Placed in various time periods and settings, the novel Heart of Darkness,
written by Joseph Conrad, and the movie Apocalypse Now, produced and directed by
Francis Ford Coppola, both create the same mysterious journey with various
similarties and differences. The journey’s mystery lies in the scene; it is
one down a river by boat, deep in the jungle. The jungle is populated mainly
with wild animals and a few natives. The reason for the expedition is to search
for a sick man named Kurtz, who is followed by the natives and his men from
their previous missions. In Heart of Darkness, the journey to find Kurtz, who is
an ivory trader who has gone too deep into the jungles of Africa in search of
ivory, while in Apocalypse Now, Kurtz is a high-ranking officer in the military
who has disobeyed orders and is now fighting the Vietnam war in Cambodia with
his unit in his own fashion. The protagonists in both the novel and the movie go
through various changes while on their mission to find Kurtz. Marlow, who is the
rookie captain of a ship, slowly begins to envision Kurtz as an immortal figure.
In the movie, Willard’s state of mind ranges from being a demented soldier to
a crazed assassin. Although they are on the same mission, Marlow and Willard
face terribly different factors that affect their journey. The difference of
experiences, location, technology, communication, and mindset all affect each
character in different ways. Although they may have faced varying environments,
in the end the result was the same, Kurtz is discovered as a sick and possibly
demented individual. Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now are two strikingly
similar yet subtly different stories that end in the same fashion. Since Heart
of Darkness was based in the 1890’s, Marlow experiences many things due to the
lack of modern amenities and modern technologies. For example, a damaged steamer
delays Marlow’s journey for almost three weeks. The delay is caused because
Marlow and his crew could not get the rivets they needed to fix the steamer. A
phone or radio could have helped Marlow fix his steamer earlier and gotten onto
the water quicker. Three weeks might have been the difference between life and
death for Mr. Kurtz. Another example of a lack of communication is the
communication between stations: Is he alone there? ‘Yes,’ answered the
manager; “he sent his assistant down the river with a note to me in these
terms: “Clear this poor devil out of the country, and don’t bother sending
another more of that sort. I had rather be alone than have the kind of men you
can dispose of with me.” It was more than a year ago. (Conrad 100) If the
communication between stations would have been better, Marlow may have known the
conditions the station was in, and the area around it. Information about
Kurtz’s authority over the natives also could have helped save the life of a
member of Marlow’s crew. Communication with Kurtz’s station would have
benefited Marlow and his mission, by saving precious time and lives. Another
modern amenity Marlow could have used were detailed maps and reconnaissance.
These tools would have allowed Marlow access to solving geographic issues
preventing him from reaching Kurtz’s station, such as a sandbank and a grassy
islet. The sandbank and the grassy islet were what caused Marlow and his crew to
be sitting ducks for the natives to shoot at. The necessary modern amenities may
have made Marlow’s journey a shorter and safer one. During the times in which
Apocalypse Now is based, many aspects of daily life evolved. These changes have
profoundly affected civilized life, while those still out in the jungle may not
have felt any of these effects at all. Willard dealt with different issues than
Marlow because technology solved the many problems that Marlow faced. Willard
did not have to deal with a lack of communication or reconnaissance, all of this
was provided by radio, phone, and reconnaissance planes. Willard also knew about
the conditions of Kurtz’s location, he knew the natives followed Kurtz, and
that it was going to be a gruesome scene when he arrived. As he arrived up
river, Willard saw bodies hanging from ropes and was not the least bit affected
by it. Weapons were also an aspect that was different from the movie and the
book. There were greater fatalities in the movie because guns and bombs are far
deadlier than arrows or spears. In fact, Willard was affected by the shear
number of deaths he witnessed, especially the death of the character played by
Lawerence Fishburne, who was just a child. Technology affected Willard just as
the lack of technology affected Marlow in various instances. Although there are
many differences between the journeys in Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now,
there are a few similarities. A noticeable similarity in the journeys is that
both Willard and Marlow’s ships get shot at by the natives. What makes the
connection between the movie and the book is that in both stories the boats get
shot with arrows, and a crewmember dies. Another major similarity is the fact
that the natives at the end of the journey follow Kurtz as though he were a god.
In the book, the natives listen to the orders of Kurtz and attack the boat to
stop them from taking him. In the movie, there are a few signs that Kurtz is
highly respected by the natives. In one scene as Willard comes up the river he
sees a large wooden head, which resembles Kurtz. Another example is the scene
where Willard comes out of Kurtz’s room, and the natives looked stunned. Then
Willard walks through the crowd of natives and they all make way for him as he
passes through. The natives are clearly in a state of disarray as their leader,
their savior, had died. In either journey no matter where it was located, the
natives clearly felt the loss of a man they cherished and revered. Although the
journeys that Marlow and Willard make are similar in the fact that they are both
looking for Kurtz, the motivations for the journeys are different. Marlow’s
expedition through Africa at the time was to find Kurtz, who had been searching
and accumulating ivory, gold, and slaves. The main reason for Willard’s
expedition is to look for a general named Kurtz who has gone crazy, one who is
waging a war different from the one intended to keep communism out of parts of
Vietnam. Willard and Marlow are both on the same journey, but they are fueled by
different motivations and located on two different continents. There may be many
minor differences between Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now; but there is one
major difference. In Heart of Darkness Marlow assumes that he will return to
civilization after finding Kurtz. This was always understood since the company
he works for wants to know where all the ivory was. In Apocalypse Now it is a
different story, it is assumed that the mission is one in which Willard was not
expected to return. The scene in which Willard meets with the generals to
discuss the assassination of Kurtz, there was no discussion of whether Willard
would return or not. These two different mentalities are portrayed and tested
throughout each characters excursion to find Kurtz. On his tiresome journey,
Marlow changes from a man looking for Kurtz, to a man closely obsessed to
meeting the man behind the hype: ‘In the interior you will no doubt meet Mr.
Kurtz’. On my asking who Kurtz was, he said he was a first-class agent; and
seeing my disappointment at this information, he added slowly, laying down his
pen, ‘He is a very remarkable person’. (Conrad 84) This conversation with
the accountant obviously sparks Marlow’s interest in Kurtz. At the central
station some two hundred miles later, Marlow’s interest grows even deeper. A
conversation with the manager leads Marlow to believe that Kurtz is a remarkable
and distinctive man, who is very ill at the time. Marlow is now impatient and
cannot stand the wait for the rivets to come for his ship, so he can finally
meet Kurtz. When Marlow finally meets Kurtz, he is truly amazed at the type of
man Kurtz is. Marlow desires to kill Kurtz at first, but as he converses with
Kurtz his mindset is changed. Kurtz appears to be an intelligent man, whose soul
had gone mad. Marlow sees this, and now feels as if he must take care of Kurtz,
to save an extraordinary human being. This is the exact opposite of how Willard
feels in the movie. Willard is almost the exact opposite of Marlow, and he shows
it from the beginning to the end of the movie. Willard begins the movie in a
hotel room drunk, exploring the depths of his sorrow. Willard is experiencing
with drawl from not being out in the jungle, fighting for democracy. Willard
wishes to return to action, and soon his wish is granted. He is given a secret
mission by the army to assassinate Kurtz. Willard does not seem up to the idea
of being an assassin as he begins his journey, but by the end he has transformed
into a full-fledged killer. Meeting Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore definitely has an
effect on Willard. Kilgore shows Willard that life is difficult, and to be an
American means being the best at everything. This is shown in the scene where
Kilgore and his men are bombing a Vietnamese town, while playing music in the
background. The music symbolizes American superiority and a feeling of
invincibility. Willard and his crew are now making their way upriver, and they
spot a Vietnamese fishing boat. Pulling it over for inspection, the situation
drastically changes and they kill innocent people, but save a puppy. Willard is
shown sitting on the opposite side of the boat observing as the event unfolds.
Willard seems to notice the recklessness that life brings, and the utter
disregard for life that the crew seemed to display. The only member who shows
some sympathy is the Chef, who cries, but is ignored by the rest of the crew as
if nothing had happened. It seems as if Willard suddenly cares less and less
about the lives of others as he saw how fragile it was and how it easy it was to
take it away. Willard’s conscience breaks when Lawrence Fishburne’s
character died. A child had died to fight in a war that made no sense, and now
Willard is finally set on his mission to kill. As he pulls up into Kurtz’s
base, Willard sees the sickness and decided to rid of it. Meeting with the
madman Kurtz only makes things worse, Willard is disgusted at what was going on.
After he kills Kurtz, Willard seems confused on what he would do next, weather
to give the order to bomb the village or let the innocent followers live. It was
a major difference from Heart of Darkness, where Marlow goes back to England a
more educated person, but not necessarily a mentally scarred person such as
Willard. Though there are various differences and slight similarities, Heart of
Darkness and Apocalypse Now both portray the same journey into the jungle and
inescapably into each character’s self. Although located in different regions
of the world, in different time periods, with different factors, each character
faced many different events and situations that inevitably changed their
perspective. Marlow ultimately learned of the value of a life, and the effects
one man can have on another. On the other hand Willard had gained a total
disregard for human beings, and will probably stayed in the assassin mindset for
a long period of time after the Vietnam War was over. Whether book or movie the
ending was the same, the entertainment came in the subtle differences one could
notice.