I thought that the movie Apocalypse Now was a great adaptation of the novel Heart Of Darkness. There were several noticeable parallels between the two, such as: Futility(when the soldiers explain how everyday they build a bridge and every night it gets destroyed), Ivory(Squashing enemy activity), and Smoke Grenades(the fog). Besides these I thought the film conveyed the feel of the book.
Several of the night scenes you only see part of a characters face, shrouding their identity to a degree. In the book the narration does the same thing only giving you bits and pieces of information at a time, and keeping you in suspense. This also happened at the end when he met Kurtz he was covered in the dark so you couldn't see his face. I think this was done for the same reason.
The scene where they got ambushed on the river I felt was conveyed perfectly. In the book there is a sense of chaos and panic. Nobody aboard the ship knows what to do or how to stop the attack. This chaos and panic is shown in the film, you can feel how scared the characters are. Are there more parallels or similarities between the book and the film?
Nick, I also really liked all the connections there were between Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now. I guess we mentioned it in class, but another similarity between the movie and the book would be the connection between the captain and the helmsman as the helmsman is dying.
Posted by: Emily B. | October 16, 2008 at 10:58 PM
I thought that the darkness and the willingness to be "savage" in both the film and the book were really significant. In heart of darkness they decide it would be okay to hang somebody just because they are in the dark civilization of the congo, and in Apocalypse Now, the characters act pretty brutally at times and I think it is because of the fog and the darkness they are in
Posted by: Sarah Pyle | October 17, 2008 at 05:47 AM