Benjamin L. Willard

Infobox character
colour = #DEDEE2
name = Benjamin L. Willard


caption =
first =
last =
cause =
nickname =
alias =
species = Human
gender = Male
age = 30
born = 1938, Ohio
death =
occupation = Captain, US Army Special Forces
title =
family =
spouse = Divorced
children = None
relatives =
episode =
portrayer = Martin Sheen
creator = John Milius & Francis Ford Coppola

Captain Benjamin L. Willard is a fictional character in Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now", and is portrayed by American actor Martin Sheen. His character is loosely based on the character Charles Marlow from Joseph Conrad's novella "Heart of Darkness". He is a Captain in the US Army, who is dispatched to kill the renegade Colonel Kurtz.

Biography

Captain Willard is a US officer who has been attached to carry out special operations missions for the US army in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. He has worked for I-Corps in the CIA in the past, and is primarily an assassin. He has already returned home from a tour of duty at least once, during which time he failed to integrate back into society and divorced from his wife. Despite his previous desire to return to America, once he had gone back to his homeland all he wanted was him "getting back into the jungle". He has killed at least six people at close quarters, "close enough for them to breath their last breath in my face" but never a fellow American national. His military past is a mystery but it is clear he has carried out many top secret operations for the US Army. Willard is a withdrawn individual who doesn't speak often, and seems reclusive and at his best when working alone, where he more often than not operates. Because of this, he is somewhat of a loner and is awkward when around others.

Depressed and frustrated by his state of limbo in Saigon, Willard drinks heavily and ponders a return to the jungle, desperate for a mission. He wrecks his hotel room before being taken by Na Trang soldiers to a briefing. Here, he is instructed by an Army general to take a patrol boat upstream and kill renegade American Colonel, Walter E. Kurtz, who has gone insane. He accepts the mission, wondering "what else was I gonna do?". Willard uses a Navy PBR (Patrol Boat River) to travel up the Nung river where Kurtz has fortified himself and his private army in Cambodia. He is frustrated at being accompanied by the boat's crew and takes a passenger's view and rarely converses with the men, preferring isolation.

He and his crew are transported into the river's mouth by a manic Air Cavalry commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Bill Kilgore, an eccentric whose values clash fundamentally with Willard's. The trip up river encorparates an out of place entertainment show provided by Playboy models, and a close encounter with a tiger while searching for mangoes with Chef. During the course of the trip, Willard reads his dossier on Kurtz and learns more about the man. He seems to slowly start to understand Kurtz's actions and become more disassociated from his superiors. The crew encounter a Sampan and the Chief demands to search it. The search goes badly with all but one of its passengers killed after a misunderstanding. Willard shoots the remaining Vietnamese, much to the shock of the PBR's crew. Willard then says to Chief that "I told you not to stop", showing his cold blooded nature and dedication to the mission for the first time. Willard admits in narration that "they'd never look at me the same way again". After this encounter, the boat reaches the Do Lung bridge, the last US Outpost on the river. The outpost is in anarchy, and they leave quickly, but not before Willard chews out Chief for trying to persuade Willard to send them back, showing his frustration at Chief's dissent and the general distractions his mission has suffered. He merely wants to complete his mission as quickly as he can.

Willard learns from Na Trang correspondence that the previous man sent on the same mission as him, Captain Richard Colby, has now joined Kurtz's following. The boat is attacked by the Viet Cong, resulting in the death of Clean. The crew are attacked once again, this time by Kurtz's Montagnard army and with arrows and spears. Chief is killed, and Willard reveals his mission to Chef before they finally reach Kurtz's camp. By this point, Willard no longer fears Kurtz but is overpowered by an urge to "Confront him". Willard roames the camp, conversing with a crazed American photojournalist who says that Kurtz is a "great man" and a "genius", before being abducted by the camp's population. He is brought to Kurtz, and they discuss Willard's mission and philosophy. Willard is eventually released and frequents the base for four days, before finally completing his mission by killing Kurtz, by which point he has almost completely lost all his humanity. Kurtz's tribe kneel before their God's conqueror, but Willard simply leaves the base in the PBR and heads back down river, contemplating that the Army are "Going to make me a Major for this one". However, his experience has made him apathetic to the future, and his path is now uncertain.

Redux scenes

Throughout the theatrical cut, Willard is portrayed primarily as a hostile loner who sees his hosts as a burden and spends most of his time studying the Kurtz dossier. However, in the Redux, Willard seems warmer to the crew in his actions. He steals Kilgore's surfboard, much to the amusement of his colleagues and engages in more friendly conversation. He also gives the previously featured Playboy Bunnies fuel for their helicopter in exchange for their personal entertainment, arranging this for the crew and showing that he has warmed to them.

During the Plantation scene, he enagages in a conversation with the French owners about the war and Vietnam itself. He later makes love to one of the Plantation's female population, a widow who is reminded of her husband by Willard. It is in these scenes that Willard seems as close to his own humanity as he ever will be.