Comparisons Between Book And Film

by Benjamin

1.) Beginning / The Facts:

                                                                   Book                                                     Film

2.) Main part / Comparisons

A.) Facts that are the same

1.) the first person narrator: In the book there is Marlow, a middle-aged ship´s captain, who tells us his story. In “Apocalypse Now” Willard is the narrator, whose thoughts we can listen to.

2.) main plot: In the film and in the book the plot is the same. A young man has to find a man called Kurtz. Their journey takes a couple of days until they find him. While they are on their trips, we get lots of information about their feelings and tastes (the smell of lies for instance).

3.) the fog: The nearer Marlow/Willard and his crew come to their goals, the unclearer it gets. The fog as a symbol of "getting darker", because fog is a sort of corollary to darkness. Fog not only obscures, but distorts: it gives Marlow/Willard enough information to start with making decisions, but there is no way to judge. For example: Marlow´s steamer gets stuck in the fog. This means that he has no idea where he is going.

4.) the death of the helmsman: In "Apocalypse Now" the helmsan got shot while he was listening to his mother´s tape - a well-made scene by the director. In "Heart Of Darkness" Marlow and his crew come across a hut with stacked firewood. Shortly after the steamer has taken on the firewood, the ship is attacked by an unseen band of natives, who fire arrows and so the helman gets killed before Marlow frightens the natives away (with the ship´s steam whistle).

5.) Kurtz´s final note: After Kurtz´s death Marlow/Willard find a packet of personal documents, inculding a pamphlet on civilising, which ends with a scrawled message that says: "Extermiante all the Brutes".

B.) Facts that are different

1.) place setting: In the film the story is set in Vietnam, the heart of darkness in the book is the Congo.

2.) time setting: Conrad´s book plays at the end of the 19th century, Coppola´s film in 1967 (during the Vietnam war that started 1965 and lasted officially until 1975).

3.) beginnning of the story: Willard gets arrested and has to find Kurtz as a punsihment and Marlow is just an introspective sailor, who takes a job as a riverboat captain with the Company (a Belgian concern organized to trade in the Congo).

4.) Kurtz´s last wish: The last wish isn´t in the film and so we´ll never know what it has been. But we know that everybody wanted him dead and didn´t say or tried anything like that and so the death could be the answer as a result of his hate for lies.

5.) Kurtz´s dying: In the film Kurtz got killed by Willard (because “everybody wanted him dead” and “he should die like a soldier” – so Willard). But the Kurtz in “Heart Of Darkness” didn´t get killed by anyone – he was quite ill and died in the end.
 

C.) Facts that are similar

1.) fascination of Kurtz: The closer Marlow/Willard gets to Kurtz, the more respect he replies. In the end both get fascinated by Kurtz´s so-called “madness”.

2.) the man who adores Kurtz: On one hand it is the Russian trader, and on the other hand it is an American journalist. Both meet Marlow/Willard, when they are arriving at “Kurtz´s Station”.

3.) the object of desire: In the Congo it is the ivory which doesn´t play any role in Vietnam – there it is a demonstration of power.

 

3.) Ending / My Opinion

I think it was a great idea by Francis Ford Coppola to use Conrad´s book as a model. So he connected to different genres and made a unique film. My friends who hadn´t read the book also liked the film. But it is something special to read first the book and watch the film afterwards.

by Benjamin