Apocalypse Now Comparison

Apocalypse Now is a film produced by Francis Coppola in 1979 about the Vietnam war. The film was based off of the novel, “Heart of Darkness”, and is the story of an Army Captain, Captain Willard, and his mission to hunt down and terminate Colonel Walter Kurtz. The reasoning for sending Willard to kill one of his fellow Americans is due to the fact that Kurtz has become unstable and has been operating against his orders with the Montagnard army and committing murder. Kurtz has gone insane during the war and his methods are thought of as unsound and he needs to be taken care of.

In the novella Heart of Darkness, and the film Apocalypse Now, both Joseph Conrad and Francis Ford Coppola question the supposed dichotomy between civilized society and uncivil savagery. Although both the novella and the film differ in setting, Africa and Vietnam respectively, both [uncover] man’s primeval nature, as their protagonists journey down the respective rivers, and descend into the heart of darkness. Perhaps the most significant aspect in the journeys of both Marlow and Willard, is witnessing the psychological breakdown of “civilized” men as their removal from society and exposure to the primitive practices of the “savages” living in the jungle, unleashes their own primordial instincts. This frightening observation effectively conveys

Apocalypse Now is the story of a Green Beret named Willard who journeys through Vietnam by river to confront an officer who left the army in the pursuit of his own private war. Willard's journey is not just a trip down a river, it is a metaphorical journey, and creates the effect of multiple levels of meaning. In addition to a superbly constructed story, Apocalypse Now can be viewed as a social commentary, an exploration of human conscience, or a moral metaphor. I truly enjoy dissecting and analyzing movies, as well as literate, at this level. I try to understand what the author, or film maker is really trying to say.

In Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now, both Joseph Conrad and Francis Ford Coppola create similar statements through their creations as they both centralize their views upon the effects of environmental changes that affect the human condition. The film Apocalypse Now vaguely reflects a similar message pursued by Conrad’s novella, due to the difference in time period, place setting, and circumstances in which the film was created. Conrad wrote his novella during British colonization, focusing upon imperialism. Coppola’s film similarly focused upon the barbaric nature of man, which demonstrates the insanity of the Vietnam War. In Heart of Darkness, Conrad centers his main focus upon the journey of Marlow, a sailor, who travels into

This paper will be discussing the two movies The Green Berets (1968) and Apocalypse Now (1978), and argue how The Green Berets is a propagandist pro-war film depicting the unrealities of the Vietnam War while Apocalypse Now is an ambiguous anti-war film that shows the social and political absurdities of the Vietnam War.

Given that post-modernism involves an “experimental” style and a narrative that progresses in “different and contrasting directions,” (Bradbury 765) it can be argued that The Things They Carried is a work of metafiction, which concentrates on story telling and its higher purpose rather than being weighted down by what is considered to be reality. The “epistemological ambivalence” regarding the antagonist especially leads one to note the importance of the deliberate choice made by Tim O’Brien to create this allegorical adversary as opposed to a more tangible villain typical of a ‘war story’ (43). Had he chosen to portray the villain as the man he had killed, or Vietnam’s army as a whole, his desired effect—to declare a larger anti-war message –would not have relayed the same powerful impact to his audience. By representing the war itself through the landscape of Vietnam, O’Brien personifies the war through nature’s all-consuming course in order to show how war corrupts and consumes, that it stops for no

following the story line of the Heart of Darkness is amazing although the settings of each story are from completely different location and time periods. From the jungle of the Congo in Africa to the Nung river in Vietnam, Joseph Conrad's ideals are not lost. In both the book and the movie, the ideas of good and evil, whiteness, darkness, and racism are clear. Also, characterization in both the novel and the movie are very similar. Both The Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now examine the good and evil in human

This movie about the Vietnam War showed not only the defeat of the U.S. in a war but it also showed the destruction of the moral of soldiers. The Soldiers knew in their minds that the enemy was the North Vietnamese Army however; they acted like the enemy was themselves.

Various parallels can be drawn when comparing and contrasting Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Frank Coppola's "Apocalypse Now", while taking into consideration Heart of Darkness is a novella and "Apocalypse Now" is a film. These differences and similarities can be seen in themes, characters, events and other small snippets of information including anything from quoted lines to strange actions of the main characters. Both pieces follow the same story line but they are presented in different contexts, allowing for many differences as well as the ability to see how Conrad is able to write a piece of literature that can be transposed to many different settings regardless the time period and still convey the same message of colonialism.

Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now lacks the impact of its inspiration, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. While the basic elements of imperialism and human nature remain intact, the characters of the film bare little resemblance to their literary counterparts. The film serves as a re-interpretation of Conrad’s novella, updated from 19th-century British imperialism in the Congo to a critique of 20th-century U.S. imperialism in Southeast Asia. Coppola’s changes in setting and plot structure, however, force the film to sacrifice the character development so crucial in the literary work. This detracts from the overall effectiveness of the film.

      In both Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness certain elements of darkness attempt to show how deep one must look inside themselves to discover the truth. Conrad portrays the idea of the darkness of the human heart through things such as the interior of the jungle and it's immensity, the Inner Station, and Kurtz's own twisted deeds. Coppola's heart of darkness is represented by the madness of the Vietnam War and how even to look for a purpose in it all; is itself quite mad.

It is often that when we read great works of literature we come across similar themes. Authors use powerful ideas that they believe will move their readers and relate to them so they become engaged in the words written. William Shakespeare and Joseph Conrad were amazing writers of their times and even though their works were written almost 300 years apart, both, Othello and Heart of Darkness, have coinciding themes.

Similar events occur in Francis Coppola's "Apocalypse Now," Captain Willard pushes farther up the river where the solitude from society and the destruction of war tamper with human nature. During the opening scene, Willard is shown in despair, going from America to war and back was too much for him to handle. He moved back to Saigon hoping to find himself. However he does not know his own true self until he discovers Colonel Kurtz's true nature.

I believe that the feature of man’s breaking point and temptation of man to play God is historically accurate but also allows America to offload some of the blame onto members of the army who rebelled against American leadership. During ‘Apocalypse Now’, Francis Ford Coppola uses plenty of imagery to get across to the viewer the confusion and horror of war. The first example of this is when we hear the voice recording of Kurtz in the jungle. He talks about his nightmare where he sees “a snail crawling along the edge of a straight razor”.

The early 1900’s novella, Heart of Darkness, written by Joseph Conrad follows the journey of a man named Charlie Marlow. Apocalypse Now, a 1970’s movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola follows the mission of a man named Captain Benjamin L. Willard. Apocalypse Now filmed nearly 80 years after the initial publication of the novella was created as a film adaptation of the book. The movie changes many elements from the novella, but keeps the basic outline and a few characters the same. Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now have many similar aspects while still being their own separate pieces, by comparing the journey within both works, analyzing the characters, and understanding their different interpretations of darkness the relationship between these two works can truly be seen.