Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now lacks the impact of its inspiration; Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. ... While Conrad's Marlow borders on complacency, Coppola's Willard behaves erratically and without reason. ... Conrad builds up the appearance of Kurtz so much that his first scene is intentionally anti-climactic. ... Conrad's Heart of Darkness forces its reader into meaningful introspection, while Apocalypse Now fails to capture the depth of Conrad's vision. ... Conrad does not tell us what to think, he makes us think. ...

• Word Count: 1046
• Approx Pages: 4

Apocalypse Now, like many other films inspired by a novel, lacks the impact of its predecessor; Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. ... Even though Marlow is critical of their bureaucracy, Conrad never explicitly describes Marlow's true feelings, and forces the reader to surmise his feelings towards the Belgians immoral practices and their incompetence and inefficiency. ... Conrad describes Kurtz as an ailing, elderly gentleman, malnourished and on the verge of death. ... Conrad does not tell us was to think he makes us think. ...

• Word Count: 785
• Approx Pages: 3

By using the major themes of Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad as inspiration, Francis Ford Coppola created an honest portrayal of one of the most controversial periods of time in America's history: the Vietnam war. Just as West Side Story was derived from the classic Romeo and Juliet, Coppola's interpretation of Conrad's novel is not without distinction or differences. ... Through the use of an enigmatic and extreme focus, the character Kurtz, Apocalypse Now effectively reflected the major themes of Conrad's novel. ... The film Apocalypse Now emulated the truly horrend...

• Word Count: 913
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Heart of Darkness, a novel by Joseph Conrad, and Apocalypse Now, a movie by Francis Ford Coppola are two works that parallel one another, but at the same time reflect their own era in time and their creator's own personal feelings and prejudices. ... Conrad and Coppola both use white men as the characters that have dominance. ... Conrad uses ivory traders as his characters in Heart of Darkness and the ivory trade in "Apocalypse Now, " Coppola uses soldiers and the Vietnam War. ... Conrad's use of narration is divergent and fascinating. ... The madness is shown in Kurtz and explored m...

• Word Count: 1530
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Coppola created this film with "ambitious effort to show Vietnam as America's Heart of Darkness, with Joseph Conrad's story providing the narrative skeleton" "(Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 1-1) and many themes, meanings, and entire scenes from the movie do in fact come directly from Conrad's book. ...

• Word Count: 1876
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Prior to the 1960s, war films did well at the box-office. Invigorated audiences defined their ideas of combat by watching films that glorified heroic soldiers. Rather than questioning the accuracy of setting, dialogue, or action, audiences gave the film makers freedom to use their imagination. Howe...

• Word Count: 3681
• Approx Pages: 15
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate