Daily Dialogue — July 29, 2015

KILGORE: Smell that? You smell that?
LANCE: What?
KILGORE: Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. (Kneels) I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn’t find one of ’em, not one stinkin’ dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like… (sniffing, pondering)… victory.

— Apocalypse Now (1979), written by John Milius, Francis Ford Coppola, novel by Joseph Conrad

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Madness. Today’s suggestion by Will King.

Trivia: According to the George Lucas biography “Skywalking,” Lucas’ decision to pull out of Apocalypse Now destroyed his working relationship with Francis Ford Coppola, who felt betrayed, and all but ended their friendship, and the Colonel Lucas character was meant as a back-handed snub to his then ex-friend. It would be years before they would be on speaking terms again, and would not work together again until 1986’s Captain EO (1986).

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Will: “Often what looks to one person like bravery appears to another as madness. No one ever accused Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore of being mad, but juxtaposed against the rest of the film, there’s a lot to doubt about his sanity. This is an instance where madness is subtext.”

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