph figure. Theclose-up sionofthat whathe has had to abandon.His drunken homerepresent letters from and drinking as opposedtothecontrolled martial arts, ofOriental practice a shift from torof PhilipMarlowe,represents chess-playing solitary And Sheen's tautcharacterization purposeto self-destruction. mented ofthedetective's armor for thisdeterioration cynical embodies generally Dean. Simiofa James alienation intotheexplosive idealism hispersonal Herr andspoken Michael author written byDispatches larly, thenarration derided as a banal parodyof Raymond widely by Sheenin voice-over, without the Marlowe ofa Philip evokesthesardonic perspective Chandler, wit. penetrating by Marlowe's identity conveyed senseofpersonal strong his despite Kurtzas a murderer Willard takesthemission to assassinate out inthis murder placewaslikehanding that a manwith "charging feeling couldalso be calleda murderer, tickets at theIndy500." Willard speeding come Whenthesoldiers forhe has a recordofunofficial assassinations. And "Whatarethecharges?" with hisorders drunkenly with he responds he says ofKurtz,"Thereis no wayto tellhis narration in thevoice-over so then is really a confession, myown,andifhisstory without telling story American ofa central quest,as thatofa herofigure is mine." Willard's American just corrupted becomesan investigation ofnot formula, mythic viewofitsideal self. butoftheAmerican reality In melding detective formula, Heart of Darknessand thehard-boiled having Willard, tothelatter. ofitsparticulars Now owesmore Apocalypse to theprivate an equivalent from his Saigonquarters, been summoned who a general from receives hisassignment office, eye's seedydowntown in Heart of Darknessby speaking of "unevokes the manager clearly The ofa country. inthebrutal exploitation sound"methods while engaging tellsWillard (as thegeneral ofthescene,however development specific
433
detectivehero,finds in a diminished versionofthehard-boiled InApocalypse Now Willard, his observation ofAmerican"insanityand murder"his own disturbing complicity. (Courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archive.)
thatKurtz disappearedwithhis Montagnard armyintoCambodia whenhe " was about to be arrestedformurder"),is made in the termsofa conventional episode of the hard-boiled over an elegantlunchin formula.Sitting the elaboratelyfurnished trailerservingas his headquarters,and witha to Willard's recordas an assassin before melancholyexpressionlistening havinghimassignedto "terminate"Kurtz,thegeneralis, in thecontextof theVietnamWar,a military versionofthepowerful clientwho receivesthe detective with palpable distaste in his impressive mansion. Marlow's his employers in Heart of Darkness is portrayed in privatealoofnessfrom Now as the hard-boiled detective's retentionof his selfApocalypse relianceand judgmentwhileostensiblyworking forhis client: " I took the mission.Whatthehell else was I gonna do? But I reallydidn'tknow what I'd do when I foundhim." in Apocalypse Now adopts the Likewise, while thejourney downriver in Heart of the protagonist' s growing Darkness parallel development of from his this and attraction to is Kurtz, repulsion pattern society increasing once again specifically formula. to the hard-boiled In presentedaccording uncovers such thatformulathe detective,while pursuingthe murderer, and in the his final isolation that pervasivecorruption judgmentof society the criminalis undercut. George Grella identifiesthe portrayalof the
434
American Quarterly
of society, the police, in the detective genre as officialrepresentatives 17 These traitsare consecutivelythe "brutal, corruptand incompetent." pointof the threemajor discoveries Willardmakes on his journey about Colonel Kilthe war. Witnessing how the armyis "legitimately"fighting to decimatea Viet Cong villagefull technology gore's use ofoverpowering is a surfing beach, Willard inorderto capturebriefly ofwomenand children shownwithexpressionsof puzzlementand disgust,saying:"If that'show Kilgore foughtthe war, I began to wonder what theyreally had against There was enoughof thatto go and murder. Kurtz. It wasn'tjust insanity around foreveryone." Afterleaving the USO show where he has seen typicalofthe and dehumanizedsex, theglamorouscorruption profiteering in voice-over: "The war was beingrunby a detectivenovel, he comments thewhole circus clowns who weregoingto end up giving bunchoffour-star endless battleof the and apparently away." And his reactionto the futile so thegeneralscan say thebridgeis open, is merely Do Lungbridge,fought a disgusted,"There's no fuckin'CO here." These scenes develop vague the specifictermsof the detecparallelsfromHeart of Darkness through tive formula. in Heart of Darkness to the hearsay he Marlow's attraction Similarly, a Kurtz is developed inApocalypse Now through encountersconcerning of evidence thatthe a dossier fullof fragments stock device of thrillers: Willard,repelledlike Marlow and the detectivemuststudyand interpret. hard-boileddetective by the depravityof his society, recognizes in his invastly "investigation"ofKurtzthatthis"murderer"is theembodiment, the purposeasserted has openly Kurtz ideals. scale, ofhisown inner larger autonomyfromconsiderationsof ruthlessness, fulaction, unhypocritical code thatare the hard-boiled to a personal and adherence personal gain, like Marlow, findshimself Willard, As a result of Willard. characteristics as he looks through In thevoice-overnarration, attracted to themurderer. Kurtz's dossier, Willardspeaks of how the more he learns of Kurtz the Chiefsand I admiredhim," how Kurtz made a reportto the Joint "nmore Lyndon Johnsonthatwas kept classifiedbecause he apparentlysaw the developingfailureof the Americanapproach to the war, and how Kurtz ignored his lack of officialclearance to order effectiveoperations and formula while assassinations. Here again Coppola followsthe hard-boiled of the self adapted from alteringits plane to the symbolicinvestigation Heart of Darkness. The detectiveoftenhas a friendor is attractedto a but he discoversthislaterand is womanwho turnsout to be themurderer, to Kurtzafter withthedilemma;Willardis attracted onlythenconfronted him as a murderer.Like Marlow, he consciously society has identified
17Grella, "Murder and the Mean Streets," 414.
435
inefficient society towardan idealistic,effimoves away froma corrupt, cient outlaw. By the time he approaches Kurtz's compound Willardhas :18 "Kurtz was turning froma made Marlow's "choice of nightmares" targetinto a goal." never alwiththe murderer, of the detectivefigure This identification climaxinthe is brought to itsdisorienting formula, lowed inthehard-boiled theshooting inthefilm,19 scene thatCoppola has called themostimportant by Willardof the wounded Vietnamese woman, followedwithWillard's explicitexplanation:"We'd cut'em in halfwitha machinegunand give'em themoreI hatedlies." a Band-Aid.It was a lie. And themoreI saw ofthem, he JustbeforeWillardlater kills Kurtz, Kurtz says thatthereis nothing "detests more thanthe stenchof lies." By developingApocalypse Now but extendformula, elementsof the hard-boiled accordingto thedefining into the self, Coppola shocks the audience froma ing the investigation of his of the externalhorror the detectivefigure moralwitnessing through society into a questioningof the formula'snormal source of order: the efficiency of the moralidealism,the uncorrupted honesty,the purposeful This scene preparesthe viewerto experiencethe condetectivehimself. of the detectivefigure frontation between Willardand Kurtz as a meeting of his moral idealism. Thus Apocalypse Now withthe finalimplications detectiveherointotheinvestigation thehard-boiled shows Vietnamforcing ofHeart of Darkness. ofhis unconsciousprovidedby thesymbolicmotif The final scenes of the film,set at Kurtz's compound in Cambodia, represent the mostvisibleuse in thefilmof Conrad's novella. Here again, detecowe considerablymoreto thehard-boiled however,theparticulars turns out to be what In manyworksofthegenrethemurderer tiveformula. presiding over doctoror mystic Grellacalls a "magical quack," a charlatan his Kurtz like has, a cult or temple.20Free of social restraint, Colonel tribesmen, literary namesake, set himselfup as a god among primitive becominga ghastlyfigureof evil. The Russian "fool" in Heart of DarkAmericanphoto-journalist (Dennis Hopper), ness, now a countercultural stillpraises Kurtz mindlesslyin mysticalterms.But these elementsare presented withina more detailed portrayalof Kurtz as the "magical quack" the hard-boileddetectivetracksdown to his southernCalifornia by allusionsto CharlesManson a significance first suggested headquarters, of in a newspaperstory about theSharonTate slayingsand in thesimilarity
rev. ed. (New York: Norton, 18Joseph Conrad,Heart of Darkness, ed. RobertKimbrough, 1971), 63. Marcus, "JourneyUp the River: An Interviewwith Francis Coppola," Rolling 19Greil Stone, 1 Nov. 1979, 55. 20Grella,"Murder and the Mean Streets," 422-23.
436
American Quarterly
to the "Helter Skelter" scrawled at the the "Apocalypse Now" graffiti for is even clearerin theplotdevelopment, LaBianca home. This portrayal a patheticKurtz crawlingaway in the grass, whereas Marlow confronts stilla power"rippedapart," is nevertheless thisKurtz,ifpsychologically figurewho has Willardbroughtto him. Like the magical ful, controlling taunts,tempts, he sneeringly quack in the hard-boileddetectiveformula, oftenscorns the detectiveforhis and intimidates Willard.The murderer low socioeconomic position and quixotic quest (Kurtz tells Willard, "you're an errandboy sentby groceryclerksto collect thebill"), has him held captive and druggedor beaten (Kurtz has Willardcaged, brutalizes by himby leavinghimexposed to theelementsand driveshimintohysteria identifies theseveredhead ofa boat crewmanintohis lap). Grella dropping formula to of the "magical quack" device in the hard-boiled one function in a for significance of of the faithless desperate search an emblem the be and Willard'sconverted world(theworshipping photo-journalist dispirited predecessoron theassassinationmission,the zombie-likeCaptain Colby, in Grella's view is that embody this trait).Even more important romance to of theGrail element lenda quasi-magical thebizarre cults andtemples to a Perilous must Chapel thrillerthedetective-knight journey thehard-boiled His eventual Merlin a madorevilpriest, presides. where an ambivalent figure, a besting ofthepowers ofthe becomes a ritual feat, overthecharlatan triumph
darkness.21
The explicit use of Weston's From Ritual to Romance (shown by the betweenWillard cameraas one ofKurtz's books) in thefinalconfrontation and Kurtz involves precisely the ritualisticpattern described above, withthe self thoughonce again withthe implicationsof a confrontation broughtfromHeart of Darkness. formula is completedby Willard'srejectionof his Whilethehard-boiled without attraction to Kurtz when he sees thatKurtz is indeed a murderer and "any methodat all," and by his resistance to Kurtz's intimidation his mission, he himselfknows that his brainwashingin order to fulfill slayingof Kurtzis at thelatter'sdirection:"Everyone wantedme to do it, further suggeststhat the him most of all." The ritualizedconfrontation not an externalevil, but his unconscious is in factkilling detectivefigure self.22Willard's discovery of the moral chaos that has resulted from Kurtz's pursuitof a moral ideal has led him to see the darkness that
22See GarrettStewart, "Coppola's Conrad: The Repetitionsof Complicity," Critical Inquiry,7 (1981), 455-74.
21Ibid,423.
437
of the army,but also the darknessat the pervades not onlythe hypocrisy heartof his own pursuitof an honest war. The indulgencein death and of totalpower, thatWillardfindsin Colonel Kurtz's displayof depravity, Eliot, and his parable ofa severedheads, his readingof selectedlinesfrom Viet Cong atrocity is a devastating illumination ofthesame hollowness,the of Kurtz. darkness,thatin Heart of Darkness Marlow findsin the figure Here the Vietnamcontextand hard-boileddetectivepersona of the pronotjustthe on theAmericanidentity: giveita specificcommentary tagonist of a unique corruptedAmerican reality,but the American self-concept for powerthat brute drives for the fraud, a cover a nationalidealismis itself in Marlow discovers Just as people. much as any dominateAmericansas Willardas hard-boiled Kurtz the essential lie of European imperialism, in Colonel Kurtztheessentiallie ofhis own and hisnation's detectivefinds Vietnamventure. weakness and corruptheinherent Both Willardand Kurtz,discovering to the enemy. Willardspeaks tion of theirsociety,have turnedmentally observing and strength, duringthe filmof "Charlie's" purity admiringly thatthe Viet Cong soldier "squats in the bush" and doesn't "get much came when he realized USO." Kurtz tells Willardthat his illumination myforehead"that through "like I was shotwitha diamond... bulletright offthe children'sarms he had inoculated was a the Viet Cong's cutting act: "If I had ten divisionsof those men thenour problemshere stronger " This motif as interpreted has been mistakenly wouldbe oververyquickly. and thefilm'sview thatAmericawas defeatedbyitsrelianceon technology it is by its conscience.23Viewed in the contextof the detectiveformula, understoodas a critiqueof the hollownessof a "mission" thatis properly based on an illusoryabstractionas much as is the redeeming"idea" of The pure pursuitof an ideal, the obsession with Conrad's imperialism. at all," themoralchaos method, becomes thelack of"any method efficient causes him Willardfindsat Kurtz's compound,and thatdarkillumination to draw back fromhis grail. In the riverjourney Willard uncovered the corruptionof the actual Americanmission;in Kurtz Willardfindsthe emptinesseven of the ideal. to theroleofthegenre explicitreference a virtually This is thesignificance, to killme .. . butyou Willard"you have a right detective,ofKurtz's telling action of an to judge me." Willardacts out the reassuring have no right agent of moral order,but in doing so realizes thathe is judginghimself, takinga moral stance towards his own unconscious self. When Willard on whichKurtzhas scrawled"Drop the leaves withKurtz's book (a report innocent bomb" and "Exterminate them all!") and Lance, the surfing
23See
David Bromwich,"Bad FaithofApocalypseNow," Dissent, 27(1980), 207-10,213.
438
American Quarterly
madness,he intoacid-dropping acceptance ofthesurrounding traumatized duplicates Marlow's lie to Kurtz's "Intended." Willardat last sees, like ofhismoral dissolution Marlow,thattheonlypossible responseto theutter is to preserveinnocenceand thefalse ideal. Willarddepartsa assumptions down the ultimate hard-boileddetectivewho has made an investigation mean streets,his soul: "I wanteda mission,and formysins theygave me itup to me likeroomservice.It was a real choice mission,and one. Brought when it was over, I'd never want another."
* * *
of theVietnamWar providedby The Deer interpretations The different of meanings thedifferent HunterandApocalypse Now resultlogicallyfrom the western and hard-boileddetective genres. Since the western is a mythlooking forwardto a new civilization,and the nineteenth-century mythlooking around at a failed detective formulaa twentieth-century to the society,thevisionsthatThe Deer HunterandApocalypse Now bring Vietnam experience are literallya centuryapart. In The Deer Hunter Vietnam into a regenerativemyththat makes the Cimino transforms fallfortheAmericanAdam; experiencea conceivablyfortunate traumatic extensionof inApocalypse Now Coppola presentsVietnamas a nightmare American society where only a marginalindividual may preserve the Americanideal. Beyond the implicationsof the separate use of the two formulasis the different relationof each filmto its formula. The Deer its centralelements on its head, retaining Hunterstandsthe westernmyth itsmeaning; Apocalypse whileshowingthattheVietnamlandscape inverts but extendsthe of action of thedetectiveformula Now followsthepattern thegenrewiththethemeofHeart to the self,merging area ofinvestigation ofDarkness. The resultis thatThe Deer HunterinsiststhatVietnamcan be American terms,while Apocalypse Now underencounteredin strictly mines the one dependable source of American order,the idealistic selfhero. Cimino of the formula concept embodied in the "pure" motivation whereAmericanscan as a projectedmirror sees theVietnaminvolvement once again to the recognizetheirdarkestimpulses,but in response return originalpromise Cooper had recognized in the precolonial days of the youngDeerslayer. Coppola views Vietnamas the projectionof southern intoan alien landscape whereeven Americanidealismstandsat California last exposed. The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now, while presentingdistinctly of the Vietnam War based on the separate fordifferent interpretations relationresulting mulas shapingtheirstructures, also have an underlying fromtheircommonuse of major formulasof Americanpopular romance heroes. The central betweentheir linkedby therelation thatare themselves
439
implausibility and ambiguity, majorcriticisms leveled at thetwofilms, their are essential aspects of the romance mode by whichthe major American narrative tradition has dealt withextremeexperiencerevealingbasic culturalcontradictions and conflicts. Both The Deer HunterandApocalypse or personalapproachesto Now avoid thelimits ofnaturalistic, fragmented, thewar(foundrespectively inJamesWebb's novel,Fields ofFire, Michael Herr's memoir, Dispatches, and thefilm, ComingHome) by couchingthe takes a hero terror ofVietnamin Americanmyths. Each ofthesetwo films the essential who is a versionof the nationalarchetype,thus embodying longingsand anxietiesof the Americanpsyche, and sends himon a quest Vietnam experience conveyingthe aberrant,fragmented, hallucinatory ita familiar, Within thegenericconfines whilegiving meaningful structure. of the westernand hard-boiled Vietnammay be condetectiveformulas, probed. These formulaic templated, theterror reenacted,and themeaning genres, comprising centralmoral fantasiesof Americanculture,provide collective dreams through whichthe traumaof the VietnamWar may be Further,since these films reexperienced,assimilated, and interpreted. significantly invertor undercutthe implicationsof theirmythicsources, ofVietnamas a pivotalexperienceforAmeritheysuggestthesignificance can consciousness.
*1 would like to thankStephenTatum,JamesMachor, and RobertSchulzinger forhelpful suggestions.

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Vietnam and the Hollywood Genre Film: Inversions of American Mythology in the Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now

JOHN HELLMANN Lima Ohio State University,

SINCE THEIR RESPECTIVE

IN 1978 AND 1979, MICHAEL CIMINO'S

The allusion of The Deer Hunter to The Deerslayer signalsthe strategy.

Vietnamand the Hollywood Genre Film

Vietnamand the Hollywood Genre Film

Vietnamand the Hollywood Genre Film

- -------------........................... .................... ............ .. . ...... .........

Vietnamand the Hollywood Genre Film

Vietnamand the Hollywood Genre Film

Vietnamand the Hollywood Genre Film

16Veronica Geng, "Mistuh Kurtz-He

Dead," New Yorker,3 Sept. 1979, 70.

Vietnamand the Hollywood Genre Film

bodies themoral order oftheidealsofhissociety notfound initsreality;

of ineralprsuitho thahulue handbold bouthexernCalifonvsigationsasttn detective hnveerot Wilardes athar-oie iDealinsm.

Vietnam a settin whrouinghe

Vietnamand the Hollywood Genre Film

Vietnamand the Hollywood Genre Film

Vietnamand the Hollywood Genre Film

David Bromwich,"Bad FaithofApocalypseNow," Dissent, 27(1980), 207-10,213.

Vietnamand the Hollywood Genre Film

*1 would like to thankStephenTatum,JamesMachor, and RobertSchulzinger forhelpful suggestions.

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