In the movie Apocalypse now, the characters, events and themes involved in the story are based on the novel "Heart of Darkness". Although the movie has various traits that are different to each other, the story unravels the same way for both. In the novel, Marlow finds himself entangled in a web of madness and of egotism making him, and the other pilgrims, prisoner of their own greed and malice. Marlow is represented by Cap. Benjamin Willard who is sent to find the person in the inner stations causing turmoil in the jungle. The setting of the film takes place in the jungles of Vietnam, during the Vietnam War during the 1970's while the novel takes place in the jungles of Africa during the era of Imperialism. Both depict the nature of the insanity and desperation of the people involved in the project and how each station while going deeper into the jungle through the river, changed into a place where reality could not be defined. Both novel and film portrayed Mr. Kurtz, Walter Kurtz, as a spectacular person with a remarkable intelligence that take him into the edge of savagery. The characters go through the same process of changing personalities by their experience with their savage and wild side hidden from the rest of the people. The Characters for the novel are in the ivory trade for their own well being, but for soldiers in Vietnam, they don't understand why they still fight if their work was not all that helpful, the same as with black slaves. The ending of the movie and the novel are different, because in the film Kurtz is killed while in the novel he dies of a disease. The film portrays the themes of the novel in a well manner making it a good movie to understand the reading. .
