Apocalypse Now: Col. Kurtz's monologue on war and horror

[Greeby]

Run time: 06:07 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXIY85yNF9E   Posted on YouTube: January 31, 2007 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: April 09, 2007 By DU Member: Greeby Views on DU: 5798

 
"I've seen horrors... horrors that you've seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that... but you have no right to judge me. It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror. Horror has a face... and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies. I remember when I was with Special Forces. Seems a thousand centuries ago. We went into a camp to inoculate the children. We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for Polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn't see. We went back there and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile. A pile of little arms. And I remember... I... I... I cried. I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want to forget. And then I realized... like I was shot... like I was shot with a diamond... a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought: My God... the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we. Because they could stand that these were not monsters. These were men... trained cadres. These men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love... but they had the strength... the strength... to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral... and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling... without passion... without judgment... without judgment. Because it's judgment that defeats us."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078788/quotes

[orpupilofnature57]

1. One of Brando's finest!

Also his comment on total Freedom "freedom of judgment even freedom from judgment of yourself "

[EVDebs]

2. This guy was/is truly insane

Which is why Joseph Conrad wrote the book I suppose. How easy it is to confuse poor tactics with success. Using Kurtz's logic, the Czar's forces were right in killing Lenin's brother ? Judgement "defeats us" ?

And I always thought the Truth would set me free. Seems like I've read that in a book... and on the floor somewhere, too.

[Tiggeroshii]

3. The credit for that character should go to Joseph Conrad

The author of Heart of Darkness for which Apocolypse now is based off of. Heart of Darkness chrnoicles the sights recorded by a a fellow named Marlow travelling down a river in Africa in search of an old friend. It takes place near the turn of the 20th century during British colonization in Africa.