Apocalypse Now (1979) 

 

  To quote author and surfer Scott Bass: “Surfers and the Vietnam War are forever linked. Movies helped forge that link.”

   When people think of surfing and Vietnam they think of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979).  The powerful scene, written by John Milius (of Big Wednesday fame), has a soldiers sharing waves while a battle rages around them.

  In the film, Colonel Bill Kilgore (played by Robert Duvall) orders a massive napalm drop on a seaside Vietcong village so that a handful of surfer/ infantrymen can safely ride waves at a nearby pointbreak. Warned beforehand that the point belongs to “Charlie” – short for Victor-Charles, code name for Vietcong – Kilgore angrily responds: “Charlie don’t surf!”

  As simple as that, Milius’ classic 3-word phrase is indelibly etched in our vault of film memories.