About twenty or so Stieng soldiers appeared from out of the jungle like ghosts while everyone
watched in curious amazement. They looked different than the Jarai. They were much darker and their hair was long and frizzy.  Native to the swampy lowlands of Cambodia, the Stieng are well known throughout Cambodia and Vietnam for their prowess as hunters of man and animal. They are feared and reviled by the Vietnamese because of their brutal and bizarre tactics.

"Some of the montagnards had killed a couple of wild boar and were roasting them over an open flame. They were now out of their tiger-striped jungle gear issued by the U.S. Army, and were wearing their more traditional Jarai attire complete with loincloths and large amounts of bodily adornment consisting of brass earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. They began chanting and banging on tin gongs in an attempt to summon certain animistic gods and the spirits of their ancestors, but not before they dulled their bodies and heightened their senses by smoking mild hallucinogenic herbs and drinking an alcohol made from rice. Soon the Jarai were chanting very loud and boisterously, as well as dancing to the beat of the drums with the hopes of eliciting otherworldly assistance in their time of war."

Apocalypse Now is not necessarily an anti-war film, but rather one that transcends the ambiguities of war to tell us something about the human spirit and psyche. For example, Colonel Kurtz is a man who becomes (devolves or evolves, depending on your perspective) something primal yet progressive. 

As Captain Willard says, "Kurtz split from the whole fucking program".  What's he talking about?  Well, again, this is open to interpretation, but the most common explanation of Willard's observation is that he no longer bought into, much less adhered to, all the lies and moral rationalizations regarding the American involvement in Vietnam. Rather than resisting the so-called 'call of the jungle', Kurtz gives in.  He accepts the emergence (or reemergence) of his primordial instincts.  

 Marlon Brando did an amazing job capturing the essence of a man slipping the bonds of Western Rationalism with his dialogue and physical acting.  But perhaps even greater were the efforts of Vitorio Storaro, the cinematographer of Apocalyspe Now, who manged to capture the madness permeating the mind of Colonel Kurtz through some of the most fantastically beautiful images captured by a camera.

Here's a painting of Kurtz and Willard by the artist John Froehlich.