For additional information: If you have access to the Norton edition of Heart of Darkness, you will see four helpful
academic essays about the relationship of the film to the book.
FILM
AS
ART
“We live as we dream . . . alone.”
Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness
“Fiction - if it at all aspires to be art - appeals to temperament. And in truth it must be,
like painting, like music, like all art . . . . Such an appeal to be effective must be an
impression conveyed through the senses . . . it must strenuously aspire to the plasticity of
sculpture, to the color of painting, and to the magic suggestiveness of music - which is
the art of arts.”
Joseph Conrad
“Conrad . . . writes in pictures . . . and what he shows us is not action, but a progression
of dissolving scenes, continuous and living, which in the end reflect action and give us a
true apprehension of it.”
Edwin Muir
“Granted, [Apocalyse Now] is pretentious and wildly ambitious.
Granted, it is probably not as great a work of art as Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
Granted, it is not a true picture of Vietnam. But it is a staggering achievement.”
Mike Wilmington
“Worth the Wait: Apocalypse Now”
Art need not be realistic to be real.
When Apocalypse Now finally opened in theaters after four years of filming and
staggering production costs, it confounded some viewers, including critics who
condemned the dark cinematography, which would later earn an Academy Award.
Lacking realism, a coherent plot, or even a love story, the film nevertheless creates a
compelling journey to the lower region of the soul, using Conrad as a guide and Dante as
a muse, even as Conrad did. Loosely based on Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse
Now is a work of art in its own right.
The time and settings have completely changed – from the 1890’s exploitation of
Congo ivory and natives conducted under the facade of the Noble Cause to the 1960’s
exploitation of Vietnam’s political war and America’s soldiers conducted under the
facade of another Noble Cause, the defense of democracy – or was it military-industrial
complex at the heart of the U.S. economy? The film takes Conrad’s book and changes
almost everything and yet changes nothing at the heart of it. Francis Ford Coppola, the
director, has kept both the impressionistic art and the cynical, piercing spirit of Conrad’s
book while telling a different story about the same lies we tell ourselves and each other
in order to preserve our most treasured truths. The curious result is that Apocalypse Now
makes Conrad’s book resonate with clarity.
Many writers and directors over the years have tried to do scripts for Conrad’s
book and found it impossible. Before Citizen Cane, the great filmmaker Orson Wells
struggled with writing a Heart of Darkness film script before abandoning it in frustration.
For additional information: If you have access to the Norton edition of Heart of Darkness, you will see four helpful
academic essays about the relationship of the film to the book.
Coppola himself finished the script for AN and gave it its final shape after firing the
original three writers. He added literary bits that enrich and connect to its literary
ancestors: the use of T.S. Eliot’s poetry as dialogue (“The Hollow Men” – whose famous
epigraph is from Heart of Darkness and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”), the
books on Col. Kurtz’s desk (The Golden Bough - a reference according to Coppola to the
Fisher King legend - and From Ritual to Romance, a book of medieval scholarship about
archetypes), the visual allusions to Dante’s Inferno.
Critic Mike Wilmington said, “I don’t think AN should be approached as an
analysis of the Vietnam Conflict. Obviously, that’s something it was never intended to
be – not when John Milius, a political conservative and Vietnam hawk, originally wrote
it, and not when Coppola, a political liberal and dove, reshaped it. . . . It’s a search
through all the myths and motifs of Western literature and movie, a search along a
glistening river surrounded by shadows, a search toward death and dissolution . . . .
startling and fascinating and hypnotic . . . . (Coppola’s) triumphs overmatch his
catastrophes. Apocalypse Now is an infernally magnificent film – beautifully obsessive,
beautifully mad.”
Another critic, Robert LaBrasca, has written, “By the time AN was completed, it
was little more than inspired by Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness. Conrad was
never mentioned in the picture’s credits . . . . one work is the product of a single
consciousness in reflection, while the other required an army of creative minds . . . along
with $31 million.” LaBrasca continues, “ (Heart of Darkness) . . . a tale whose darkness
perpetually illuminates the grim emptiness at the limit of personal and national ambition,
the vanity of power’s claim to civilization, and the frail evil that lurks in even the best of
emissaries. Heart of Darkness virtually predicts Vietnam. . . . Coppola has brought us . .
. a powerful movie, a technical triumph, a tour de force of style, and so much less than
the little book that gave it the spark of birth. . . . (Apocalypse Now) is a brilliant updating
and figurative translation of Conrad’s vision to Vietnam, and it works.”
Coppola said in an interview (Film Comment, July-August 1976) that he used
“Heart of Darkness in an allegorical sense.” He found problems with translating
Conrad’s ideas: “The ideas of what Kurtz represents are so big that when you try to get a
handle on them they are almost undefinable.”
E.N. Dorall, another critic, wrote, “When a great artist in one medium produces a
work based on a masterpiece in the same or another medium, we can expect interesting
results. Not only will the new work be assessed as to its merits and validity as a separate
creation, but the older work will also inevitably be reassessed as to its own durability, or
relevance to the new age. . . . not mere adaptations . . . thorough reworking of the
original material so that a new, independent work emerges . . . . Coppola’s Apocalypse
Now, based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness , . . . [is] a worthy addition to this
category which may set the standard by which all other cinematic re-creations will
henceforth be judged.” He also explains that Conrad’s Kurtz “tore down the facade
behind which the other colonialists sheltered, and converted metaphor into brutal fact.”
Coppola has built new metaphors for Vietnam’s brutal facts: he strips Kurtz of his
“grotesque facade of civilization.” Coppola’s Kurtz is a scapegoat, dying not that others
may live but that they may see that they too must follow him into destruction if they dare
to truly live by the real truths of their society. Kurtz has the typical Conradian integrity
which requires that he is true to himself, whether he survives or dies; his integrity is his
For additional information: If you have access to the Norton edition of Heart of Darkness, you will see four helpful
academic essays about the relationship of the film to the book.
courage to look the truth straight in the face and live by it. Conrad ‘s Marlow also gives
us a character who insists on “the power of efficiency, doing the job one is paid for to the
best of one’s ability, as a means of conquering darkness. . . . Indeed, for many critics,
Heart of Darkness is about Marlow the saved, not Kurtz the damned: it is a story of how
to survive the horror.” Dorall says, “Rarely has a work of art appeared in any medium
which moves so steadily and daringly from life to death.”
Coppola’s Willard (Marlow) is “Everyman, ourselves, deprived of our
individuality till we are mere instruments of higher powers” – the government, the
military. Dorall concludes, “Coppola’s film is worthy to stand as a ‘new creation’ beside
the Conrad novella from which it derives.”
Students should attempt a level of detachment and analysis while watching this
film. We will be stopping the film often to discuss the film’s methods of translating the
visual imagery and impressionistic techniques from Conrad’s book to Coppola’s film.
This film is intense, and students should focus on film techniques and changes rather than
on emotion. Every year there are new parallels to discover, new mysteries to unravel. Art
is an exaggeration of life. The film is a compelling translation of a literary classic into
the modern vernacular of Vietnam.
ASSIGNMENT:
Read my
my commentary
commentary about
about the
the film
film.FIRST.
ASSIGNMENT: 1.
1. Read
2.
2. As
As we
we watch
watch and
and discuss
discuss the
the film,
film, develop
develop your
your own
own list
list of
of ten
ten new
new
parallels
(allegories)
to
Conrad’s
novella.
You
cannot
use
any
thefilm
parallels (allegories) between Conrad’s novella and details fromofthe
parallels
used the
in my
commentary
orways
in class
Write
that reinforce
novel’s
themes in
thatdiscussion.
the book does
not. You
explanations
of
each
allegory
and
give
specific
examples.
cannot use any of the parallels or details used in my commentary or in
3.
Your
allegories/explanations
are worth 10
of the next
test. and
class
discussion.
Write brief explanations
of points
each allegory
or detail
provide specific examples. You may use lists or bullets. Make two
columns. Label one “film,” the other “book.”
3. You may also substitute up to five of your parallel/details with
Apocalypse
examples of any scene,
image, or Now
character from the film that clarified the
Francis
Ford Coppola,
director
themes of the book
in ways
that the book
did not. Explain how.
1979
4. Your allegories/explanations are worth 10 points of the unit test.
Academy Award winner
recognized as one of
the great films
Apocalypse
Now of the 20th century
teacher-edited
version
Francis
Ford Coppola,
director
1979
Heart
of
Darkness
Academy Award
winner
Joseph
Conrad
recognized as one of the great
films of the 20th century
1857-1924
commercially-edited version; in
possession of theatrical release version
Jozef Teodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski
Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad
1857-1924
Jozef Teodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski
For additional information: If you have access to the Norton edition of Heart of Darkness, you will see four helpful
academic essays about the relationship of the film to the book.
HEART OF DARKNESS
APOCALYPSE NOW
Based on Joseph Conrad’s classic novel Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now is a
brilliant adaptation of the book first published serially in 1899. Conrad’s story of
restraint and duty, responsibility and exploitation, loyalty and nightmares transfers well
from the African ivory trade to the Vietnam War.
Both film and novel begin in civilization. The central character in each format
(Marlow and Captain Willard) appears as isolated and different from his peers. Conrad
describes Marlow as “ascetic” – monklike and severe – a Buddha in repose. The film
presents Marlow (Willard) isolated in a Saigon hotel room where he practices martial arts
while awaiting orders for a mission. In both film and book, Marlow is restless and
disoriented without work, without purpose, without a mission, a mythic hero anxious for
an quest whose importance he will not recognize until later. The significance of duty
and work to human well-being is central to the narrative. The effects of isolation on
moral choices is also of major importance. Both versions of the central character are a bit
crazed, at odds with their environment, unable to accept the superficialities of society
because they have seen things other men have not. The archetype of the mythic hero
appears in both versions. Both men endure delay and isolation with impatience, anxious
to get to work. (No reason is apparent for the name change. If anyone discovers a
reason, please let me know. An Apocalypse Now web-based trivia page told a farfetched
story that a real Capt. Marlow worked with Special Forces during the Vietnam era and
that the U.S. Military asked for the name change.)
Willard (Marlow) suffers in his room, apparently from a lack of work or purpose.
He is disoriented without his work, as Marlow was as a passenger on the voyage to
Africa. He is a man with a strong sense of duty. This idea echoes throughout the book,
and the Willard-Marlow character is sane as long as he focuses on his work.
The narrative framework of the novel also remains with the film, an unusual
method for a modern script. A voice over from the Marlow-Willard character during the
entire film substitutes for the voice of Marlow who is the second narrator and teller of the
journey in Conrad’s book. Marlow-Willard continues to address civilization (the film
audience, the book reader) as he describes the journey to Kurtz. The book uses the same
narrative format. The object of both characters’ quest is the same: Kurtz, the chief of the
inner station.
The Marlow (Willard) character’s interview at military headquarters is
comparable to Marlow’s experience in the book at the company headquarters in Brussels.
Observe carefully the treacherous and subtle language manipulation that occurs with the
military staff in Saigon. Lies and truth begin their mutation in this office. Two of the
officers, one a Vietnamese national, take the place of the two knitting women in the
Brussels office. They know everything about Marlow-Willard; they know where he is
going; they know what is going to happen to him; they give him knowing looks, as the
two women dressed in black at the ivory company’s headquarters did. They have his
official orders, his fate. One offers him a last smoke before he leaves the office, a gesture
to a condemned man. Notice the camera angles as the generals eat an elaborate lunch
For additional information: If you have access to the Norton edition of Heart of Darkness, you will see four helpful
academic essays about the relationship of the film to the book.
with china and silver while discussing the “unsound methods” of Gen. Kurtz. How
civilized are men who can order death and dine at a civilized table at the same time?
Don’t forget the close-ups of hands – you’ll see these again later in the film. Civilization
(the company, the generals) has blood on its hands, even if the events are occurring far
away. Who is really responsible for Kurtz’s disillusionment and subsequent atrocities?
Note that the ivory trading company and the military establishment share the same
role. Men who served in Vietnam have said that this film does not tell the whole story
and have taken offense at the portrayal of the ordinary sailors and soldiers. However,
Coppola’s film is not intended to be a realistic film. Apocalypse Now is an
impressionistic film, an impression of light, color, and sound. The film is a metaphor for
war; the war is a metaphor for another version of the Big Lie and all other Noble Causes
with dubious truths behind them.
Note the indirect characterization of Kurtz from this point. The film audience
learns of him the same way the reader does – bit by bit, detail by detail (impressionistic
technique) from what others know of him. The dossier (file) on Kurtz, which WillardMarlow takes with him, provides a similar contradictory impression of the man in both
film and book. The famous voice of Kurtz is evident in the military interview scene also,
thanks to the technology of the tape recorder. The legend of Kurtz increases in the film
just as it does in the novel: suspense builds in both film and novel with the unfolding of
Kurtz’s character and the slow and arduous journey toward the Inner Station. (Watch for
the code name on Kurtz’s file.)
When Willard meets the Air Cavalry commander (Capt. Kilgore) who is to start
him on his journey, he is as bewildered as Marlow is when he meets the Chief
Accountant and the Station Manager. The man makes him “uneasy” in the same way the
central station manager disturbed Marlow. The Air Cav commander (“I love the smell of
napalm in the morning”) is a composite of the Chief Accountant (note Capt. Kilgore’s
immaculate uniform, hat, and silk scarf and personalized card deck) and Station Manager
(Capt. Kilgore has “triumphant health” and never gets hit by bullets even when everyone
else is diving for cover). He is not a bad officer, but he is not a good officer either. His
obsession about surfing, even in the middle of a battle, is highly incongruous with his
surroundings, even though he is trying to make Vietnam like home. The groans of a
dying man, like the dying man in the Chief Accountant’s hut in the novel, are irrelevant
and annoying to the Captain’s search for the perfect surfing beach. He orders a napalm
strike to a grove of trees not to win a battle but to stop the enemy from firing on the
surfing beach. The Captain has adequate skills for his job, demonstrating his expert
marksmanship and leadership abilities as Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” accompanies
the helicopters’ attack on the native village. He has, in effect, the same kind of perfect
“apple-pie books,” as the novel’s Chief Accountant. And yet . . . the captain will not
allow a battle to interfere with good surfing. Don’t miss the irony of the Air Cav
commander’s launching the attack: he won’t go because of orders, but he will go because
of good surf. The bombing of the village is parallel to the meaningless firing into the
jungle in the book (“lugubrious drollery”). The music of Wagner, blaring over the
helicopter loudspeakers, is an “extravagant mystery” and a wonderfully insane detail.
Music, which was especially important to Conrad, becomes a weapon of civilization
rather than an expression of civilized thought and emotion. Willard-Marlow is amazed,
For additional information: If you have access to the Norton edition of Heart of Darkness, you will see four helpful
academic essays about the relationship of the film to the book.
especially when he sees his boat fly. This is a world where paradox is normal and
functional. This is a world turned upside down.
Note the gradually increasing images of Hades, especially as the sun rises on the
day of the village attack and helicopters swarm like demonic mosquitoes against the red
sunrise. Fire, smoke, fog, images of darkness and red increase as the boat follows the
narrow, winding river toward the psychological and geographic center of hell. Watch for
the visual allusions to Dante’s Inferno, especially in the background of the battle scenes.
Look for the City of Dis. Watch the descending, spiraling journey into the dark recesses
at the heart of hell. Many of the visual allusions to the Inferno are in the background.
Willard’s crew members on the patrol boat are all young, all very much children
of “civilization,” all similar to Conrad’s “young citizen . . . in a toga,” unwillingly
experiencing an intolerant and incomprehensible environment. The young sailors are
also parallel to the representatives of civilization on board the “Nellie” in the book. The
sailors try to make life “civilized” on the boat, but their American reality is empty and
illusive (rock music, drugs, surfing, skiing). They annoy the helmsman (PT boat skipper)
who takes his duty seriously. Capt. Willard sees them as pawns of the “Company”
(military) and concentrates just as totally as Marlow on his mission to find Kurtz.
The boat becomes, as in the novel, the only reality possible. Chef (from New
Orleans) finds the encounter with the jungle too frightening, too unprotected, too far from
his own reality. Note the long camera shot, which reveals Chef and Willard dwarfed into
insignificance by the giant trees and tree roots when they leave the boat to hunt for
mangoes. “Stay on the boat” becomes the cry that means there is safety and reality only
on the boat, only with duty. Conrad’s novel parallels this reality exactly, especially in the
repetition of the isolating fog. The Ordeal of Blood of the archetypal mythic hero
ultimately blends the reality of boat and jungle and forces the passengers to confront what
they would prefer to ignore. The death of one of the sailors, his mother’s tape recorded
voice playing in the background from mail received on the boat, illustrates the horrible
reality of Vietnam contrasted ironically to the pleasant, loving domestic words of a
mother hoping for her son to come home safely. She is isolated and out of touch with her
son’s reality, just as Marlow’s aunt in Brussels is. The stark, brutal reality of Kurtz’s
world eventually renders the sanctuary of the boat useless, and there is only one reality
and one truth – Kurtz’s. In the book Conrad brings that reality aboard with Kurtz when
he faces his own self-knowledge in his last moments on earth.
The patrol boat’s troubling encounter with the native boat is perhaps comparable
to the Grove of Death scene in the book. It could also relate to the novel’s last stop fifty
miles from the Inner Station. The finding of the puppy could parallel the finding of the
book. A pet is an element of civilization, which requires extra food, shelter, and emotion.
In the harsh world of war in Vietnam/Cambodia, that vulnerability is a luxury, an
“extravagant mystery.”
The journey up river from that point is close to being identical to the novel. The
film uses the fog effectively for the same purposes. The death of the helmsman (the
patrol boat’s chief) is also very similar. The film turns the helmsman-chief into a
composite character who is part alter ego to the Marlow character, allowing a separate
and additional development of the concept of duty. The chief is serious and dedicated,
with no tolerance for the foolishness of his young crew members. “Pay attention. You
got a job to do,” he says. The chief is sane and competent, focused on his work. His
For additional information: If you have access to the Norton edition of Heart of Darkness, you will see four helpful
academic essays about the relationship of the film to the book.
temporary loss of focus when he grabs a gun and starts firing during the native attack is
the only time he loses his restraint – which results in his death that occurs in the identical
manner as the book’s helmsman.
At the Inner Station the Russian/harlequin of the book appears as a photographer
with many cameras (and no film) in the movie. The dialogue is almost identical to the
book’s. The photographer’s lack of sanity is also apparent as well as his admiration of
Kurtz, despite Kurtz’s threats to kill him. “The man has enlarged my mind,” he tells
Marlow-Willard. As in the book, the photographer’s situation shows Marlow-Willard
that it is possible for Americans, civilized men, to yield to Kurtz’s world.
The mayhem at the Inner Station suggests the horrors Marlow finds in the book.
Willard sees a Green Beret agent sent ahead of him who has succumbed to the terror and
temptations of Kurtz’s world. Again, the film creates a composite character (Colby) in
this soldier who is part alter-ego to the Marlow character, mirroring Marlow’s potential to
become like Kurtz, to go over to the dark side, and part Fresleven-Swede, minor
characters from the first of the book who precede Marlow into Africa and meet
unexpected ends. In a larger sense, Kurtz is a potential alter ego to Marlow, a dark
shadow side of the human heart. Willard-Marlow evaluates the situation and does not
fail in his mission. It probably would be easier to yield to Kurtz, but Marlow-Willard
fulfills his duty. “Everyone wanted him dead. Even the jungle, and that’s who he really
took his orders from anyway,” he says of Kurtz. The novel reveals that the other ivory
agents want Kurtz to die and hope the jungle and delay would take of it. Afterward,
Willard allows the air strike ordered in by Chef and thus destroys all evidence of Kurtz’s
“unsound methods.” Marlow preserves Kurtz’s reputation at peril to himself. In the film,
Willard’s mission to “terminate the Colonel’s command” with “extreme prejudice” at the
order of the military reflects the ivory company employees’ opinion that Kurtz must be
stopped – “out there operating without any decent restraint at all” – which is actually a
quotation from the film. Both the film and the book protect civilization from knowledge
of what Kurtz has become. Torn between awe and repulsion of the grotesque monster
Kurtz has become, Willard performs the termination with a mixture of compassion and
justice, wielding a machete instead of a gun. The machete’s large blade provides a more
ceremonial, sacrificial, ancient means of death than a military weapon. “Everybody
wanted me to do it,” comments Willard. “Even him – he just wanted to go out like a
soldier, standing up. He just wanted the pain to stop.” The film adds the visual parallel
of the native sacrifice of the ox to make a statement about Kurtz as a victim, not just a
victimizer. The book’s ivory company wants a cover-up of Kurtz’s terrible actions lest
they damage the company’s reputation and demonstrate that a European man is capable
of brutal, uncivilized, repulsive conduct. The film’s Kurtz creates an American version of
a similar scenario.
Note the books on Kurtz’s table (From Ritual to Romance, the Golden Bough).
Listen for Kurtz to tell Willard that he is afraid his son will not understand what he has
tried to become. Look for the photos of wife and son. Parallel these relationships to the
book’s Intended.
The photographer-harlequin character delivers the “clear in his intellect, mad in
his soul” line about Kurtz. Both film and novel reveal a Kurtz who has taken the
methods of the company to the most logical extreme, breaking his own heart in the
For additional information: If you have access to the Norton edition of Heart of Darkness, you will see four helpful
academic essays about the relationship of the film to the book.
process, in the name of a Noble Cause, in the name of efficiency and success, in the name
of civilization.
Willard’s slow walk through the throng of prostrate natives reiterates Marlow’s
point of moral choice when he “peers over the edge” and chooses to walk away from
corruption rather than join it. Observe also the parallels that the film creates of Kurtz’s
ritualistic death as Capt. Willard sacrifices Kurtz to the company orders, puts the man out
of his misery, and postpones the assassination until Kurtz has “explained” with poetry
(T.S. Eliot – “The Hollow Men”) and cryptic words, culminating with the final “the
horror, the horror.” After Kurtz dies, Marlow examines the colonel’s report (with the
scribbled words “exterminate the brutes” inside) and takes it with him, just as Marlow
takes Kurtz’s report and papers requested by Kurtz to be delivered to the Intended. In
one hand Marlow-Willard carries duty (the colonel’s report); in the other hand he carries
the bloody machete. In the film, Willard peers into the abyss, not in the jungle with
Kurtz as in the book, but as he emerges from Kurtz’s templelike dwelling and sees the
natives bowed before him, the new god who has killed the old god (an archetype). His
shadowed face clearly reveals his inner conflict as he makes the decision to be loyal to
duty and not become the next Kurtz. The decision has been made when he drops the
machete and keeps the report, takes Lance (California surfer sailor) by the hand like a
child and leads him back to the boat.
Notice the unusual use of lighting and camera angles in the cinematography,
especially at the Inner Station. Black and white imagery is clearly important, just as it is
in the book. Kurtz emerges from shadows into stark white light; sometimes his face is
cleanly divided in black/white duality. When is a lie a truth? If you live lies, does the
truth fade away? Who lies? Who tells the truth? Both book and film emphasize the
issue of the power of language to manipulate reality.
In the film Kurtz quotes poetry – chosen for the film from the work of T.S. Eliot,
whose famous poem “The Hollow Men” begins with two lines from Conrad’s novel.
Eliot develops the metaphor of hollowness for morally bankrupt characters. Kurtz’s
enigmatic dying words remain the same in both media. The scene in both film and book
recalls the ancient respect given to deathbed words, to the necessity of truth from the lips
of a dying man who will have no opportunity for repentance or revocation. The film
acknowledges the novel’s references to “fascination with the abomination” by adding
Kurtz’s discussion of singleness of intention, which concludes with “you must make a
friend of horror.”
Willard walks from Kurtz’s death scene, and he faces a moment of selfknowledge as the natives bow to him, but he is true to his duty. Neither the native
ceremonies, Kurtz’s power, nor the silent jungle mistress weaken his restraint or fidelity.
In the book, Conrad writes that Marlow “was permitted to draw his foot back from the
abyss” as he confronts Kurtz and the temptation to join Kurtz in his power and truth that
beckons him as a better alternative than the “choice of nightmares,” the lying hypocrisy
of the company vs. the brutal truth of Kurtz, which has cut through the pretense of
motivations.
The air strike arrives, and judgment (apocalypse) begins. The obliteration of
Kurtz’s evil kingdom must happen. There is no question that the inner station is
unacceptable. All trace of Kurtz will disappear. Society is “safe” and can pretend that
For additional information: If you have access to the Norton edition of Heart of Darkness, you will see four helpful
academic essays about the relationship of the film to the book.
none of it ever happened. Society is free to believe that Kurtz’s madness had nothing to
do with civilization.
The Intended does not appear in the film. Coppola’s script suggests her presence
in two ways. First, Kurtz’s wife and son as represented by their photos and letters in the
military dossier become a composite of being “out of touch” with reality. They would
not believe what their husband/father has become. Secondly, USO show girls (Playboy
bunnies) who arrive by helicopter at a remote outpost (the Central Station) are definitely
out of touch with reality. The helicopter’s bright light piercing the darkness brings them
into the jungle (like the woman in the book’s painting who is blindfolded and carrying a
torch), but they see nothing. “Civilization” as represented by the Playboy bunnies is
cheap, tawdry, and dishonest, a tease who promises but could never deliver all that is
promised, an illusion and parody of real life. “Civilization” in that context is a horror.
The film does not send Willard back to Kurtz’s wife (Kurtz’s Intended), but Kurtz tells
Willard that he is worried that his son will not understand what he has tried to become.
In both film and book, Marlow-Willard is loyal to Kurtz’s memory, respecting the good
intentions and reputation of the noble Kurtz who first went into the jungle and
acknowledging the bravery of Kurtz’s misguided honesty. Kurtz has become a sacrifice
to the Intentions of society. Marlow-Willard gets back on the boat after Kurtz’s death in
the novel, turns off the radio, and deliberately ignores the attempts of the military to
contact him. As Willard says in the film, “I wasn’t in their army anymore.” Marlow in
the book also turned his back to the company, giving his attention to the straightforward
demands of his work.
Students should attempt a level of detachment and analysis. This intense film
requires focus on comparison of media rather than emotion. Every year there are new
parallels to discover, new mysteries to unravel. Search for new points of comparison.
Art is an exaggeration of life. The film is a compelling translation of a literary
classic into the modern vernacular of Vietnam. The test of time not only verifies the
lasting value of Conrad’s work but allows a new generation to observe the universality of
Conrad’s novel in a creative adaptation revealing the power of language and the duality
of man’s nature.
Note 1: There are many more parallels between the book and the film. This commentary is only an
introduction. Students must find ten new parallels/details/clarifications not discussed in this commentary or
in class. Each parallel must have an explanation of its connection to Heart of Darkness or The Inferno.
Note 2: My preference is the original theatrical release without the muddy MASH unit e stranded
Playmates and without the French Plantation scene. These extra 45 minutes slow down the film too much
visually and narratively. I also much prefer the “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” (Rolling Stones) section much
earlier in the film, as it was in the original release, right after the film introduces the sailors on the boat.
Commentary by Jolinda Collins
Based on original 1978 theatrical release, not 2001 director’s cut( re-release)
AP English Literature instructor
National Board Certified Teacher
College Board Consultant
Ph.D. , University of Georgia
For additional information: If you have access to the Norton edition of Heart of Darkness, you will see four helpful
academic essays about the relationship of the film to the book.
http://www.fastenupyourseatbelts.com/apocalyseNow/apocalypseNowAnalysis.html
Recurrent Themes And Photographic Style:
 Almost always the sound preceded the visuals in the movie. In life, we rely most often on our ability
to see, no such comfort in a war zone/ the underworld. It can be too dark or too unclear for us to
trust our eyes alone, we must learn to use our ears and our intuition as well.
 Most films are carved out of light. Apocalypse Now is carved out of darkness. It absolutely signifies
the journey we are taking as a journey into the heart of darkness. Extremely low light characterizes
most of the film.
 Shadows are everywhere. Every character’s face is only half-lit. There are very few completely lit
faces. As the journey goes on, this becomes more and more obvious and extreme. Nowhere is it
more visible than the face of Captain Willard, “our alter-ego”. At the end of the movie, he is
almost marked by a distinct division of light and shadow on his face. We, like him are half-God &
half-animal, half good & half evil. The difference lies only in our choice.
 Extremely Saturated Colors. When it is red flames, they are deep red. When it is green trees, they
are deep green. When it is black night, it is pitch black. When it is light on the bridges, they are
garish and unbearable. The color palette is itself too much to take. They are too much to bear like
the journey itself. But they are astounding and extremely well thought of.
 Usage of Fog. How else can a journey to hell be expressed? It is unclear and the confusion,
depression and hallucination deepen the more we journey into the underworld of our souls.
 Extreme close up of people, especially the main protagonist, Willard. The characters in this journey
are masked, or closed or hard to understand. To understand them better, we must go close, and
even closer. Willard is us. We see his face, his eyes, his scars up, close and personal. We must feel
what he feels. We must sweat when he sweats. We must cry out in pain & horror when he finally
breaks. And we must emerge as he does.
 Placement of Willard on left side of the screen in all his interaction with Kurtz (and the dossier on
Kurtz). Willard changes screen position and comes to the right side of the screen the moment he
makes up his mind about Kurtz and decides to kill him.
 Extremely slow dissolves to the point of super-imposition. There are some great dissolves that
express the narrative superbly. The images form layer upon layer upon layer where it becomes
impossible to separate which journey ends where and everything becomes part of the same foggy
hallucination/ memory imprint.
 Masked faces used literally and symbolically. Early on in the journey, Lance starts painting his face
in a mask suggesting his spiritual transformation. Out of all the soldiers, he remains the most
highly adaptive. Kurtz paints a mask on his face at the time he kills Chef, which shows us a very
evil manifestation of his self. Willard does not paint his face in the same fashion, however he
covers his face with the mud of the river before he goes to kill Kurtz. In this fashion, masks are
symbolic of the darkness inside us that we hide behind in order to do evil.
For additional information: If you have access to the Norton edition of Heart of Darkness, you will see four helpful
academic essays about the relationship of the film to the book.