Conrad Passes the Torch to Coppola: A New Legacy of Darkness. rendition of Joseph Conrad s Heart of Darkness in his film Apocalypse Now.

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1 Puigh 1 Darren Puigh Kellie Holzer English March 2003 Conrad Passes the Torch to Coppola: A New Legacy of Darkness What does it mean to tell the same story in a different way? Francis Coppola offers his rendition of Joseph Conrad s Heart of Darkness in his film Apocalypse Now. The film recapitulates many of the same themes and ideas as Conrad s novel, but it is characterized in such a unique way that it serves to sharpen our vision and further illuminate the odyssey into darkness taken by the principal character. Using voiceover in the film instead of the framing narrative found in the novel entreats the audience to enter the mind of the Willard/Marlow character. These private insights into his thoughts allow for a more intimate connection to be established between the audience and the narrator. In addition, Apocalypse Now personalizes this classic novel through its allusions, usage of cinematic techniques, and differences in narration style, casting a new light on the story. These devices function to develop a deeper relationship between the audience and the story being told, so that the audience is affected on a more emotional level through the act of witnessing the journey with their own eyes. Most people cannot imagine the horrible conditions that must have existed in the place and times that these stories depict, and this limitation shields the reader from some of these grim realties. Any safeguards of the imagination present while reading Heart of Darkness are bypassed in this retelling. While Heart of Darkness is rich with imagery and descriptive language that is a feast for the mind, Apocalypse Now expands upon this by assailing two of our senses in particular: sight

2 Puigh 2 and sound. The employment of lighting, or a lack of lighting in many cases, is particularly powerful in its use as an extra descriptive tool. One of the best examples of this comes about in the first meeting that Willard or the audience has with Kurtz. As these two pivotal characters are going through that first courting period, Kurtz s face is shrouded in darkness. In fact, only rare glimpses of his face are visible during this important scene. It isn t until many scenes later that the audience gets to see Kurtz s entire countenance. Conversely, Willard is blanketed in darkness with only his face illuminated, though it is one caked with dirt and grime. Thus, the obscurity surrounding Kurtz s face becomes an indication of the darkness that lies in his heart just as it indicates Willard s own passage into darkness. Although this interplay of light and dark is present in the book, it becomes a defining element in this revision. The book s incorporation of lighting is only through its use of darkness as a motif and a metaphor. This is also achieved in the film, but lighting is also used to denote contrast between light and dark elements. The infusion of brightness into dark scenes only seems to make the darkness much more jarring, amplifying the emotional response that the book elicits. Furthering this attempt of contrast is the use of sound in Apocalypse Now. Again, the novel also employs the use of sound. Its main purpose is to unhinge the reader a little, making them uneasy, while also adding to the savage image of the natives. As an example, when moored by a white fog on the expedition upriver, Marlow relates what he hears: A complaining clamour, modulated in savage discords, filled our ears. The sheer unexpectedness of it made my hair stir under my cap. I don t know how it struck the others: to me it seemed as though the mist itself had screamed, so suddenly, and apparently from all sides at once, did this tumultuous and mournful uproar arise. It culminated in a hurried outbreak of almost intolerably excessive

3 Puigh 3 shrieking, which stopped short, leaving us stiffened in a variety of silly attitudes, and obstinately listening to the nearly as appalling and excessive silence. (Conrad 68) The din of the surrounding jungle seems to give it a life of its own, almost as if the sounds are coming from the land itself instead of its inhabitants. This racket attempts to place the reader in the jungle as best it can by trying to accommodate to the sense of hearing through the reader s imagination. Apocalypse Now puts a different spin on this. During the particularly eerie scenes, there is discordant music and/or noise in the background. The scene where Kurtz has just killed Chef and he shows Willard the head of his victim illustrates this wonderfully. These cacophonous noises are completely unavoidable in the film, unlike in the book. One cannot fully suppress the spine-chilling feeling that they inspire. Here, the pandemonium speaks volumes that could not be conveyed as evocatively by any other means. Both the novel and the film use allusions to further the narration, but they strive to achieve different goals. Heart of Darkness draws upon three major allusions, though there are many others present in the book. The first novel alluded to in this text is Jules Verne s Journey to the Center of the Earth. In describing his departure to Africa, Marlow relates, I felt as though, instead of going to the centre of a continent, I were about to set off for the centre of the earth (Conrad 29). This journey to a place with prehistoric and un-evolved creatures that he describes directly mirrors his journey to the center of Africa. In that country, many beasts and savages are encountered that exist literally before written history. This serves as a reflection of Marlow s preconceived notions of the trip he was about to undertake. Another allusion is made to H.G. Wells s The Island of Dr. Moreau. Upon returning to the sepulchral city after being enlightened by his adventure, Marlow speaks lowly of its inhabitants by saying, Their bearing,

4 Puigh 4 which was the bearing of commonplace individuals going about their business in the assurance of perfect safety, was offensive [ ] like the outrageous flauntings of folly in the face of a danger it is unable to comprehend (Conrad 114). It is interesting to see in Conrad s novel this allusion to a story where hideous abominations are created by a megalomaniac with a God-complex. This may be a representation of Kurtz and how he changed the savages for his own malicious purposes and why he did so. Even more fascinating are the two references made to the tale of Sleeping Beauty. As the trip to reach Kurtz begins nearing its end, Marlow describes the forest as if it were in a state of trance like the enchanted forest of the fairytale (Conrad 67). In the other reference to Sleeping Beauty, Marlow remarks that the expedition to recover Kurtz was beset by as many dangers as though he had been an enchanted princess sleeping in a fabulous castle (Conrad 72). Possibly the Company (or at least Marlow) thinks of themselves as the rescuing prince. They have to fight their way through all the thorns to fight the evil old witch who is also a dragon. Kurtz can be seen as the evil one that is also a horrible dragon, while simultaneously serving the role of the princess with his value to the Company. Conversely, the savages in red with horns might also represent the sorcerer and the dragon. This particular line of thought is given textual evidence in the novel when a black figure with horns is near the weak Kurtz, and the savage is referred to as a sorcerer or witch-man (Conrad 106). These allusions advance the narration in their attempt to fully relate the story as best they can. The allusions and references in Apocalypse Now are a little more narrowly focused. Instead of furthering the narration of the entire story, they work in the film to speak about and expand upon the symbol and character of Kurtz. In this respect, there are two main allusions of note, though many more were present. One of the references is to Sir James Frazer s anthropological study The Golden Bough that is on Kurtz s bookshelf. Contained in this book is

5 Puigh 5 a chapter entitled Perils of the Soul. This section deals with the many ways different societies believe one can lose their soul, and it goes into much detail on how this can happen while one is sleeping. However, later Frazer writes, But in order that a man s soul should quit his body, it is not necessary that he should be asleep. It may quit him in his waking hours, and then sickness, insanity, or death will be the result (Frazer 157). In the context of the film, one is immediately drawn to the word insanity in that passage. One can surmise that Kurtz s continual exposure to wartime stresses and the psychological trauma that must ensue, as well as his complete immersion in the savage world, may have caused him to forfeit his soul. Kurtz s obvious insanity could very well be a result of this emptiness inside of him. This quote leads directly into the concept of a hollow man. In the scene where Kurtz reads poetry aloud, the despairing poem he reads is T.S. Eliot s The Hollow Men. Kurtz reads: We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when We whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass Or rats feet over broken glass In our dry cellar Shape without form, shade without colour, Paralysed force, gesture without motion; (Eliot lines 1-12)

6 Puigh 6 This poem is based strongly on Heart of Darkness. The concept of a hollow man comes from Conrad s projection of the Kurtz character (Southam ). Kurtz may therefore be seen as hollow because he lacks a soul. Thus, the cycle has come full circle. Apocalypse Now has allusions to a poem that was influenced strongly by the very same source that the film is trying to recapture. Coppola is continually adapting ideas first put forth by Conrad until he makes this story his own. However, nothing is more distinct in the narration of these two stories than the way that these stories are being told. In the story Heart of Darkness, the Marlow character is not the main narrator. The true narrator is merely the ship-mate of Marlow who listens to him recount his tale. This anonymous narrator serves to provide a framework through which Marlow s account is featured. The narrative framework functions as a distancing tool, possibly for the purpose of separating Marlow and Conrad. In Robert Hampson s Introduction to Heart of Darkness, he writes, The narrative presents the character s immediate sensations [ ] only to open up a gap between impression and interpretation and to foreground the process of interpretation (Hampson xxvi). Indeed, there are many such instances where the reader is brought on a journey with Marlow, only to be left wondering at the thoughts seething under the surface of their guide. For example, the absurdity of the colonization effort is characterized by two main events. In one, Marlow notices that one of the colonists is trying to put out a fire with a pail that had a hole in the bottom of it. In another example at the Outer Station, Marlow ponders on a vast artificial hole somebody had been digging on the slope, the purpose of which [was] impossible to divine (Conrad 34). Instead of openly stating his thoughts on colonization, the reader is forced to interpret what they will of Marlow s opinions at times. Without a direct line into these thoughts, there will always be some ambiguity to his alliances. Conversely, the voiceover narration of

7 Puigh 7 Apocalypse Now offers the audience a chance to gain insight into the Willard character. It is clear how Willard feels about the war with comments such as when he exclaims, Oh man. The bullshit piled up so fast in Vietnam you needed wings to stay above it (Apocalypse Now). In another illustration of this, Willard s view on the inanity of the war flows unerringly to the audience with his comment, It was the way we had over here of living with ourselves. We d cut them in half with a machine gun and give them a band-aide. It was a lie, and the more I saw of them, the more I hated lies (Apocalypse Now). Willard is sick of the pretense of the war that the soldiers are trying to perpetuate. One can clearly see that this reframing of the narrative yields a more intimate view of the processes at work in this main character than they do in the novel s parallel character of Marlow. The journey to the heart of darkness becomes more personal, easier to identify with, and harder to deny. It is public knowledge that most movies do, at best, an adequate job of standing up to the novels that inspired them. However, there have been those rare occasions when a film has come along and stolen the show. Apocalypse Now is such a movie. It has shown us the versatility of the ideas that Conrad tried to get across by molding the story to perfectly fit the times during the Vietnam War. The narration of Heart of Darkness plants the seeds of darkness in the reader, letting it grow steadily, while the narration in Apocalypse Now violently exposes us to the hollowness of the times, the places, and the people. Readers with a lack of attention to detail will miss out on the nuances that are impossible to ignore in the film. The revision is a direct attack on the senses, pulling no punches. People don t find Apocalypse Now easier to develop a deep connection to because it is a movie instead of a book. It is easier to become drawn into this remake because it poses a more immediate threat, not only to our own values, but to the values of our society. In the act of looking back, the darkness exposed in this retelling is blinding.

8 Puigh 8 Works Cited Apocalypse Now. Dir. Francis Coppola. Perf. Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper et al. Zoetrope Studios, Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc., Eliot, T.S. Collected Poems, New York: Harcourt Publishing, Frazer, James George. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. London: Oxford University Press, Hampson, Robert. Introduction. Heart of Darkness. By Joseph Conrad. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc., i-xliv. Southam, B.C. A Student s Guide to the Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot. London: Faber and Faber, 1968.