Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film Apocalypse Now advocates a derogatory perspective on the state of war and its corrupting influence. Set in Saigon during the Vietnam War, the action and narrative present the post-World War II era as a morally confused, hypocritical, and corrupt time, particularly as the film's antagonist, Colonel Kurtz, illuminates subjectivity moral and embodies the nihilistic and self-centered nature of war. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Corruption is expressed through Benjamin Willard's mission metaphor, which acts as a transformative quality for the characters; particularly as his crew returns to escapism and facades to evade their own guilt and ignorance, expressed through the symbolism of the masks. This film indicts the apparent hypocrisy of American democracy, as the war on communism is a violation of their core value of free speech, with paranoia and self-centeredness at the heart of the superficial American perspective. While current systems of government remain narcissistic in scope and maintain the tension between communism and capitalism at large, Coppola's Apocalypse Now will maintain its relevance in a world distorted by human vice. While actions in war are considered nuanced, the immorality of war itself inherently ensures corruption, however amplified by modern warfare and the conflict between capitalism and communism. This is expressed hyperbolically through the characterization of Kurtz, whose amoral and nihilistic outlook is tainted by the true madness of war, from which “horror and moral terror [must be] your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared,” which will inherently alter anyone touched. Described as divine and omniscient, his state of extreme pessimism and forced ignorance expresses the limiting aspects of conflict and duty, and how to deal with them. line results in dehumanization and escapism, as Willard means in the following: “I felt like he was up there, waiting for me to take the pain away.” This is further expressed through the metaphor of Willard's mission, in which the rising action of the film expresses himself through his journey to the fundamental barbarism of humanity and the role of masks as a symbolic crutch to destroy the moral machinations of the past, as in the exposition he punches his reflection in the mirror and in the climax he wears mud as an illustration of his character's transformation into Kurtz; taking part in "ruthless actions" and "terminating with extreme prejudice" as ordered are highlighted by the crew's mental deterioration, in which they similarly create a facade after achieving a "breaking point", typically with face paint, and resorting to drugs rather than Kurtz's complete immorality to escape their reality, particularly as Chef "doesn't care where (his soul) goes as long as it's not here" . Evidently, the characters have been corrupted by their experiences and the Machiavellian nature of wartime morality (so to speak). In this way, real corruption is confirmed in the hypocritical movements of Americans and their allies during the Vietnam War, while American troops are shown needlessly shooting at will, with complete separation from their actions; illuminating a state of dehumanization and subjective ethics. This is expressed in the following way: “… we bombed a hill, for 12 hours… We didn't find one of them, not even a stinking body. The smell, you know that smell of petrol, the whole thing.’