Major Spoilers For Apocalypse Now And Heart of Darkness Ahead

I read Heart of Darkness and didn’t think much of it. It suffered from poor pacing which made a 110 page story feel like it went on forever.

Joseph Conrad had a good idea for a story: A sailor named Marlow is hired to track down a rogue ivory trader named Kurtz who has set himself up as a god in a tribe in 1890’s Congo. Here, Conrad contrasts life in England with the darkness of the Congo and the suffering of the natives. Unfortunately, he drones on for 60 pages about how bad slavery is and I agree, though I feel he could have shortened the Marlow monologues.

The ending of the book is great though Marlow returns to England after (SPOILERS) Kurtz dies to inform the family of his death. He meets Kurtz’s fiancée who is destroyed. She asks Marlow to tell her Kurtz’s last words (famously “The horror! The horror!”) Marlow squirms for a bit and lies to the fiancée, saying Kurtz’s last word was her name.

I love the ending and it almost made the book worth it. I like the Russian harlequin character who is a fanatic of Kurtz and thinks the guy is a genius. He is written very vividly and he’s the most memorable character of the book.

After I finished the book, I watched Apocalypse Now, and by God was it worth reading every page of Heart of Darkness.

Apocalypse Now is the best movie I’ve ever watched in my life. I can’t find any problem with it! This, aside from my Dunkirk review, is probably the only review that is completely positive.

Firstly, the opening with the jungle being destroyed with napalm as The End is playing makes me appreciate the song even more and is a great opening to a movie. There isn’t 30 seconds of company logos, a … film, starring …, in association with …

You get my point. It’s just the “woop woop” of the Hueys, and then a huge explosion that lights up the whole screen as The End plays. This is then overlayed with the ceiling fan and Willard’s face.

Speaking of Willard, the acting was really good as well. Everyone was good in this movie! The characters were written realistically and were acted perfectly. Robert Duvall as Col. Kilgore was my favourite character of the movie. His insanity is translated to screen so well by Duvall and he has some of the best lines in the movie. It’s amazing that a character that was in the movie for only 11 minutes was played so well that it made a lasting impression on me.

I also liked the Photojournalist played by Dennis Hopper. He adapted the Russian harlequin really well. As soon as I saw how he performed his lines and the way he moved I could instantly see the harlequin. His performance is exactly how I imagined the character in the book.

Marlon Brando was amazing as Kurtz and the fact that he improvised all of his lines was impressive. The way he delivers the lines makes his scenes all the better. When he does a line that other actors would have butchered like: “The horror. The horror.” He pulls it off so well that it was perfect way to end the movie, on an eerie note. When I read the line in Heart of Darkness, I always imagined Kurtz to yell out “THE HORROR! THE HORROR!” and then die. That’s how I would have acted it anyway (which explains why I’m not an actor).

Martin Sheen does a good job of carrying the movie and his soliloquy works well throughout the film.

Apocalypse Now’s pacing is much better than Conrad’s pacing. Everything seems to flow over the course of 150 minutes Conrad spends too much time thinking about things and doesn’t really show much. In the movie there are no extended monologues from Willard. There’s just enough to give us an idea of what he thinks.

Everything in the movie is there for a reason. I couldn’t find one scene or one action or one bit of dialogue that shouldn’t have been there. Everything was perfectly calculated. Scenes like the mango scene with Chef and Willard were there to provide Chef with some backstory, the Playboy bunnies scene was there to contrast the chaos of the war, etc.

The cinematography and set design was incredible as well, the ruined Cambodian temple with the Angkor Thom-like faces and Nagas was my favourite set in the movie and the way that the helicopter attack scene was filmed with some sunset shots, helicopter interior shots and village shots was one of the best parts of the film.

Every frame in the movie is a painting and it doesn’t go unnoticed.

For the first time (ever?) I will give a movie a 10/10 rating. Apocalypse Now has a great adapted story, brilliant writing and characters, excellent cinematography, a talented cast and perfect pacing. I will definitely watch it more than once. Francis Ford Coppola did a masterful job and the movie rightfully deserves the 10/10 rating I’m giving it.