Heart Of Darkness Vs Apocalypse Now
Weiss 1
Alex Weiss
English 12
Mrs. Harris
14 November 2013
Generations of Darkness As more and more books turn into movies, many people will begin critiquing film directors’ abilities to keep their storyline along the same as that of the book. Francis Ford Coppola has a significant issue as he inherits the task of making a movie along the lines of Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness. He does not have any real option to recreate the setting of imperial Europe invading African land, but fortunately for Coppola, the United States recently fought a war that is very comparable in the fighting tactics element. In his film Apocalypse Now, Coppola does a very good job keeping his plot similar to Heart of Darkness despite the difference …show more content…
When the men finally reach him, they find him to be incredibly intellectual and sharp despite his old age. He is very in tune with his surroundings and understands his situation completely. Along with Kurtz’s personality, Coppola also does a good job depicting his death as it happened in the novel, including his final words, “The horror, the horror,” which is him talking about all of his encounters with the natives. Although Coppola makes an exceptional effort to create Apocalypse Now to be as similar as possible to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, there are some differences that are just impossible to overcome. The biggest one of those is simply the setting. Coppola truly has no way of achieving a setting where he can depict the African Congo where imperial Europe is invading to take elephant tusks in order to sell ivory. Instead, he uses the United States’ recent war with Vietnam to recreate the story. Despite the different type of natives from Africa to Vietnam, the people of America likely assume the same kind of personality of the Vietnamese that the Europeans once thought of the Africans, that they are savage people. Another significant difference is the changing of the main character. Conrad’s character, Charles Marlow, is a lifelong sailor who has spent most of his life at sea traveling across different continents to perform trading. With no true sailor profession remaining by the 1970’s outside the navy, Coppola is forced to create a different character. He fabricates a veteran U.S. Army Captain named Benjamin Willard to head the ship through the rivers of Vietnam to retrieve Kurtz. The final major difference between Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness is the crew that rides aboard the ship. In the novel, a handful of white men head the ship and they are accompanied by a significantly larger number of savage cannibals; in the film, the crew consists of just a few
Alex Weiss
English 12
Mrs. Harris
14 November 2013
Generations of Darkness As more and more books turn into movies, many people will begin critiquing film directors’ abilities to keep their storyline along the same as that of the book. Francis Ford Coppola has a significant issue as he inherits the task of making a movie along the lines of Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness. He does not have any real option to recreate the setting of imperial Europe invading African land, but fortunately for Coppola, the United States recently fought a war that is very comparable in the fighting tactics element. In his film Apocalypse Now, Coppola does a very good job keeping his plot similar to Heart of Darkness despite the difference …show more content…
When the men finally reach him, they find him to be incredibly intellectual and sharp despite his old age. He is very in tune with his surroundings and understands his situation completely. Along with Kurtz’s personality, Coppola also does a good job depicting his death as it happened in the novel, including his final words, “The horror, the horror,” which is him talking about all of his encounters with the natives. Although Coppola makes an exceptional effort to create Apocalypse Now to be as similar as possible to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, there are some differences that are just impossible to overcome. The biggest one of those is simply the setting. Coppola truly has no way of achieving a setting where he can depict the African Congo where imperial Europe is invading to take elephant tusks in order to sell ivory. Instead, he uses the United States’ recent war with Vietnam to recreate the story. Despite the different type of natives from Africa to Vietnam, the people of America likely assume the same kind of personality of the Vietnamese that the Europeans once thought of the Africans, that they are savage people. Another significant difference is the changing of the main character. Conrad’s character, Charles Marlow, is a lifelong sailor who has spent most of his life at sea traveling across different continents to perform trading. With no true sailor profession remaining by the 1970’s outside the navy, Coppola is forced to create a different character. He fabricates a veteran U.S. Army Captain named Benjamin Willard to head the ship through the rivers of Vietnam to retrieve Kurtz. The final major difference between Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness is the crew that rides aboard the ship. In the novel, a handful of white men head the ship and they are accompanied by a significantly larger number of savage cannibals; in the film, the crew consists of just a few