| After the Persian Gulf War ended in triumph, the American society seems togradually walk out of the shadow of the Vietnam War. At the beginning of the newmillennium, especially after9/11, media emphasis from the U.S. is heightened onpatriotism and efforts to reckon the public against foreign enemies. War films of goodfight (which were quite popular around1950s) have reoccurred on the big screen.However, Apocalypse Now Redux (2001), though a huge box office hit, is a countermarch against the mainstream of modern Hollywood war movies, which still remindspeople of the fact that the so-called Vietnam Syndrome is actually not entirely buried inthe sands of Desert Storm.Apocalypse Now firstly premiered in1979. It was originally adapted from thenovella Heart of Darkness (1902), which was written in the colonial era. ApocalypseNow Redux (2001) is a refined version of the1979edition. In previous researches, mostscholars only studied either of the two versions in terms of thematic discussion andnarrative analysis, which have ignored the significance of the evolution of the film andthe changing historical contexts. Accordingly, on the basis of post-classical narratologyand cultural study, the thesis makes a narrative analysis of Apocalypse Now Redux(2001), with consideration of the time span between two versions of the film as well asthe relation between the film and its blueprint novella. The whole thesis consists ofthree parts: Introduction, the Main Body and Conclusion. The introductory part presentsa brief outline of the study. The main body of the thesis mainly falls into the followingthree parts.Part One discloses how the film traces back the nature of the Vietnam War throughthe setting of story time. According to the study, with the linear events in the story timecarrying on, historical process figuratively moves countercurrent. Thus step by stepalong the journey of Willard, the Vietnam War is connected with the First Indochina War,the Colonial Wars, and even more primitive eras, based on which the movie intends tomake a historical retrospect to the darkness of general human wars.Part Two analyzes from the level of discourse how the control of discourse time hascontributed to the characterization of the Vietnam War. The study finds that through thetechnical control of discourse time, the movie displays unique characteristics of theVietnam War, such as cruelty, fraudulence, absurdity, and the fragmentary memories. It is the emotional shock brought by these characteristics that enables the audience to feelpersonally involved in the war.As for the discussion of historical time, the thesis particularly discusses how the2001version of the movie differs from the version of1979by taking into considerationsof different historical contexts. The analysis indicates that through some newly-insertedfactors in Apocalypse Now Redux (2001) more attention is paid to ethnic groups,women, and politics, as well as the vast foot soldiers ever involved in the Vietnam War,which is possibly related to different historical and political contexts. Nevertheless, itcannot be denied that a sense of ethnocentrism is the unchanged inclination amongHollywood war movies.Finally, the concluding part is a summary of what has been discussed in the thesis.Meanwhile, the practical significance of the movie as a classic Vietnam War movie inmodern Hollywood is illuminated, which further offers inspiring lessons for theconstruction of the national image through the creation of literary and other culturalproducts. |
