Col. Kurtz's Anthropological Understanding

[WhoisEugene]

CHEER$

[exposotheclown]

Who would have thought that a thought was subject to someone elses interpretations

[JordForster]

@hanslammerding A lot of people are now saying that this film doesn't accurately portray the conditions of war in Vietnam, but the underlying concepts are still elegantly expressed, and i think everyone would agree that the film was brilliant in its underlying message

[SuperDave123123]

lol at 111 people giving their "2 pennys" for the old guy hehe

[Bowieschlampe]

we need kurtz for our top military position under the prez, stop nation building !

[2daewoo4u]

This is more a stint on Nihilism than it is on imperialism...in fact, I never thought Kurtz gave two shits about the politics of it all.

[razorsharpandonpoint]

@kuy122 ..Heath Ledger did a phenomenal job, he aint no Brando(he was ROBBED of the academy award for his performance in street car for desire) , but that movie was like damn what could have been, when he was casted was outraged im like the guy from 10 things i hate about you thats bullshit....that performance along with Javier Bardem performance in no country for old man is some of the greatest acting ive seen

[MrDonneiDarko]

@OybchenHasaki he was, because he did his mission. He just stayed too long

[Vykkdraygo713]

The most striking (and scary) aspect of this speech is that he sounds so decidedly right that it makes you second guess your own ethical views.

[zarco1977]

@Vykkdraygo713 very good analysis, i think the same way; its brando who does that - his acting its about the full understanding of the charater, even if its an evil one, in "the young lions" he did a nazy soldier and its the same...no one ever will como close to brando in acting

[mannymmv]

Remember this Iraq Veterans of War, Just because Dick Cheny gave you an M16 or an M4 and said go kill this people. It doesnt make it ok. And I have met enough Veterans of this latest stupidity of war to make my point valid. BUT I dont blame my fellow Marine or Soldier. They are just following orders. BUT remember this...Most of Hitlers Army also used this justification for their War Atrocities.

[Isstepbros15]

brando might be the greatest actor of all time

[ultrakool]

@Isstepbros1 bill shakespeare might have disagreed. stick some butter up a french whore's ass... that's talent? do a dialogue for the nwo in a rehash of joseph conrad's book, brilliant?? he was a trained pony, who sold his soul for filthy fame and fortune. to be fair, he was great in "sayonara", though (but red buttons stole the show...just as he did in all the films he was in, in that era...hatari! and the longest day, come to mind). ha. the horror...the horror...

[cferolie]

The Horror...The Horror...caotured by Director Francis Coppolla in the Jungles shooting for months with all the stress and Dangers of the movie going and looking into the eyes of Madness from The Col. Kurtz actor the one and Only Brando...Classic madness and filming by Coppolla freaky scared..Movie History being filmed forever...Carlo57

[mindstormsabrewin]

This is not the way the Colonel "went nuts". This is the way he came to realize the way to win. In an insane environment you must understand the insanity then invert it. You must become darker than the demons that seek to destroy you. Become worse than they are. If they strike from the darkness, then become the darkness. Never think you can defeat savagery by remaining "civilized". Only by releasing the Wolf will you defeat the mutts.

[Zero2267]

@mindstormsabrewin Colonel Kurtz realized that you have to be a moral, good-natured person but at the same time be able to kill without passion, judgment, or remorse for your enemy. Petty preconceptions of morality in war are insane, war is by default a terrible thing where men kill each other so you can't think like that, you need to do whatever it takes to win and then you have a greater chance of winning. The Vietnamese had dedication that we Americans didn't have and that is why we lost.

[DanBell47]

@Zero2267 Bingo!!!!!!!!

[DanBell47]

@mindstormsabrewin Fuckin' A Right!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[manolosolo53]

Words to understand the war ,the honor the,moral, and all the things involved in the life of a man , a soldier , could be wrong , but there is much there about the naked truth, about all the atrocities of war.

His dead was his own desire,and he choose the right man for it, he cannot handle anymore all the horror , the pain was so intense , dead was the only escape.

[dead3y3]

I clicked "not like". Not because it isn't one of the most magnificent peaces in film history. But because the quality is horrible, it is a camera capture of a screen.

[maximilianforte]

@dead3y3 The quality might be horrible, as you say, but it is not a camera capture of a screen. In fact, it's a magnification of the digital video, and it has been edited. Anyway, what matters to me are the words and the ideas.

[MrDonneiDarko]

@maximilianforte I like the clarity in sound

[Zero2267]

Kurtz has the right idea on how a soldier should function. Societal preconceptions of right and wrong do not belong on the battlefield as it is quite insane to be putting a label of morality on a campaign where men kill each other. You have to be a good, moral person but at the same time kill without passion, remorse, or judgment as these will hold you down in efficiently killing the enemy. You have to be a monster in order to do good, and this is the moral terror and horror he speaks of.

[CatIsWhereItsAt]

This truly is the perfect monologue to audition with...

The play a Piece of My Heart for Me. Maybe a bit dark... but still. I absolutely love the truth of these words, and how they directly relate even to our problems with the Taliban and Insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.

That's always been the US Military's greatest weakness and worst plus... the judgement.

[wakzel]

Why does Brando let him self killed, what is wrong with him?

[Zarathustra1919]

@wakzel when your traumatized by war to such an extreme beyond the point of insanity you gain enough solidarity to "function" in life but you dont really care about life and death and in fact do want to die

[wakzel]

What is wrong with kultz? Why does hè let him self get killed? Why plz tell me am confused

[KRATOSRETURNSv2]

Brando, true god of acting.

[stewbee25]

beautiful he has seen beyond ...

[MLB6472]

I would thumbs up this clip but my father hacked arm off when I was a child!

[solidussnakess]

"my God the genius...!!!!"

[seandunx]

If I had ten Joy Divisions....

[fridun007]

@seandunx You will 10 New Orders

[MrRichBiker]

and mortal terror....must be your friends.......and if they are not..then they must be enemies to be feard!!!

[littlemonty94]

@DAGDAsRevenge Wait, in what book? In Heart of Darkness it is Kurtz that says "The Horror, The Horror", not Marlow...

[omggarybuseyRULES]

The film revolves around Willard progressively coming to the same realizations that drove Kurtz to rebel against the direction of the US Army. Chief among these realizations is the fact that war is by definition the clash of hostile peoples in an environment absent the rule of law - so any facade of lawfulness is absurd and incongruent with the basic facts of life. The only moral act in war is to achieve peace, and this can only be achieved by sinking to total savagery. This is what he means.

[cosmicdingo]

It goes to the argument of becoming the enemy in order to defeat him.If you surrender your values to win, doesn't the enemy really triumph.Of course, it helps to be alive after the fight to actually consider this question.

[aussiek33p3r]

unavoidable in time, the human desire for power and greed will surely be the end of us. We all have this WILL he speaks of, to do the goals to achieve the later.

[robertmaloneactor]

A true GENIUS ACTOR....Bobby James - Actor

[MrX20121]

Col.Kurtz's interview for the job opening at the Joyfull Tots Daycare Center had gone well up to this point.Then the interviewer asked the fatefull question."What experiences in life do you feel most qualify you for a position here and how will you use those experiences in dealing with the children?"The interviewer is I'm told responding well to therapy and should be released soon.Kurtz was not hired.Great movie.Great clip.Thanks!

[addernoir01]

@MrX20121 Ha! I loved this comment :o)

[SonOfAWhisker]

@MrX20121 I wish I could thumbs up your comment :) it made me rofl

[MaxAzul916]

It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror... Horror has a face... and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies!

[cincyblows]

Everything is experiential. One simply does.

[NIETZSCHEAN14]

MIGHT IS RIGHT!

[dmcguire70]

THE BEST ACTOR EVER!!

[MrRichBiker]

the best acting piece i seen ...in my whole life!!

[TheMasterRhyme]

If John Milius wrote this, it's obvious that what he was getting at, is that "We" had to be willing to match our Foe's Will and Determination if we were to defeat them, and not to let Judgment (judeo-christian ethics) Defeat us!!! Check out all of Milius's other works and his statements and life. Yes, he understands History and Warfare and Anthropology, but he's NOT a neutral party when it comes to Good vs. Evil. I'm sure "Liberals" will tell you he's a Right Wing Fascist.

[qdanceshowtek]

@TheMasterRhyme its improvised by brando 

[TheMasterRhyme]

Are these Brando's words, or did Milius or Coppolla write or work with him on this? It sure sounds like Milius's work. It's the same concept shown earlier in the movie when Willard is reading documents in Kurtz's dossier that are about his concept of how to attain Victory and not be bogged down in an endless War of Attrition and "Police Action". I think it's all really relevant to understanding what we're involved in now, similar things have occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan and are documented.

[qdanceshowtek]

@TheMasterRhyme it's improvised

[rocknrollprincess616]

@flipwiggins Because he was a jerk who threatened to quit and then forced Coppola to allow him to ad-lib because he was too incompetent to read a damn script or a short story. While Brando was a very dramatic actor, he was certainly a diva among men. Did you know the only reason Frank Sinatra was not allowed to play the role of Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls was because Brando was such a whiny jerk about it? He was spoiled rotten.

[o1ogy]

isnt considering someone to be an insect a ..judgment.. ? clearly they were not bugs but judged to be as such. ..braces you kinda got off the beam there.

[iownallnoobs]

@o1ogy I think he is referring to how easy it is to kill an insect without passion, not actually considering Jews insects

[nhernandezsr]

This is the greatest scene in all of cinematic history. Brando's magnum opus.

[nomadicsongs]

happy birthday today to marlon brando

[flipwiggins]

And the critics raked him over the coals for this performance!!!!

[peterwatsonkent]

absolutely amazing

[TheSandyNub]

The genius,,The will to do that,,,The STRENGTH,,THE STRENGTH ,,,to do that...Without Judgement. WITHOUT JUDGEMENT... Because it is Judgement that defeats us.

[Noizzification]

This scene influenced Blackie Lawless of WASP to write "The Horror" from the KILL FUCK DIE album .....crazy shit, yet so brilliant...."The horror.......the horror....the horror.""

[Zarathustra1919]

He makes perfect sense, and he explains why we lost the Vietnam War; we did not have the strength and power of will to do whatever to whoever, to do what must be done and still love those who might one day have to be killed without question or feeling, without emotion but still be moral and ethical while tapping into animalistic instincts to kill and be able to NOT pass judgement. I'm not sure if I agree with him entirely though.

[MrFerdell]

One of the best performances ever on on the screen. Brando, true genius.

[idontevenknowme]

@MrFerdell Indeed!

[ichibondave]

To become the horror is to become worse than that which you fear. To become something that what you fear will now fear. Tell me to protect our loved ones you would not become the horror.

[Abasuto]

The irony of Kurtz's death was the fact he was killed by someone whom he described here.

He was killed by one of his own, who felt remorse for him, but did what he had to do.

[MrXSpeaks]

@Abasuto

this was always my feeling on how Kurtz went nuts. The buildup of his character was that he was the perfect soldier, but he was put in a no-win situation, which caused doubt about his superiors. Then he had a PTSD moment which warped his perceptions and dissociated him from outside world. He was also the leader so his new perception became reality of the group and the only way to remove him was to kill him.

[ichibondave]

@Abasuto That is very heavy. I never looked at that angle.

[OfficialMedaBoys]

@Abasuto YES

[devynh99]

deep down we are all savages we will turn on each other if it means survival, we are only as good or evil as socity lets us be

[sbentjies]

But did the Nazis have the compassion he speaks of? No. The Vietnamese knew what was necessary to protect their country-sheer willpower to defeat us. In their minds it was a righteous struggle. No doubt Nazis loved their family but their families were not threatened until we started bombing them in earnest. My saintly mother once said "you have to be willing to kill for your kids". That's the difference

[chiefashley56]

A GREAT SOLILOQUY; RIGHT UP TO WHERE HE SAYS IF HE HAD TEN DIVISIONS OF THOSE MEN...I KNEW A GUY IN AIR AMERICA AND HE SAID THAT WAS BULLSHIT...

[BlakBraces]

To kill without feeling, without passion, without judgement, is what the Nazis did so effectively. They saw the Jews as less than human, which made their job as easy as killing an insect, because they saw no moral dilemma in what they were doing.

[maximilianforte]

@BlakBraces No disagreement on those points--BUT: the case discussed by Kurtz is about those who kill their own, not a demonized enemy, but their own children, as an act of sacrifice and utter repudiation, and how difficult that concept can be for some to stomach.

[deezeeweezy925]

@maximilianforte

Excellent...

[mielazul]

@maximilianforte That's a very intelligent distinction. You understand the point of the scene perfectly, I think.

[NORMANGODS]

@maximilianforte just like anders breivik, he killed his own without feeling, "cruel but necessary" .

[ComradeAgopian]

@BlakBraces , That is true in many cases Blak . But , if you read two books called ' Ordinary Men ' , and ' Police Batallion 51 ' , it shows something else . Alcoholism , mental break downs , were quite common among the men of the so called ' Action Squads ' . While it is true the SS was filled with psychopaths , the number of everyday men is quite disconcerting .

[xIBimmerIx]

@BlakBraces this is why it is so extreemly dangerous to have the military in power of a nation, any nation. when military gains power then you get the same effect of the Nazis and if you have ever read Animal Farm it is exactly how it happens. Who ever teaches the children and controls what their morals are have the ultimate power, the age of adolescence is so critical and we have to be so careful that the military has no influence on them like they did in the past and to this day

[ImperialGuard9001]

@xIBimmerIx Animal Farm is more about the false revolunaries "burguese" demagogues politicians taking power not military altough armed force is big part of their power just like in USSR that was in short the inspiration for a lot of Orwells Work

[ImperialGuard9001]

@BlakBraces And still they were high in morality just like what Kurtz says here such man was realy a "man". Still it wasnt just the nazis that did such things soviets americans british all did brutal things not to mention Romans Greeks Crusaders etc etc I always tough brutalaty war isnt something that human hates not at all is something we actualy "enjoy" in perveted way why we continue doing it if not so? Is part of Human Nature

[rredman84]

@BlakBraces You have to listen very carefully to what he is saying before u go rantiing about the Nazis.

[Rebelconformist82]

@BlakBraces Yeah and the Americans in Iraq....and isreali zionists..........see Arabs as less human!

[PaulyIncarnate]

Respond to this video... The Nazis felt no moral dilemma because of the judgement of their victims.

[Hacker72]

@BlakBraces Today, on the streets of Israel's most populated cities, you find extremist graffiti reading "Send the Palestinians to the Crematoriums." The Jewish survivors of the Nazi Holocaust committed their own version of genocide against the indigenous Arabs of the region. This illegal occupation and persecution of the indigenous population by European, Russian, and American Jews continues today with the Gaza Blockade, illegal settlements, and the unlawful killing of civilians.

[NY1love]

@BlakBraces Any idea what would have happened to a German soldier who didn't follow orders?

[religionoftorture]

@NY1love Hey, would depend on what branch of the armed forces, and also his commanding officer. The men chosen for the "Death Squads" or concentration camps were hand picked for being psychopathic. But generally disobeying orders or AWOL meant firing squad.

[graciemaemarie11]

@BlakBraces and the chinese and russian communists, and the mongols... and the ottomans yurks-all far worse than the nazis...

[ceramiclion]

@graciemaemarie11 really? what makes you say that?

[RedneckR0nin]

Jack Nicholson said it best in a interview I read as he shared a driveway with Brando!

"You want to know why no one ever asks who was the best actor? Because we already know who was the best actor ever and it was Motherfucking Marlon Brando"

[Tkbill]

I wouldn't realy say the "total expulsion of imperialism" per say. You figure he was living as a God to those people and they followed any and all of his whims.

[kalki02]

Kurtz, by seeing all the "horrors" he had seen, discovered the greater metaphysical Horror. A t least that's my take.

[thegreatozz1]

Yeah, all this is great. But after all he is just copying Hitler. Cutting arms off was pretty lame compared to what he did. The real strength is in being able to convince the conquered that they are now better off. I think that stopped with Rome. Killing is easy, but keeping the masses under control and happy, now that's hard......." You can be a man, I will make Ho Chi Minh an offer he can't refuse......."

[robhoy1977]

Zapatista: You are right - they cannot be 'morally' defeated. But they can be killed. How many does one have to kill to 'defeat' them?  All. Thus judgement usually defeats us, as Brando says.

[timmyd61109]

This is for me the greatest cinematic performance of dialog I have ever witnessed. This is why Brando is legendary. He was not overrated in any way. the facial expressions, the head movements, the pauses. He's amazing!

[alzeNL]

@timmyd61109 you are spot on timmy. man is an utter legend.

[TheZappatista]

Great ideas cost great nuber of lives. LIBERTY being the ultimate one. Talking here about basic instincts to defend your home, your children, your wife, your friends. Napoleon tried, Hitler tried, G. W. Bush tried to conquer. There is no force on the face of the Earth that can defeaf native people willing to fight back.As simple as that.

[invanz0]

@TheZappatista it depends who has the bigger stick and uses it first. you could be the best warrior in your land, but you cant stop a b52 strike, or a bullet, or stop a attack helicopter with sticks and stones. Once you give them a means theres a way.

[Tkbill]

@TheZappatista I always found it interesting how Bush tried to conquer the world starting with Afghanistan/Iraq. Good thing we have enlightened individuals like yourself to show what a dictator he was. Thank goodness we have Obama now to solve all the problems. Everything is PERFECT now!

[rotcbrad]

I wouldn't say he was converted. Clearly he considered the NVA / VC his enemies. He simply recognized the strengths of his enemies and did not judge them. That is such a fundamental principal or warfare that has been taught since ancient Greece but has seldom been applied.

[RayDandy]

i like the title you put on this scene

[timpaterco]

This is one of the greatest statements of how war is supposed to be conducted.

I am in no way saying I endorse it as a way of life, but... you have to reduce the opponent to jelly by your own actions.

Your repentance afterward is privately done between yourself and whoever you pray to. Like playing "Gross Out" with your siblings but on a grander, bloodier scale