Conrad versus Coppola - Essay Example

Conrad vs. Coppola The novella, Heart of Darkness is one of the most important works written by Joseph Conrad. It was published in Blackwood Magazineback in 1902 and took the form of a three-part anthology. The story unfolded for the reader through the narration of an Englishman called Marlow in his adventures in Africa. Conrad, in the Heart of Darkness, fundamentally explored the darkness theme – the ethic of brutality in the late-nineteenth century Europe. He explored how the plunder of Africa by Europe created a universal tale of man’s fallen nature through the telling of an adventure and mystery narrative. To emphasize this theme of darkness from the beginning, Conrad’s narration took place in the Thames tidal estuary. Marlow recounted that London in ancient times was itself a dark place from the point of view of the Romans. This theme of darkness lurking beneath the surface would appear often as Conrad described the character of Kurtz and through his narrator with his passing sense of understanding with the Africans. In a paragraph, for instance, Marlow said: I tried to break the spell [Marlow says] – the heavy, mute spell of the wilderness – that seemed to draw him to its pitiless breast by the awakening of forgotten and brutal instincts, by the memory of gratified and monstrous passions. This alone I was convinced, had driven him out of the edge of the forest, to the bush, toward the gleam of fires, the throb of drums, the drone of weird incantations… He had kicked himself loose of the earth… His soul was mad. (p. 183) The darkness theme can also be found in other themes in the novella such as the naiveté of Europeans regarding the various forms of darkness in Congo, the European colonialists’ abuse and exploitation of the Africans and the human nature’s tendency of duplicity. The Heart of Darkness has at least 10 film or television adaptations after its publication.. A problem in regard to adapting this work of fiction is how to translate the first person narrative first, in the radio adaption; and, second, in film adaptations later on. Marguerite Rippy cited the approach of substituting the eye of the camera for “I” of Conrad’s narrator. (p. 30) Here, the camera would become Marlow, whose voice would be heard offscreen. This has been implemented in Orson Welles’ adaptation of the novella. He successfully adapted the material in 1938 and that he was eager to reproduce the material on film. Film adaptations of the Heart of Darkness have focused on different interpretations. For example, there is the symbolic reading, political reading, realist reading and mythical reading. The psychological interpretation is, perhaps, the widely used approach to interpret this text. Here, the focus is on Marlow’s own narrative which is perceived to be his own journey to discover himself. It is a journey about identity wherein individuals and their morality can be corrupted even though they are steadfast in their morality, in their faith and ideals. In the novella, one sees that the cruel world is responsible for this, that it can change people inevitably. The film adaptation that would make Conrad’s Heart of Darkness relevant in the modern day is the movie made by Francis Ford Copolla – the Apolypse Now. One can say that the film is a loose adaptation of the original text because several elements are radically altered. This fact underscores how Copolla represent most American filmmakers who view their sources material simply as a blueprint, usually feeling quite free to invent or eliminate characters, drastically alter locales and totally transform endings – all done in the name of making elements cinematic. The reasons are obvious. The most fundamental of these changes however was the fact that the story was moved from colonial Africa to the more recent Vietnam War. In the film, Captain Benjamin Willard, the movie’s Marlow, was assigned to find Colonel Walter Kurtz, a decorated soldier-hero who ran away after the army accused him of committing murder. He was ordered to kill him. Thus, Marlow’s adventure in the African river to find Kurtz was transformed in Willard’s mission to hunt Walter Kurtz. The opening scene of Apocalypse now immediately told the audience that it will not be a literal adaptation of Conrad’s work. Then, there is the emphasis on detective approach which is very much reflective of more contemporary artifacts such as Raymund Chandler’s detective Philip Marlowe. Veronica Geng saw this similarity: Willard talks in easy ironies, the sin-city similes, the weary, laconic, why-am-I-even-bothering-to-tell-you language of the pulp private eye… Our first look at Willard is the classic opening of the private-eye movie: his face seen upside down, a cigarette stuck to his lip, under a rotating ceiling fan…, and then the camera moving in a tight closeup over his books, snapshots, bottle of brandy, cigarettes, Zippo, and, finally, obligatory revolver on the rumpled bedsheets. This guy is not Marlow. He is a parody – maybe a self-cretaed one. (p. 70) The above observation highlights Coppola’s use of the Holywood cinematic formula. It showed the use of the detective plot with its structural, stylistic and thematic center of the film. However, this detective theme became the source “by which Coppola presents the Vietnam subject through the broad symbolic vision of Heart of Darkness.” (Anderegg, p. 68-69) One o f the most memorable scenes of the Apocalypse Now, which also sets it apart from the original text, was the final controntation between Willard and Kurtz. Kurtz told Willard about the nature of their enemy – the Vietcongs. He told him about his experiences that have drove hims to commit brutal acts – some of which became the reason why Willard is hunting him. In one instance, he narrated a story when his Special Forces unit was doing humanitarian work, vaccinating Vietnamese children. After the Special Forces had gone, the Vietcongs attacked. The American soldiers found that the Vietcongs hacked the vaccinated limbs and arms of the children they previously treated and piled them in a heap. Because of this experience, Kurtz suffered some extreme frustration or psychological defeat forcing him to embrace the inner darkness of humanity to that point that drove him almost mad. This tale along with Kurtz brutality also threatened Willard who saw in Kurtz’s experience a similarity in the absurdity of America’s police action and also about his own mission. Certainly, the changes made by Coppolla in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness foir his film Apocalypse now was prominent. The characters, locales, themes, and a number of other elements were removed in such a way that at first impression one may not recognize Conrad’s work in the adaptation. However, this is not entirely true. If one looks closer, for example, he or she will find that the film was still true to the structure of the original text. There is Willard hunting his Kurtz and the subplots contained in the story and all the structural scenes. They all follow the structure of Conrad’s work. In regard to the previous proposition that filmmakers are prone to eliminating elements from the origal work they are adapting from - all done in the name of making elements cinematic’ – this is not quite true. In Copolla’s work, one should not see the liberty taken to change the elements and even the storylines as some form of pure whim, just so to indulge the filmmakers artistic inclinations in his desire to make the movie cinematic. What Copolla wanted to do with Apocalypse now was to make it up to date. Instead of using the colonial theme, he used the Vietnam conflict to make the film timely and relevant. Essentially, Copolla explored the nature of humanity – its goodness and darkness. It is in this way where he appropriately captured the Heart of Darkness’ spirit. In using the detective, for example, Coppola is not merely after the commercial success of formula films. The theme itself is an American style of telling a journey through a symbolic hell wherein the end is characterized by a terrible elimination. Here, one sees that the American detective genre is not altogether different from the style taken by Conrad in the Heart of Darkness. According to Anderegg, in method Coppola and Conrad combined the classic quest motif of a search for a grail with a contemporary , geographically recognizable location (p. 70) – for the original text, colonial Africa, while for the Apocalypse Now, the Vietnam War. Also Apocalypse Now have been true to Conrad’s approach of extremely detailed dream-like or nightmarish narrative in the protagonist pursuit of his objectives. Furthermore, the river journey in the Heart of Darkness was replaced by the detective formula in the adaptation’s investigation of both American society as represented by the American army and the American idealism as represented by Colonel Kurtz. Here, once again, one sees Conrad’s theme about how the world corrupts men. The world – assumed by the American army and the Vietcong and the war – corrupted men such as Coloner Kurtz despite their strong values and idealism. And so it would be wrong to say that filmmakers distort the original texts in their adaptation for cinematic effects. As as been demonstrated by Coppola’s adaptation of the Heart of Darkness, there are other factors why changes have to be made. References Anderegg, M. 1991. Inventing Vietnam: the war in film and television. Temple University Press. Apocalypse Now Coppola, 1979., Director: Coppola, F. Screenplay: John Milius Conrad, J 1989, Heart of darkness, KayDreams, 1989. Geng, V. 1979. "Mistuh Kurtz - He Dead,” New Yorker. 3 Sept. 1979: 70. Rippy, M. 2009. Orson Welles and the Unfinished RKO Projects: A Postmodern Perspective. SIU Press Read More