Apocalypse Now vs. Heart of Darkness

Both stories are very similar in many ways. The protagonists travel down rivers in the jungle in their respective stories looking for a crazy man named Kurtz who we don’t meet till the end of the story. Both plots tell the story of the protagonist’s journeys down the rivers and into the heart of the jungle looking for Kurtz.

Even though both stories and settings are similar they are different in many ways at the same time. Apocalypse Now is a modern version of Heart of Darkness that emerged in American cinema in 1979 due to a strong storyline, a strong cast and interest in the Vietnam conflict.

In order to properly analyze both of these stories let’s begin with the protagonists. Benjamin Willard (played by Martin Sheen in the film) is a former CIA counterintelligence officer who was commissioned as a captain in the United States army during the Vietnam conflict. Willard was secretly given a classified miss

In both stories, Kurtz has a particular follower he communicates and relates with the protagonists. In Apocalypse Now the Kurtz follower is a western journalist who went to cover the war but fell in love with Kurtz and his cause. In Heart of Darkness the follow was a Russian trader. Both the western journalist and the Russian trader were somewhat crazy after clearly spending too much time in the jungle.

Both plots were carried out in a very similar manner. The only real difference between the stories was the characters, and in both stories even the antagonist was pretty much the same man. Heck, they shared the same name. Clearly Apocalypse Now is a ripped off, modernized American version of Heart of Darkness.

Marlow had a different mission and purpose than Willard in his story. Marlow was a philosophical riverboat captain working for a company based in Belgium that ran organized trade along the Congo River.

ion to kill Kurtz by a group of high-ranking army officials.

So we have one American story written told after a European story giving the same message after showcasing a very similar plot. Apocalypse Now probably did a better job though, through a more complex plot with more complex characters. The military plot was also more exciting than the civilian plot written in the earlier European version. Heart of Darkness was somewhat broad and the modern version of it clearly did a go

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