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Apocalypse Now & Heart of Darkness

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Beowulf77

New Member
I am curious to read the comments of others who have read "Heart of Darkness" and seen "Apocalypse Now". We compared these two when I was in high school and again in college. It fascinated me how the two were so connected and similar despite two different settings. I am a fan of films based on books, but it is typically a direct adaptation with some changes. "Field of Dreams" and "The Natural" are two of my favorites. In this case, though, making a film adaptation out of book in a different historical situation...I thought it was a great study and it helped me enjoy both a little more.

What did others think? Are there any other books that you recall being adapted into film...but with a different era or setting?
 
A belated hello and welcome, Beowulf, :)

I thought Apocolypse Now was an excellent adaptation. The era and ending were changed, but the basic conflicts within the characters remained pretty true to "Heart of Darkness".

As for other movies, the ones that come most readily to mind are those adapted from Shakespeare: "O" based on Othello and the 1996 version of "Romeo and Juliet". Both are set in contemporary times. "O" is interesting because it has an all-teen cast and is set in a suburban prep school. I thought both were quite good.

Ell
 
O Brother Where Art Thou claims to be an adaption of the Odyssey. I don't buy it, but I'll take "inspired by."

I agree Apocalypse Now is very good. Heart of Darkness can't match the intensity of it, for all it's a well written book.
 
what's there not to buy? the coen brothers wrote o brother, where art thou? to parallel the odyssey. it's a contemporary adaption. james joyce did exactly the same thing with ulysses.
 
i don't know, the concept of adaption implies a fairly close rendering to me, of either plot or characters or even themes. for o brother, the coen brothers seemed to just borrow a scene or a bit of an idea here and there, so i'll go with inspired by but not a true adaption. but it's just semantics I guess.
 
that film is packed full of symbols. they're just everywhere. my favorite is the proteus/radio parallel ... it works perfectly. proteus was in constant change and motion: at one moment he might appear as a sea lion, the next moment a wave. neither were disguises, he was simultaneously the sea lion and the wave. in fact, he was everything all at aonce. with the radio waves, they are exactly what you hear: sometimes music, sometimes talking, sometimes just white noise. they have no set form. whether you hear the music or the noise makes no difference. they are quintessentially protean.

I for one thought the coen brothers did an awesome job of not using the same parallels joyce did. in the third episode of ulysses, the flow of thought in stephen dedalus' mind is what becomes the contemporary proteus. it makes sense, thoughts are always changing. the list goes on and on: the cyclops is a drunken jew-hater; the sirens are the sounds of dublin (personified by a couple of barmaids); circe is a harlot; nestor is a babbling old school master; and the hades scene is set in a graveyard ... you won't find any of those in o brother, where art thou?, because the coen brothers weren't trying to copy ulysses. they were totally original. I mean, c'mon ... a k.k.k. rally in great depression-era america is the perfect setting for a violent underworld, just like hades.
 
I salute you for having the persistence to finish Ulysses. It is a vast undertaking, indeed.
 
1) 'Apocalypse Now' is a fantastic movie by a fantastic director, primarily because most of the people involved when bonkers during the filming of it - Sheen - "I'm going crazy...how's that for authentic, emotional realism?".

2) 'Heart Of Darkness' is a fantastic novel written by a fantastic writer, primarily because he had first hand experience of many of the events he wrote about.

3) I love both of them in equally special, but different ways...
 
ok i have a confesion to make

:( i have never watch apocalypse now :( :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

ok there is it, out on the open, now you all can point your fingers at me and laugh :mad:

:D :D

but i just got as a gift both apocalypse now redux and the novel heart of darkness

so what should i do first, watch the movie or read the book
i usually rather read books first, but for what i know this is not your regular adaptation (both in the setting and style).
so i would like to read your opinons :)
 
Read the book! Read the book! I cannot stress this enough. Heart of Darkness is an amazingly written story and I think that it will really enrich your experience viewing Apocalypse Now. I read the book first and watched the movie second and I thought that was a good way to do it.

Keep in mind, Apocalypse Now is not going to be exactly like Heart of Darkness. It's different in many ways, including the setting, and the overall sociopolitical commentary is aimed in different directions (Conrad was mostly talking about hypocrisy and racism, and Coppola was mostly commenting on the hypocrisy of the "patriotism" in the war in Vietnam).

Enjoy!
 
Well said, Kristo. I agree, though I think that redux is different from both the book and the original movie.
In any event, Conrad is one of my favorite authors. He should be read at every opportunity.
 
Both are excellent. I don't know if it's necessary to read the book first. The two are sufficiently different that if you go into each without analyzing the similarities right away, you should be okay.

ell
 
The movie and the book,while sharing much of the same plot, are sufficiently different so that it does not really matter if you read the book or see the movie first. However the movie has more elements of "coolness" that you wont find in the book. You might miss comments like "i love the smell of napalm in the morning" if you read the book after having seen the movie. It depends a bit on what makes you like the movie.
 
thx a lot for the responses, i guess ill do a pause on my current lecture, to read heart of darkness, and probably watch the movie on the weekend
:)
 
I agree with Ell and Zoli. They are really two different things, though one is 'roughly' based on the other.

Like O Brother Where Are Thou and the Odyssey. Watching the movies definitely won't spoil any surprises in the book.
 
Hope you have surround sound...or at least can play the sound through a half decent stereo....you really need more than just the standard tv speaker(s) for Apocalypse Now.....

"Charlie don't surf...."
 
I don't really think it's that great a book, though I do admire Joseph Conrad for his accomplishments. By today's standards, HoD is a pretty dull read, though at the time it probably seemed inordinately clear, direct, and free of linguistic flourishes. I think it's still read in school a lot because of all the overt symbolism and opportunities to discuss Victorian jingoism and colonial prejudices.
 
I agree with novella.
I have just finished The Heart Of Darkness the other day and I am still baffled about the book.
Why is everybody considering Kurtz so extraordinary? Conrad didn't explain anything about it.
I know that book is full of metaphors but in my opinion "darkness" metaphor is overused in this book.
 
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