Apocalypse Now, Apocalypse Forever

Joseph Conrad's short novel Heart of Darkness (first published in 1902) is undoubtedly critically acclaimed, moreover, it is considered to be one of the greatest English novels. Conrad, who is of Polish ancestry, is as well considered to be an outstanding storyteller and a great stylist of modern fiction (Achebe 2). Even though this novel was written more than hundred years ago, it still draws many people's attention. The plot of the novel revolves around the main character, Marlow, and his journey to the heart of Africa (the Congo River). Marlow accepts to work as a steamship captain for a Belgian ivory-trade company and seeks to meet Kurtz, another important character in the novel whom many people admired, including, to a point, Marlow. On

Throughout the first two parts of Joseph Conrad's book, Heart of Darkness, the character Kurtz is built up to be this amazing and remarkable man. In the third book, however, we learn the truth about who Kurtz really is. Kurtz cries out in a whisper, "The horror! The horror!"(p. 86), and in only two words he manages to sum up the realization of all the horrors of his life during his time in the Congo.

Heart of Darkness written by Joseph Conrad is dramatic tale of an arduous trek into the darkest part of Africa at the turn of the twentieth century. The story follows the protagonist Marlow, an English marine merchant, as he travels through the African jungle up the Congo river in search for a mysterious man named Kurtz. Through Marlow's narration, Conrad provides a searing indictment of European colonial exploitation inflicted upon African natives. Through his use of irony, characters, and symbolism in the novel, Conrad aims to unveil the underlying horrors of colonialism. By shedding light on the brutality of colonialism in Heart of Darkness, Conrad shows that European values have been irrevocably eclipsed by darkness.

I have always enjoyed movies. But at some point I started to think of movies as more than just entertainment. I began to view them as a movie critic would, rather than just a casual viewer. Because of this perspective, I think of "Apocalypse Now" as one of the best American made movies I have ever seen. As a student of and an active participant in the late twentieth century media age, I feel justified in making this statement. In my lifetime of observation of American media, including fourteen months of intense movie watching in conjunction with my employment at a local video store, I have had an opportunity to observe a broad sampling of the films, and feel more than qualified to make this statement. By referring to

‘Heart of Darkness’ includes four-month of Conrad in Congo, and his command of a Congo River steamboat. Conrad experienced and saw the violence made by the European explorers and traders in Congo. He created the embodiment of European imperialism in his character, Kurtz. The novel tell the story of Marlow, a seamen who undertakes his own journey into the African Jungle to find the European trader, Kurtz.

In the movie, “Apocalypse Now” from 1979, we are shown, through the characters changing characterisation and the movies script, the horrors of the Vietnam war, and how the soldier fighting the war, is affected by it. We are given an idea of what it takes to fight and win a war.

Paralleling the notion that the character representing moral corruption cannot survive, Kurtz, like Dracula, meets his demise. Kurtz dies voicing his ominous and ambiguous last words, “The horror! The horror!” (Conrad 2007). Conrad never explains the meaning of these word, allowing the audience to extrapolate the realization

Marlow’s evolution renders ‘Heart of Darkness’ a remarkable work of literature, but it is not simply the budding of the narrator’s mind that makes the novel sensational. Marlow’s perception of the voyage is what truly renders the work exceptional. European expansion, as written by European writers, was generally cast in a positive light. When Conrad depicts the desolation of the journey and reveals the sanities and lives robbed through the conquest, he clearly does not conform to the writers of his time. This exposure of European expansion in such a sinister a fashion was innovative for writers of the late 17th century. This revolutionary perception is what truly allows ‘Heart of Darkness’ to be considered a novel rich in moral and detail.

     Each character has a special role in the novel; Kurtz and Marlow are the most important, through these two characters we are able to see how good and evil balance each other out. Marlow?s journey into the heart of darkness can also be seen as a journey into his own soul. He was in search of the darkest of objects, the ivory. Unlike Kurtz, Marlow was able to withstand the darkness from controlling him. Kurtz soul became the darkness and caused him to forget everything else there was to life. His last words were not that of love but rather of hate, ?The horrors the horrors.?

But the actor is nothing without the writer, and not by any means is The Departed lacking in storyline. As you watch The Departed, Colin Sullivan (Damon) and Billy Costigan’s (DiCaprio) storylines become increasingly in-depth and intertwined. Starting when Colin Sullivan is just a child and his encounter with Frank Costello’s mentorship, the story then fast-forwards to Costigan and Colin working their way through police training and eventually amounting to Costigan undercover and Colin as a detective. The side by side comparison of their lives adds to distinct feelings about the characters. The two “rats” continually work against each other and narrowly miss seeing each other’s faces, even dating the same girl, Madolyn (Verna Farmiga). This suspense draws watchers to the edge of their seats with anticipation for the conclusion of the movie.

The idea of company man turned savage, of a brilliant and successful team-player, being groomed by "the Company" for greater things, suddenly gone native, is perfectly realized in both novella and film. In the film, Kurtz is portrayed by Marlon Brando, the father of American method actors, who lends weight (both physically and dramatically) to the figure of the megalomaniacal Kurtz. Brando's massive girth is all the more ironic for those familiar with Heart of Darkness who recall Conrad's description: "I could see the cage of his ribs all astir, the bones of his arms waving. It was as though an animated image of death carved out of old ivory had been shaking its hand with menaces at a motionless crowd of men..." (Conrad, p.135). One could speculate that Coppola's Kurtz is a graphic analogy of the bloated American war machine dominating and perverting the innocent montegnards of Cambodia; however, after viewing Eleanor Coppola's documentary, one finds that the casting was more based on a combination of Coppola's wanting to work with Brando (remember "The Godfather") and Brando's own weight problem. (It should also be noted that the cult-like following of Kurtz in Heart of Darkness is brilliantly and subtly updated by Coppola in a foreshadowing scene in which missives to Willard from headquarters are intercut with scenes of newspaper clippings about Charles Manson.)

Within Heart Of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Marlow is shown telling a story of his endeavors within the dark and savage Africa, on an expedition to find ivory and discover what fate their best agent, Kurtz, h as endured. Marlow is the captain of the steamship travelling through the twisting and winding river, keeping sure to protect the ship through impeccable navigating and avoiding snags while staying on course throughout the ship. Throughout this trip, the crew of the ship, and Marlow, encounter dense and obtrusive fog, forcing them multiple times to make decisions based on the danger that may be awaiting on the other side of this fog, obstructed by a sense of danger, Marlow adjusts his actions because of this fog, and affects the expedition

The characteristics of Modernism are nowhere more prevalent than in his 1899 novel Heart of Darkness. It provides a bridge between Victorian values and the ideals of modernism. It is about a British seaman, Marlow, and his journey down the long River Congo into the darkness of Africa to meet up with and bring home his employer’s local representative, Kurtz. Heart of Darkness represents as well as any novel ever written the bleakness and cynicism that are characteristic of the Modernist movement. Conrad’s observations on the effects of European colonialism provided a full-scale view to the emergence of

The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a frame narrative which creates a clear and organized structure. This structure helps emphasize upon the hypocrisy of imperialism in the novel and Marlow’s journey to discovering his true identity. The orderly and systematic nature of the structure corresponds with the Company in the novel and how it seems so structured on the outside while their mission is actually extremely chaotic underneath as displayed by Kurtz. The cyclical structure of the novel outlines Marlow’s journey in finding himself and his true identity. As the chaos of the journey is uncovered, Marlow delves deeper and deeper into uncertainty regarding the things going on around him in his life.

Conrad opens Heart of Darkness showing the narrator listening to Marlow as they wait for the tide to come back up on the Thames as the sun sets on the clear sky. By the time Marlow finishes his story, there are black clouds as the tide rises, suggesting rain to soon fall on the crewmates, representing how Marlow’s story shows how Marlow himself has changed in his story about living on the water. In the beginning of his story, Marlow was completely against lying, but after his time on the Congo River, Marlow eventually lies to Kurtz’s Intended in the end because the Intended represents civilization, and while it may seem as if Marlow is lying to spare her feelings, he actually lies because he cannot deal with the idea that civilization will fall even if it is based on evil