Similarities Between Apocalypse Now And Heart Of Darkness

While both Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness show strong similarities. However, the characters in the film and novel are shown very differently around the main character of each individual story. We can see that Kurtz remains the same with a psychopath mentality leading the natives, Marlow reacts more humane rather than Willard who acted more vicious, which can be shown throughout the whole film.

For example, when Willard’s comes across a small boat with natives and supplies, they were on edge. Suddenly, the woman rushes to receive her puppy which terrifies the men, who end up killing everyone on board. Willard then goes out of his way to kill off the injured woman. He had zero sympathy towards the natives. His only mission is to eliminate Kurtz at all cost no matter what. In contrast, Marlow never kills anyone throughout the novel. When faced with the starving Africans, rather than moving on with his journey, he stops to give one a cracker, and examines the event unlike Willard’s, who only focused on achieving his main goal. Conrad writes base on subjective reactions presented to show more of Marlow’s feelings than the death itself. Coppola is much more direct, when the woman dies, she dies in the middle of the frame. Coppola, by adding this savage scene, sets up the main difference between Marlow and Willard. Heart of Darkness separates violence away from the narrator. Marlow sees these events but not participating in it much. However, Apocalypse Now throws Willard directly into the violence.

While the meaning of Heart of Darkness is mainly revolving around Kurtz, whose violent methods reveal the darkness behind greediness and having too much power, Apocalypse Now’s meaning is centered on Willard, whose violent methods reveal the darkness that develops within the hearts of all men fighting in war and the effect it