a contrast and analysis of heart of darkness and apocalypse now
Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness explored the darker side of human nature. When Francis Ford Coppola released the eye-opening film Apocalypse Now, he expanded on and delved deeper into this theme. Despite some differences between Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now, the meanings of the symbols in each are mutual and the overall purpose is parallel: to show the horror of the dark side of the human spirit.
Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now share the same view of the jungle and of its inhabitance: the natives and the Vietnamese/Cambodians, respectively. When Marlow looked out from the steamer into the jungle he noted it as "this stillness of life did not in the least resemble a peace. It was the stillness of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention. It looked at you with a vengeful aspect" (Conrad 183). The jungle is hostile, it is ready to take its vengeance upon the intruders and send them to their deaths. Coppola depicts the jungle as equally aggressive. Chef and Willard scramble back to the boat after a tiger lunges out of the thick vegetation at them while they are looking for a mango tree. Once on the boat you can hear Chef franticly screaming "I gotta' remember, never get out of the boat! Never get out of the boat! Never get out of the boat" (Coppola). The natives and Vietnamese are often used to depict the Company's control over the jungle, as they are symbolically another part of the jungle. At the first station which is at the mouth of the Congo River, the natives are subdued and controlled. Marlow observes "Six black men advanced in a file, toiling up the path. They walked erect and slow, balancing small baskets full of earth on their heads, and the clink kept time with their footsteps" (Conrad 154). This is connected to the fact that the jungle is being controlled by the colonists there. Coppola's parallel to this is the U.S. headquarters. Everything is under control there. There is no Vietcong firing out of the bush or...
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