Catch of the Day: Fresh Air Francis Ford Coppola
I was fortunate enough to catch this bit last night on my drive home from the Airport. Coppola had his latest film premiere @ Toronto and did a question and answer session. It’s mostly memories and tales from old productions but it makes for good listening.
http://www.npr.org/v2/?i=140870590&m=142506207&t=audio
They also make reference to a moment at the end of Apocalypse Now and the development of one of the finest film monologues ever written.
KURTZ
I've seem horrors. Horrors that
you've seen. But you have no right
to call me a murderer. You have a
right to kill me. You have a right
to do that. But you have no right
to judge me.
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.
I remember when I was with Special
Forces. Seems a thousand centuries
ago. We went into a camp to
inoculate some children. We'd
left the camp after we had
inoculated the children for polio.
And this old man came running after
us, and he was crying. He couldn't
say. We went back there, and they
had come and hacked off every
inoculated arm. There they were,
in a pile. A pile of little arms.
And, I remember, I cried, I wept
like some grandmother. I wanted
to tear my teeth out. I didn't
know what I wanted to do. And I
want to remember it. I never want
to forget it. I never want to
forget it. And then I realized,
like I was shot, like I was shot
with a diamond bullet through my
forehead. And I thought, My God,
the genius of that! The genius.
The will to do that. Perfect,
genuine, complete, crystalline,
pure. And then I realized, they
were stronger than we. Because
they could stand it. These were
not monsters. These were men,
strained cadres. These men who
fought with their hearts, who have
families, who have children, who
are filled with love...that they
had the strength, the strength to
do that. If I had ten divisions
of those men, then our troubles
here would be over very quickly.
You have to have men who are moral,
and at the same time, who are able
to utilize their primordial
instincts to kill without feeling,
without passion. Without judgment.
Without Judgment. Because it's
judgment that defeats us.
I worry that my son might not
understand what I've tried to be.
And if I were to be killed, Willard,
I would want someone to go to my
home and tell my son everything...
Everything I did. Everything you
saw. Because there's nothing I
detest more than the stench of
lies. And if you understand me,
Willard, you will do this for me.
Sometimes a Good Notion 