Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola is the 1979 epic film about the Vietnam War based on the novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. However, the word “founded” must be questioned as the two differ significantly The time periods in which the two stories take place are completely different, within 70 years, as are the setting and circumstances However, through the ideas of savagery and. madness, the character, the plot and the themes that both plays seem to convey, the two stories are very similar and it is clear that Coppola was heavily influenced by Conrad's Heart of Darkness excellent story which demonstrates the difference between what. we believe ourselves to be an ideal within civilization and its actual reality which manifests itself through acts of torture, exploitation and the humiliating and shameful treatment of Africans Conrad attempts to explore the idea of ​​what we believe ourselves to be. civilized and what we believe to be primitive and savage and shows us that what happened in Africa was not civilized but in fact primitive. Heart of Darkness is narrated by its main protagonist, Marlowe, who is a well-trained and seasoned sailor. In Coppola's "Apocalypse Now," the story is centered and narrated by the main character, Captain Willard, a U.S. Army agent trained with the task of going from Vietnam to Cambodia up the Nung River, with the order to kill Colonel Walter Kurtz who, apparently, had gone mad. Unlike Kurtz, the character of Marlowe is renamed in Apocalypse now and this is because both characters, although they undertake a similar physical journey, are different from each other. Willard, it seems, does not share the same philosophical and significant ideas as Marlowe about his work...... middle of paper ...... although it is obviously not strictly about a remake, The African Congo and all the characters from the book can be seen in Apocalypse Now. Notable differences aside, both stories depict a very similar journey through a wild jungle and an even more difficult journey within the character's character. Although the two stories are set in very different parts of the world, in different time periods, both main characters have faced a multitude of varied events that have changed their outlook. In Heart of Darkness, Marlow seems to have learned the value of his life and the overall effects that one individual can have on another. However, at the end of Apocalypse Now we are left with a slightly different view of Willard, one that seems to show a disdain for human beings and it's safe to say that his journey would have put him in a place much “darker” than it was. to start.