Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by user510 (R) on September 30, 2014 at 10:49:24

In Reply to: RE: Heart of Darkness vs Apocalypse Now posted by 6bq5 on September 29, 2014 at 15:04:15

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