History Characters / ApocalypseNow

* BrokenAce: Self-inflicted; Kurtz was being groomed for senior command, but he chose to go into Special Forces after his tour in Vietnam. Willard notes that doing so would ensure that he never rose above the rank of Colonel, and what Kurtz saw in Vietnam eventually twisted him into the rogue warlord shown in the film.

* WeUsedToBeFriends: His description of Kurtz indicates that he knew and was friends with him prior to Kurtz' breakdown and his brief smile and hurt tone while discussing him show he is deeply saddened to see what Kurtz has become.

* OnlySaneMan: Between the jaded world-weariness of veterans Willard and Chief, Clean's naivete, and Lance's generally [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} spaced-out attitude]], he's often the only one to react to the horrors around him with anything like normal human emotion.

* GeneralRipper: A DeconstructedCharacterArchetype. He's a highly decorated officer (one scene has Captain Willard going over his dossier and marveling at Kurtz's accomplishments) who one day just snapped and went native, becoming as much a cult leader as a soldier, taking his orders from only the jungle as Willard says. However, Kurtz is a unique example, being quite aware that he is in fact a General Ripper. He thinks that if America wants to win the Vietnam War, it cannot afford to "play fair" - it needs "Rippers" to do the dirty work and is acting hypocritically by pretending that the war can be won "cleanly" with nothing but a technological advantage over the enemy. He basically gives his superiors two choices: either get the hell out of 'Nam, or to embrace their savagery like he has. His final actions indicate that he prefers they choose the first option, or at least doesn't believe they can afford to choose the second.

* BloodKnight: He's actually less rabid than most examples of this trope, but his monolog about loving the smell of napalm in the morning very much fits, and his observation that someday the Vietnam War will end is delivered morosely.

* CompositeCharacter: He's an amalgamation of the director (he's technically in charge and clashes with the protagonist) and the pilot (he's black and [[spoiler:dies impaled by a spear]]) from ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness''.

* VirginShaming: Chef gives Mr. Clean no end of grief when it's discovered that he's still a virgin; he spends most of the following scene mocking Clean's failed attempt to get a turn with one of the Playboy Bunnies, cheekily offering to take him on a tour of New Orleans' brothels, or just signing "cherry boy!" just so he can watch his audience completely losing it.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: While he does have a ridiculous obsession with surfing to the point of SkewedPriorities, he's never shown to be an incompetent GeneralFailure and, from all accounts, is a talented badass who cares about the wellbeing of his men and, if the ''Redux'' is to be believed, the Vietnamese natives as well.