[Music] in case you didn't know francis ford coppola's epic 1979 vietnam war film apocalypse now is loosely based on the 1899 novella heart of darkness by joseph conrad in this video i'll give my thoughts on both go over some of the similarities and differences between the two and at the end i'll tell you which one i personally think is better but before we get started please do me a favor go check out my brand new facebook page adam wright reviews you can find exclusive content there that you won't find here on my youtube channel like my thoughts on current movies that are out right now so please give me a follow there and let's get started with heart of darkness versus apocalypse now because the book and the movie are so different i'm going to start by talking about what they have in common first both center around a character from the western world who finds himself in a poor war-torn foreign country in both that character travels down a river on a boat throughout most of the story while on that journey that character is attacked on the boat by some natives on land in both instances they throw spears at the boat and in both instances they kill one of the crew members the main character also witnesses the horrors inflicted upon the natives by western imperialists and soldiers and the thing that they most have in common is that the endings of both stories center around a man named kurtz a commander who has gone rogue and is worshipped as a god by the natives and is admired by others for his mind-expanding way of speaking there are a few other similarities that i'll get to later but those are the main ones okay let's talk about the book as i mentioned joseph conrad's heart of darkness was published in 1899. i actually read this novella for the first time in high school it was a required reading in one of my english classes and i remember it not being my least favorite book that i had to read in high school heart of darkness begins with an unnamed narrator who recounts the tale told to him and others by a seaman named charles marlow who describes how he became the captain of a river steamboat for an ivory trading company in the african interior in the 19th century marlowe has been ordered to travel more than 200 miles inland by steamboat to investigate a trading post commanded by a man named kurtz who i said is gone rogue and is being worshipped as a god by the natives heart of darkness is beautifully written conrad is very widely praised for his prose he has a great use of simile and metaphor and his writing is very philosophical at times the mind of man is capable of anything because everything is in it all the past as well as all the future what was there after all [Music] joy fear sorrow devotion valor rage who can tell heart of darkness is also pretty nihilistic at times draw thing life is that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose the most you can hope for from it is some knowledge of yourself that comes too late a crop of unextinguishable regrets overall i found heart of darkness to be a very thought-provoking if not depressing commentary on imperialism and existentialism okay apocalypse now like i said it is very loosely based on heart of darkness instead of taking place in africa in the 19th century it takes place in southeast asia during the vietnam war i'm almost ashamed to admit that i had never seen apocalypse now until just before filming this video it might be the best vietnam war movie i have ever seen it really blew me away its central character is a united states special ops captain named benjamin willard played by martin sheen willard is an assassin and is informed of a rogue colonel named walter kurtz played brilliantly by marlon brando who has gone insane his mission willards is to find and kill kurtz which differs from marlow's mission in heart of darkness because marlowe is not ordered to directly kill kurtz just to go investigate and bring him back many things happen before willard actually reaches kurtz kurtz isn't really in the film until the final third act but when willard does finally reach him the the scene is just jaw-dropping i mean this film was shot on location in the philippines like i said just just look at this spoiler alert willard does eventually kill kurtz which is different from how heart of darkness ends kurtz does die at the end of heart of darkness but he is already ill with a fever when marlow finally finds him and he ends up succumbing to that fever robert duvall has a minor role in this film and he's incredible he has the most memorable line in the film i love the smell of my palm in the morning which is probably so memorable because honestly duvall in my opinion is the most memorable character in the whole film i did notice two very specific scenes in apocalypse now that were taken directly out of heart of darkness one being kurtz's dying words in both are the same also in both the book and the film the main character comes across some writings of kurtz some scribblings in the book kurtz writes out exterminate all the brutes in the film a little different though he writes drop the bomb exterminate them all okay which one do i like better the book or the film while heart of darkness i think is a very important book and one that i do think everybody should read at least once it's very short apocalypse now really blew me away like i said it might be the best vietnam war movie i've ever seen and i do think it is a masterpiece so i think it is well a very loose adaptation i think it's an adaptation that is better than its source material okay have you read heart of darkness seen apocalypse now what are some similarities or differences that you notice that maybe i didn't mention in this video comment below let me know your thoughts on each please like and subscribe stay tuned for more videos in the near future my next video will be moby dick book versus movie so stay tuned for that thank you so much for watching i'll see you later