Daily Dialogue — July 9, 2014

Kilgore: Smell that? You smell that?
Lance: What?
Kilgore: Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. 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… victory.

— Apocalypse Now (1979), screenplay by John Milius and Francis Coppola, narration by Michael Herr, based on the novel HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Victory, suggested by NB. Today’s suggestion by JasperLamarCrab.

Trivia: In a 2006 interview, writer John Milius said that after he had written the now famous line “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” he thought to himself “This is over the top. This will be the first thing they’ll take out.”

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by JasperLamarCrab: “The poetic and wistful strain in Kilgore’s dialogue makes him that much more monstrous and bloodthirsty.”

Comment Archive