Sympathyism Vietnam War

In August 15th, 1979, Francis Ford Coppola released the movie Apocalypse Now. The movie takes place in Vietnam during the Vietnam War following the story of Captain Willard. The movie critiques the Vietnam War. However, the movie does not fully critique the war like the book, The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen. The Sympathizer follows the story of an unnamed main character being a double agent for the Vietcong. The Sympathizer better critiques the Vietnam War than Apocalypse Now by giving the Vietnamese people a voice, focusing on Vietnamese women, showing the brutal effects of napalm and presenting the people’s lack of choice in the war.

The Sympathizer critiques the Vietnam War greater than Apocalypse Now by giving the Vietnamese people

In Apocalypse Now the usage of napalm is seen in a positive light. The commanding officer in the first battle, Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore, has a favorable reaction toward the napalm strike at the town. He says, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning… Smelled like victory” (Coppola, 1979). Kilgore attributes the usage of napalm to victory as the napalm strike would hit the enemies, killing them, so the U.S. troops could push up and capture towns without the threat of enemy fire. However, the movie does not show the reaction of the people who have gotten hit with the napalm bombs. The movie only shows the U.S. planes dropping the napalm bombs and the explosion from the bombs hitting the ground. The Sympathizer showed the brutal effects of napalm by describing one of the narrator’s friend’s face after getting hit by napalm. The narrator described his blood-brother, Man, when he was talking to him, “He too, wept, tears rolling down the hideous absence of a face… All that was left to be recognized were the eyes” (Nguyen 169). Man was hit by a napalm strike and the napalm had a devastating effect on Man’s facial features. Man’s face was burned off from the napalm strike and was no longer recognizable. The only way the narrator could only recognize Man’s unique eyes. The narrator cried at how much the napalm strike had ruined Man’s face showing the true effect of napalm on a person.

In Apocalypse Now, the movie showed that the U.S. soldiers did not mind being there. They were even at times happy to be there because they could get cold beer and the Playboy bunny shows whenever they felt like it. The soldiers could also surf whenever and at one time in the middle of battle. Even Captain Willard despised the attitude of the soldiers by saying, “The war was being run by a bunch of four star clowns who were gonna end up giving the whole circus away” (Coppola, 1979). Colonel Kurtz also said that if he had an army as serious as the Vietcong they would win the war within a week but instead the soldiers are not taking the war seriously and are taking it as a joke. This is especially seen when Willard takes Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore’s surfboard and Kilgore goes around the river yelling in the megaphone that he wants his board back. Compare that with The Sympathizer which talks about his mother being in the war. The narrator says, “She was a poor person, I was her poor child, and no one asks poor people if they want war” (Nguyen). No one asks if the students in America if they wanted to be drafted. No one asked the poor villagers in Vietnam if they wanted to have their villages razed or be hit with napalm. No one asked the civilians in the cities of Vietnam if they wanted to be forced to evacuate their homes. No one especially asked the wives of men if they wanted