Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Copolla successfully captures the themes from “Heart of Darkness” throughout the movie Apocalypse Now. The scene that most attracted my attention was when Willard was asking each soldier in the bunker if they knew who was in control. Like in many scenes before, Copolla uses Conrad’s contrast of light and darkness; ultimately leading to an overall theme: knowing the truth and being ignorant to what is right. The flickering of the light represents the confusion and absurdity of Willard’s current surroundings. He was never covered in the light nor was he dissolved by the darkness of the bunker. The same goes for the soldiers, when Willard asks who is in control one soldier replies “Ain’t you?” Copolla emphasizes and heightens the feeling of confusion conveyed to the audience by the appearance of the third soldier.
Copolla’s directing of this section of the scene, particularly with this character, allows his audience to feel the effects of war, especially the Vietnam War. He does so with the conversation between the soldiers. The third soldier was very apathetic, almost dumb and uncaring of what was actually going on, as if war had changed who he once was. He was focused on killing the opponent.
This entire scene builds upon and up to the climax of the movie. It illustrates forms of imperialism through weaponry and through the excuse of war. Comparatively to the scene in the book, where Marlow is eavesdropping on the station manager and an associate, is a scene less affecting that that of the scene in Apocalypse Now. I believe that Copolla had an advantage over Conrad with conveying this scene because of the visual elements and techniques used.

For my final project I have chosen to read For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. This book has been laying around my house for quite some time now and I finally have some interest in reading it. Although I have only read a few chapters so far, I put the book down after that, I am having a little trouble getting into the story. I’ve been told that Hemingway is a “hard read”, and I feel like I may agree with that: I thought that I would enjoy a book about World War I but I have recently realized that I may not be so inclined to. The plot seems to be slow coming and the print is really small! ;D But I shall suffer this endeavor ’til the bitter end, and I will force myself to read on.

For Whom the Bell Tolls- Metallica

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Copolla successfully captures the themes from “Heart of Darkness” throughout the movie Apocalypse Now. The scene that most attracted my attention was when Willard was asking each soldier in the bunker if they knew who was in control, the second clip. Like in many scenes before, Copolla uses Conrad’s contrast of light and darkness, ultimately leading to the revealing of the theme, knowing the truth and being ignorant to what is right depicted: The flickering of the light represents the confusion and absurdity of Willard’s current surroundings. He is never completely covered in the light nor is he ever dissolved by the darkness of the bunker. Copolla emphasizes and heightens the feeling of confusion conveyed to the audience by the appearance of the third soldier.

Q.) Take a scene from The heart of Darkness and find the equivilant in Apocalypse Now. Discuss how each scene represents a larger theme. Be Specific.

A scene that most affect me from the novel was the attack on the steamboat. Eveyone on the boat, including Marlow, was flabbergasted, “the sheer unexpectedness of it made my hair stir under my cap. I don’t know how it struck to the others…”(p. 36) Conrad the goes on to explain the fear and confision created by the situation, none of the crew were sure of what to do, are the natives attacking or not? Marlow uses euphesim’s, revealing the Conrad’s theme of the justification of imperialism, “Sticks, little sticke were flying about- thick…Arrows, by Jove! We were being shot at!” (p. 40) As Conrad’s audience, at the time that the pilot was killed by a spear, I felt Conrad’s concept of ignorance being in the wake of imperialism. This also affected me as to realize the commonness of the misconceptions and ignorance in the current world around me. Being Conrad’s targeted audience, I flet discussed with, not only myself, but with the “modernized” world.

The equivilant found in Coppola’s film, Apocalypse Now, mirrors this exact scene. [Wilard- the equiviland of Marlow] Coppola alters the situation, there wasn’t fog- making it difficult to see, allowing the theme of ignorance with imperialism to be blatantly obvious. Both scenes depict ideas of superiority between weaponry, races and ideas about what is civilized.

The film allowed me to actually see what was happening, when I read the actions taking place on the steamboat, I myself was unsure about what was happening. Reading the scene, in The Heart of Darkness, actually allowed my to place myself in that situation. In such a case, I believe that myself, and others who had grown up in such “high” societies [or higher than], would operate the same as the crew and Wilard had.

Additional Sources:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3768/is_200701/ai_n18632607

http://www.esri.mmu.ac.uk/respapers/papers-pdf/congo.pdf

T. S. Eliot describes Prufrock as a man who is lost in life, not knowing who he is, what he wants, or where he should be. Nor does Eliot present Prufrock as an individual who can decide such things for himself. In this stanza, Prufrock is affected and cares about how others will criticize him, finding flaws with who he is trying to be,

“My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, my necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin– [They will say: “But how is arms and legs are thin!”]”

Also, the whole stanza, according to my own views, illustrated this image of an intricate circle that Prufrock is trapped in: As if to say there is no up, there is no down, just around and around, unable to get anywhere.

M. C. Escher

Reality

A.K.A “Crazy Stairs”

Alright, I am going to have to explain this one. You see running up the down escalator is a bit counterproductive. Which is why I chose this moving image, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock seems to explain and describe just that.

So its come to this? Homework conveniently assigned to be done on the world wide web. Really diggin’ this.

Here’s a great ‘missing summer’ song…