MovieChat Forums > Apocalypse Now (1979) Discussion > Why all the heads and corpses at Kurtz' ...

Why all the heads and corpses at Kurtz' camp?

posted 9 years ago by a_smooth_apparatus
15 replies | jump to latest

Those people living at Kurtz' camp were seemingly living obliviously among a bunch of dead bodies and heads all strewn around the camp. Why, and why all the bodies and heads? Weren't those people supposed to be Kurtz' children? Was it because Kurtz was nuts and would occasionally flip out and kill some of them for whatever reason? I think Hopper said that even Kurtz admits to going too far sometimes. If so, why are the people still alive not scared to death and still hanging around when they could be next?

[–] sparker21 9 years ago

I suppose that the heads were those of his enemies and not of his own troops. It's likely that they were brought back both as trophies and to increase the horror that his enemies felt about him and his men.

[–] silver_snail14 9 years ago

"Sometimes he goes too far."

Just get me home, I'll do the rest.

[–] Nikon11 9 years ago

Yeah, it looks a little over-done and silly now. Like they're just going about their business with a few heads and corpses hanging about.

The whole thing's a bit over-dramatic and absurd.

The rest of the movie has some great moments, but it's almost like it can't decide whether it wants to be an intriguing realistic war movie or something else that seems semi-real, shocking, and a bit of a farce.

[–] m-huston92 9 years ago

The heads are in debt to the source material, which was inspired (possibly, not 100% known though) on a Spanish trader from Africa who would put heads of the natives on stakes around his outpost. Though I disagree, it doesn't seem the least bit overdone. I feel that it works with what the film had been built towards the whole time

[–] Nikon11 9 years ago

They all looked like relatively fresh heads. That'd be a lot of be-headings going on, like a production line almost. So, yeah, just me, I guess, but definitely over the top.

[–] internetnicknamehere-178-30027 9 years ago

Those people living at Kurtz' camp were seemingly living obliviously among a bunch of dead bodies and heads all strewn around the camp. Why, and why all the bodies and heads? Weren't those people supposed to be Kurtz' children?

The scene where Willard, Chef and Lance enter Kurtz's base was originally slightly longer, with Willard asking Colby what happened there (referring to all the corpses scattered around the camp). Colby replies: "What happened? Last night. NVA regulars. We killed most of them. I think." Ever since I saw this footage, along with a few of the other deleted scenes (which show some of the camp's captives), I've always assumed the the heads were either from inmates that refused to divulge vital information to Kurtz, or from troops that had assaulted the base.

If so, why are the people still alive not scared to death and still hanging around when they could be next?

Since the inhabitants believed that Kurtz was a god, they were probably too dedicated to him, or perhaps too afraid, to risk running away.

[–] gary_w_trott 9 years ago

I'd read or heard quite a few years ago that the bodies were from an attack that had just been repelled. I'd always wondered if that was actually the backstory and you seeing the clips of it verifies that. Thank you.

[–] jbaddock 9 years ago

I think it's partly to add to the nightmarish feeling of the closing stages of the film - the final conflict between Willard and Kurtz is almost surreal (as in dreamlike). The impression given is that all this is taking place a long way away from civilisation and is almost primeval.

[–] celestekent 9 years ago

The heads on pikes are omens to the Vietnamese, their spirits will never return to their family's home. Something that the Vietnamese feared more than death itself. A standard Psy- ops tactic along with the "music" when approaching that village. The Vietnamese believed the noise were some spirits stuck in the netherword unable to return.

The people who hung around Kurtz's camp were too frightened to go and too scared to stay, so they slowly went crazy just like Kurtz.

[–] CovertThunder 9 years ago

I could be wrong but it seemed like at least some of the bodies were wearing the black pajamas of the Viet Cong, so I always assumed the bodies/heads lying around the compound were VC or NVA soldiers who were meant to keep other attackers away while keeping Kurtz's Montagnards in line. As someone else said, supposedly Colby describes an attack by the NVA before Willard's boat showed up which would corroborate this.

Of course, it could always be just someone who rubbed Kurtz the wrong way. We see Kurtz waltz up to Willard and dump Chef's head in his lap, so perhaps it's just rule-of-law in the compound to behead traitors/spies/enemies/prisoners and leave the remains for relatives or associates to ponder on should they think of betraying Kurtz.

Another poster said the heads on pikes has to do with the Vietnamese religion, which would make sense. I don't know anything personally about religions from the area, but I once read a book about Cambodian refugees where an American patted a kid on the head and all the relatives were shocked because they believed the spirit enters/leaves/is located in the head.

Also it would make sense for Kurtz to know about the religious beliefs of the locals, because again Kurtz was special forces so he'd probably be well aware of how to psychologically screw with the locals and play on their fear of death. In real life there was a U.S. operation (I forget what it's called) but they had helicopters fly around at night and play these ultra-loud recordings of a Vietnamese man claiming he'd been killed, calling out to his family members and saying he was dead. Apparently it scared the sh!t out of the VC, and it's still creepy to listen to.

There's also how everything becomes the more abstract the further Willard's boat goes down river, with the Do Lung bridge being the last stop before going totally insane (which is why it's shown collapsing). Kurtz's compound is at the end of the river, so instead of necessarily going for realism it looks more like some hellish nightmare.

Can't be too careful with all those weirdos running around.