Quotes

Others

Well, you see, Willard, in this war, things get confused out there: power, ideals, the old morality, practical military necessity. But out there with these natives, it must be a temptation to be God, because there's a conflict in every human heart, between the rational and the irrational, between good and evil, and good does not always triumph. Sometimes the dark side overcomes what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature. Every man has got a breaking point. You and I have one. Walter Kurtz has reached his, and very obviously, he has gone insane.

Others

[Redux version] See, Captain, when my grandfather and my uncle's father came here there was nothing. The Vietnamese were nothing. So we worked hard, very hard, and brought rubber from Brazil and then planted here. We took the Vietnamese, work with them, make something: something out of nothing. So when you ask me why we want to stay here, Captain, we want to stay here because it's ours. It belongs to us. It keeps our family together. I mean, we fight for that, while you Americans — you are fighting for the biggest nothing in all of history!

Dialogue

Col. G. Lucas: Your mission is to proceed up the Nung River in a Navy patrol boat. Pick up Colonel Kurtz's path at Nu Mung Ba, follow it, and learn what you can along the way. When you find the Colonel, infiltrate his team by whatever means available and terminate the Colonel's command. Willard: Terminate the Colonel? Lt. Gen. R. Corman: He's out there operating without any decent restraint, totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct. And he is still in the field commanding troops. Jerry: Terminate with extreme prejudice. Lucas: You understand, Captain, that this mission does not exist, nor will it ever exist.

Dialogue

Chef: How come all you guys sit on your helmets? Soldier: So we don't get our balls blown off.

Dialogue

Willard: Are you crazy, Goddamn it? Don't you think its a little risky for some R&R? Kilgore: If I say it's safe to surf this beach, Captain, then it's safe to surf this beach. I mean, I'm not afraid to surf this place. I'll surf this whole fucking place!

Dialogue

Willard: Who's the commanding officer here, soldier? Infantryman: Ain't you? Willard: Soldier, do you know who's in command here? The Roach: Yeah.

Dialogue

Carlsen: I'm Lt. Carlsen. I was sent from Nha Trang with this message for you three days ago, sir. They expected you here a little sooner. This is mail for the boat's crew. You don't know how happy this makes me in delivering all this. Willard: Why? Carlsen: Because now I can get out of here...if I can find a way. [an enemy artillery shell lands dangerously close by as Lt. Carlsen runs away] You're in the asshole of the world, Captain!

Dialogue

Willard: My mission is to make it up into Cambodia. There's a Green Beret Colonel up there who's gone insane. I'm supposed to kill him. Chef: That's fucking typical! Shit, fuckin' Vietnam mission! I'm short, and we gotta go up there so you can kill one of our own guys? That's fuckin' great! That's just fuckin' great, man! Shit. That's fuckin'...crazy! I thought you were going in there to blow up a bridge or some fucking railroad tracks or somethin'. Willard: I'm sorry. Look, I'll cut you loose here and you can turn around and— Chef: No, no, we go together on the boat! We came this far, so we go together. All the way! We'll take you up there. We'll go with you, but on the boat! Okay?

Dialogue

Willard: Could we, uh, talk to Colonel Kurtz? Photojournalist: Hey, man, you don't talk to the Colonel. You listen to him. The man's enlarged my mind. He's a poet-warrior in the classic sense. I mean, sometimes he'll, uh, well, you'll say hello to him, right? And he'll just walk right by you, and he won't even notice you. And suddenly he'll grab you, and he'll throw you in a corner, and he'll say, "Do you know that 'if' is the middle word in life? 'If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you.'" I mean, I'm no — I can't — I'm a little man. I'm a little man. He's—he's a great man. I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across floors of silent seas. [Note: The last sentences here reference first Rudyard Kipling's poem If— and then T.S. Eliot's poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.]

Dialogue

Kurtz: Did they say why, Willard, why they want to terminate my command? Willard: I was sent on a classified mission, sir. Kurtz: It's no longer classified, is it? Did they tell you? Willard: They told me that you had gone totally insane, and that your methods were unsound. Kurtz: Are my methods unsound? Kurtz: I expected someone like you. What did you expect? Are you an assassin? Willard: I'm a soldier. Kurtz: You're neither. You're an errand boy sent by grocery clerks to collect a bill.