Student Work Sheet

Objectifs:

* Maîtrise d'un repère culturel américain majeur: le Vietnam.
* Découverte de références mythologiques et bibliques sous-jacentes au récit
* Découverte de la lecture "littéraire" d'un film.
* Travail sur la lecture de commentaires critiques et d'un article critique.
* Ecriture d'un commentaire thématique transférable à la nouvelle ou au roman.

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

 

The film Apocalypse Now was inspired by Joseph Conrad's short story, Heart of Darkness.

Freely write down all the ideas crossing your mind about these titles. The Encyclopedia Section might help. If you do not know the English equivalents for your ideas, write them down in French, we will translate them later.
Encyclopedia Section

Revelation or Apocalypse, 27th and last book of the New Testament, written AD c.95 by one John of Patmos. This book is a mysterious prophetic work, consisting mainly of visions showing the end of evil and persecution and the triumph of God and the martyrs.
The term has become synonymous with the end of the world, evoking chaotic images of huge floodings, mountains disintegrating, earth fracturing and blazing heavens.

Minotaur, in Greek mythology, monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man. It was the offspring of Pasiphaë, queen of Crete, and a bull the god Poseidon had sent to Pasiphaë's husband, King Minos. When Minos refused to sacrifice the beast, Poseidon made Pasiphaë fall in love with it. After she gave birth to the Minotaur, Minos ordered the architect and inventor Daedalus to build a labyrinth so intricate that escape from it without assistance would be impossible. Here the Minotaur was confined and fed with young human victims.
The Greek hero Theseus was determined to end the useless sacrifice and offered himself as one of the victims. When Theseus reached Crete, Minos's daughter Ariadne fell in love with him. She helped him escape by giving him a ball of thread, which he fastened to the door of the maze and unwound as he made his way through it. When he came upon the sleeping Minotaur, he beat the monster to death and then led the other sacrificial youths and maidens to safety by following the thread back to the entrance.

Background

 Read the story of the Minotaur before you watch the film.

  

Apocalypse Now

 by Francis Ford Coppola (1979)

Characters:
Captain Willard, (Martin Sheen) a US officer on a mission to kill another US officer gone mad
Colonel Kurtz, (Marlon Brando) a US officer gone mad somewhere up in Cambodia
Obvious name typing : Willard = will power [volonté], but also villain; Kurtz = curse [malédiction]

The themes below have been documented in the Thematic Script page, echo by echo.

  1. The river theme: look at the river throughout the film. Pay attention to its size and what some of the characters say about it.Try to understand its symbolism, as well as the boat's.
  2. Weapons: the type of weapons used by the protagonists changes as the boat sails upriver. In what way? What meaning does it bring to the story?
  3. Willard = Kurtz theme. Coppola takes great care to make us notice their similarities. How? What does he mean by that?
  4. Reflection on God. The title itself is an indication. But there are many allusions to religion, and the existence –or non-existence– of God in the film.
    5.
  5. Cow-boys vs Indians theme. This is a leitmotiv. Try to remember its occurrences. What do they mean?

Yet another  is The Minotaur theme: What connections are there between the story in Greek mythology and the storyline of Apocalypse Now?

 

See what students have composed on those subjects...