A River Runs Through It—The Nung and the Congo
Although the settings of the mediums are quite different—the inspiration for Francis Ford Copolla’s Apocalypse Now, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, takes place in colonial Africa and the film is set in the center of the Vietnam War in the late ‘60s—the basic theme of the novel was left intact when adapted to the screen.
For example, the film’s Captain Willard to the text’s Charlie Marlow, travels up river (through the Nung River in Vietnam and Cambodia versus the Congo River in Africa), to face a wicked mastermind—Colonel Kurtz—who has been accused of relying on “unsound methods” in his position. During the trip, Willard/Marlow must confront his uncertainties and face humanity with all its depravities, while taking the chance that he may end up going insane from the rigors of the journey, itself.
Additionally, most of the characters from Conrad’s novel are either given different names or changed entirely, including the protagonist, Marlow, who is a commissioned ivory agent sent on an expedition through the jungle to meet up with the multi-talented Kurtz in order to bring back information about him. In the film, Marlow is Captain Benjamin Willard, United States Army and assigned to terminate Kurtz.
Civilized Man Takes on Heart of Darkness
Similarities are evident, however, as both Marlow and Willard make their way up the respective dark and imposing rivers. Both come across unimaginable carnage and slavery, which Conrad critics ascribe to European imperialism. And because Willard is in the midst of a war, he must participate in some of the flagrant violence himself. While Heart of Darkness accuses imperialism, Apocalypse Now points the finger at the American presence during the war in Vietnam. Together, these stories illustrate that spending too much time living beyond civilized society may lead even the best men into insanity.
Another similarity between the two mediums is pertaining to the issue of race. Both Conrad and Coppola use the white man as characters who dominate—both in their crews that lead them down the river, and of the native cultures they face along the way—and both look at the natives as though white men are the civilized peoples and the natives are the savages. Additionally, both works suggest that “civilized” white men who travel into an uncivilized region turn into savages and never return to the white civilization (i.e., Kurtz).
In the film, Willard has to make the decision of either completing his mission and terminating Kurtz, or abandoning it. If he successfully follows through with the mission, then he has remained civil, but if he does not, then the Vietnam jungle has won. A final similarity between the two mediums that sums up the content of the story told by Conrad and also by Scott, is in the quote spoken by Kurtz in both the novel and the film: “The Horror! The horror!” This gives the reader and the viewer an opportunity to comprehend that there’s potential darkness in everyone’s heart.
A Futuristic Earth for Dick and Scott
As for Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Ridley Scott’s film adaptation of Blade Runner, there are a few similarities. For example, several of the characters’ names remain the same, such as Rick Deckard—the protagonist. An additional similarity is the setting of a futuristic Earth; however, both are rendered as two completely different interpretations. Dick paints the picture of Earth as a veritable wasteland of desolation, contaminated by radiation following the World War Terminus and nearly uninhabitable with dust and decay. On the other hand, Scott’s depiction of Earth, circa 2019, is a continuously wet, crowded, and cultural melting pot, complete with a myriad of Japanese imagery and the absence of most animals.
Androids Versus Replicants, Mercerism Versus Mortality
Conversely, there are many variations between the two mediums. For instance, both stories are told with differing situations; i.e., the novel deals with a complexity of concerns such as humanity and relationships, technology and spiritualism, and the effects of war and extinction. Whereas, the film deals with artifice, romance, and mortality. In the novel, Deckard utilizes Mercerism to seek peace in his life, as well as answers to questions about God and humanity.
In the beginning, Deckard appears apathetic to everything around him and must use the “mood organ” to regularly program and feel emotion. As he advances his position within the police department, the mission to retire the androids becomes an end to a means in order to earn enough money to purchase a live animal to replace his defunct electric sheep. By the end of the novel, he has learned how to feel empathy for others—whether alive, dead, or android—a theme that is deeply explored throughout the text.
On the contrary, the film Deckard does not deal with religion, spirituality, or mood altering, and he doesn’t have a wife or an animal to care for. He simply needs to come to grips with humanity and, in the process, his own mortality. And although Rick Deckard is the main character both in print and on the screen, in the novel he is undoubtedly a human being. For example, he frequently double checks that humanness—in light of what he does for a living—by comparing how he perceives the retirement of the androids to how others react to them. However, in the film, it is inferred through a dream sequence and an image of a unicorn, that Deckard is really a replicant with no deeper search for answers except to carry out his assignment to retire the replicants.
Although both novels do provide inspiration for their screen counterparts, Apocalypse Now arguably does a better job of staying true to the heart of the novel’s core themes. While the plots are different, the settings are similar—the jungle and river, natives and war. And finally, the basic nature of Colonel Kurtz remains the same, as well as the exploration of man’s dark side.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1996,c1968
Heart of Darkness (Norton Critical Editions) Publisher: Norton, W.W. & Company, Inc., 2005
Chris Schmidt - Hello, my name is Chris Schmidt, and I am co-founder and former managing director of scribes @ ASU, a creative writing club that promotes ...
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