Week Three - T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men"

In the film Apocalypse Now, Marlon Brando stirringly reads a section of Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men." The video above is the poem read by Brando in its entirety. The filmmakers did an excellent job of incorporating this poem, because there are many parallels between it and this film. Apocalypse Now explores a theme that Eliot frequented in his poetry: how war, among other aspects of modern society, has deteriorated the human mind and condition.

Like "The Hollow Men," the film also references Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness. In fact, Brando's character is even named "Kurtz." While inner darkness and evil could be as much to blame as the debilitating modern culture, an interesting question emerges: Is there such a thing as insanity in a world that has already gone insane?