|
Apocalypse
now
|
Movie
| Book
| Author
| Director
& cast
|
Book: Heart of Darkness (1902)
Movie: Apocalypse Now (1979)
Premise
movie:
"Burnt out Captain Willard is sent into the jungle with
orders to find and kill Colonel Kurtz who has set up his own army
within the jungle. As he descends into the jungle he is slowly over
taken by the jungles mesmerizing powers and the battles and insanity
which surround him. His crew succumbs to drugs and is slowly killed
off one by one. As Willard continues his journey he becomes more and
more like the man he was sent to kill."
from:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078788/plotsummary
back
to top
Premise
book:
"A masterpiece of twentieth-century writing, Heart of
Darkness (1902) exposes the tenuous fabric that holds "civilization"
together and the brutal horror at the center of European colonialism.
Conrad's crowning achievement recounts Marlow's physical and
psychological journey deep into the heart of the Belgian Congo in
search of the mysterious trader Kurtz."
from:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/
0140281630/103-9612205-2891816
back
to top
Author:
"Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) was born in Berdichev, Ukraine, on
December 3rd, 1857. He was born Polish but he would become renowned
for his English short stories and novels. His father, Apollo
Korzeniowski, worked as a translator of English and
French literature, so Joseph had a significant exposure to literature while still a boy.
In 1861 his family was exiled to Northern Russia as a result of his
father's political activities. Then in 1869, both of Conrad's parents
died of tuberculosis and he went to Switzerland to live with his
uncle. Conrad attended school in Kraków but he dreamed of the sea and
in the 1870's he joined the French merchant marines. While working on
a ship Conrad made voyages to the West Indies and was even involved in
arms smuggling. Eventually Conrad joined the British merchant navy and
swiftly climbed the ranks. By 1886 he was commanding his own ship and
was given British citizenship. It was at this time that he officially
changed his name to Joseph Conrad.
Conrad spent the next part of his life sailing all over the world, it
was this experience that provided him with material on the exotic
locations of many of his novels. He visited Australia, various islands
in the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific, South America, and he even
sailed up the Congo River in Africa. In 1894 at the age of 36 Conrad
finally left the sea behind him and settled down in England. Two years
later he married an Englishwoman by the name of Jessie George, and it
was with her that he had two sons. Even though he was settled down and
had a family Conrad still occasionally traveled, but for the most part
he just wrote his novels, the first of which, Almayer's Folly,
appeared in 1895. That novel would be followed by many others
including The Heart of Darkness in 1902 and Nostromo in 1904. Conrad
continued to write until the year he died, publishing his last novel,
The Nature of Crime, in 1924. He died August 3rd, 1924 of a heart
attack."
from:
http://www.online-literature.com/conrad/
back
to top
Director:
Francis Ford Coppola
Cast:
Marlon Brando (Walter E. Kurtz ), Martin Sheen (Benjamin L.
Willard), Robert Duvall (Bill Kilgore ), Frederic Forrest (Jay 'Chef'
Hicks), Sam Bottoms (Lance B. Johnson ), Albert Hall (Chief Phillips),
Laurence Fishburne (Tyrone 'Clean' Miller (as Larry
Fishburne)), Dennis Hopper (Photojournalist), Harrison Ford (Lucas ), and others.
back
to top
|
