Does anyone here have an idea of what the interpretation is on that? Was it foreshadowing Willard bombing the Kurtz compound? Was it a flashback to a previous battle that Willard was in? Was it symbolic of his need to get back in the bush?
shareWas it life and living perishing in the fire of war?
My guess - all of the above.
Just listen to the lyrics of the song on the soundtrack and the name of the movie that appears on screen and you will have your answer as to the meaning. This is why I loved the original theatrical cut and hated the way Coppola changed the end credits in subsequent cuts (removing the nocturnal jungle explosions). The beginning of the film is meant to mirror the end...and vice verse.
shareIt was the end!
shareThe movie begins and ends with apocalypse but man, didn't it fit in so perfectly to call in an airstrike at the end after Kurtz was finally killed?
shareWell we aren't entirely sure if Willard really did call in the airstrike, when he shut off the radio it seems he's not going to do it but then we hear " the horror, the horror" going on inside his head and we see trees being bombed so I think it's up in the air. I think in the ending there aren't any real answers.
shareWillard didn't call in an airstrike, which is why Coppola removed the footage of the compound set being destroyed during the credits so people wouldn't get that impression. Kurtz was executed; that was Willard's mission, not unnecessarily annihilating an entire native tribe and the innocent people who were hanging out with 'em, like the photo journalist.
shareI always assumed it was Kilgore's tree line being bombed on the beach. And it's symbolic in the way everybody's already mentioned.
shareDid you know it was discarded footage that Coppola found in a trash can? He tells the story in the DVD extras
shareI think it was just to contrast heaven and hell, how quick it can change.
A tropical oasis one second, a burning hellhole the next.
Fits in nicely with the Doors tune.