Apocalypse Now?!
Question: Why does Lance Johnson go crazy and join the natives? At the start he is normal and then he is crazy at the end.
Answers: Why does Lance Johnson go crazy and join the natives? At the start he is normal and then he is crazy at the end.
Here's one way to look at it
Only two people survive the trip .Willard who thinks Kurtz may have the answer to how can you fight a war and live with yourself ( Willard has become self destructive ), he finds Kurtz, realises he is completely insane and destroys him (and thereby his attempts to come to terms with the war). Lance survives because he retains a childlike innocence throughout (helped by the use of LSD). He kills the family on the boat but the only thing that bothers him is the puppy. In Kurtz's camp he naturally goes along with the natives and just as easily switches back to Willard when it's time to leave
Willard has survived because he is completely ruthless but ultimately he decides he has no future in the war and chooses to rejoin normal society . In killing Kurtz he kills that part of himself (hence all the intercutting with the buffalo sacrifice)
Mr Clean is streetwise -he dies
Chief is a disciplined and professional soldier - he dies
Chef - is a quite cultured and moral person - he dies
Lance survives because he was never really in it.
War ultimately destroys all who try to take a part in it
I saw the film many times when I was young and that's my take on it . I've not seen the Redux though which from what I've heard substantially changes the plot
Well i think the whole point was trying to show that Vietnam was pretty f'd up to say the least also if you noticed they tried to show him taking a lot of LSD. Ithink maybe th ecombination would have made him go pretty nuts. Also, it isnt just Lance going nuts....Obviously Colonel Kurtz went nuts also the dude that was sent out before Martin Sheen to kill Kurtz went crazy too. THat is why they sent Sheen out there. I think the whole movie was trying to emphasize that war is bad eventhough the book want based upon war it was cleverly adapted for this