How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Apocalypse Now.
Quote #1
GENERAL CORMAN: Well, you see, Willard, in this war, things get confused out there. Power, ideals, the old morality, and 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 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. Walter Kurtz has reached his. And very obviously, he has gone insane.
This little speech from the general sums up the moral ambiguities in the film. The reference to Lincoln is a little corny, don't you think? The whole speech rings a little false—"conflict in every human heart," etc.—and we're guessing Coppola meant it to be that way. From Kurtz's perspective, leaders like Corman are hypocrites who refuse to recognize their own guilt in spite of all their moralizing.
Quote #2
WILLARD: Charging a man with murder in this place is like handing out traffic tickets at the Indy 500.
More moral ambiguity: everybody's done what Kurtz has done. Maybe not to the same depraved degree, but they've done it. Willard knows he's done it.
Quote #3
WILLARD: Part of me was afraid of what I would find and what I would do when I got there. I knew the risks, or imagined I knew. But the thing I felt the most, much stronger than fear, was the desire to confront him.
Willard wants to confront the "heart of darkness"—Kurtz himself—and see what he's about. He wants to know what happened to get Kurtz to this point, because he knows what he himself is capable of.