As such, Marlowe and Willard act as vessels for autobiographical forays.Principally, however, Conrad and Coppola use Marlowe and Willard as reference points for concepts of human morality. Interwoven into the fabric of these journeys are the distresses and pains of their creators. In doing so, Marlowe and Willard make relentless journeys during periods of heightened historical conflict that lead both characters down spirals of emotional suffering. Both characters are used to document and deal with concepts of colonialism and the impact of foreign interference in lands deemed harsh and unforgiving: the Congo and Mekong respectively. This article presents an analytical insight into the characters of Marlowe in Joseph Conrad’s novella, ‘Heart of Darkness’ and Francis Ford Coppola’s appropriation of that character, Willard in the film, ‘Apocalypse Now’. “Hysterical Colonels and Kernels: Apocalypse Now Redux and Ápres Coup Remembering.” Hollywood Remembrance and American War, edited by Andrew Rayment and Paul Nadasdy, Routledge, 2020, pp.83-113. The film is, thus, simultaneously, a tour de force and an abject failure – that rare breed of motion picture which can be considered both a masterpiece to marvel at and a turkey to laugh at, the best and the worst film ever made. Although it effectively satirizes the myth-making tendencies of American war-film-makers and war-makers alike, Rayment also points toward how Redux is drawn toward the kind of myth-making that it supposedly critiques.
Redux is also, Rayment contends, an adroit operation in subverting orthodox remembrance codes that offer homage to American soldiers and their mythical deeds. Showing how it replicates its representation of the ‘working through’ of personal trauma in the diegesis with a surreal frame which presents Vietnam as a hysterical ʻmemory’ of a war so traumatic for the United States that it cannot be viewed ‘straight’, Rayment considers the film as a form ápres coup remembering – a symptom of America’s collective need to recall injuries for assuagement. In its twin operation of overlaying acts of diegetic remembering across its extra-diegetic, cinematic ʻmemory’ of the Vietnam War, Rayment argues that Redux is a brilliantly innovative film. Rayment examines the double(d) complexion of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now Redux (2001).
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