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In Reply to: RE: Heart of Darkness vs Apocalypse Now posted by user510 on September 27, 2014 at 17:16:11
Thank you for sharing your review of the novella & movie-
The movie came out whilst I was an undergrad studying literature (thesis: Kafka's The Trial) -
While I agree with some of the criticisms of the parallel between the two - There is a line from Conrad loosely paraphrased 'in London we walk between the Butcher behind the counter and the Bobby (policeman) on the street' - for me the implication is that the further 'upriver- for these two stories- you go, the further away from this clear delineation of morality/civilization/right&wrong one travels-
I am not sure that the 'adaptation of 19th century Belgian Congo' is actually very different from what Coppola is trying to communicate about Viet Nam. The Belgian Congo was a unique chapter in in-humanity, and is probably only equaled by the Khemer Rouge, Pol Pot, the Rwandan genocide and a few other events-
I do agree that the movie has a few gratuitous sceens - but as a modern adaptation to a similar situation, I though that it was quite 'on the mark' -
There is one other device that Conrad uses to great effect, that of the story within a story - the story of the novella is told to a captive audience as they are leaving London at night and awaiting the rising tide, so that they can clear the mouth of the river. Henry James used the same device to great effect in the "Turn of the Screw" - another weird novella...
Thanks again for sharing
Yes. Coppola does parallel the themes and major events from the novella by his adaption of it into the Viet Nam war theater.
In the film, the further the pbr crew travels upriver, it is seen that breakdowns in command and discipline and morality among US troops are on the increase. And while depicting this Coppola creates large surreal, somewhat nightmarish scenes to show this.
I was unaware of the atrocities committed by Belgians against the people in the "Congo Free State". Now, after a brief look at this history (wikipedia), it fits that at the time of this writing (~1899) Conrads story telling means to criticize Imperialistic method though this fictional account that, we now know, does not wander far from actual events in the Congo.
And so it would seem that Coppola wanted to discredit the US war effort in Viet Nam through a fictional parody that closely follows Conrads storyline (from late 1800's Congo). My complaint is that in this movie making Coppola vilifies every GI who served honorably over there.
This 'parody of war' film takes the absurdity out of Conrads story and turns it into a graphic orgy of ridiculousness and unbelievability.
re: story within a story. I enjoyed this in the way the story set up. The description aboard the yacht, as the small group settled down to hear Marlow's retelling of his experience within the Congo was rich in mood setting detail. Good reading.
-Steve
It's not the soldiers that anti war movies vilify, it's the leaders. Hel-loo!
hopelessly incompetent to the work. And they needlessly killed that sanpan family.
-steve
Needlessly killing innocent civilians. That would never happen in real life. Yeah, right.
I agree with your disdain that criticism of the war is usually at the expense of the soldier - this is the tragedy of governments.
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