I have just had a look through my previous posts and was shocked to find not once have I mentioned Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, by far the best adaptation of the novel, and one of my favorite films of all time. I am shocked I haven't mentioned it because the reason I picked Heart of Darkness to read is because I love that movie so much. The movie is essentially the same story of a group of men going up a river into increasing darkness morally, emotionally and phisically to find a man by the name of Kurtz who has gone insane and is power tripping. However the story has been transplanted into Vietnam and instead of bringing Kurtz back they are there to kill him.
The book and the movie both capture the universal story of being on a journey that is best not taken, a journey into the heart of human darkness. However while the book just told a story along these lines the movie actually made a concious effort to refference and borrow (but in a good way) from other stories along that vein most notably The Odyssey with the cyclops, the sirens and the wirlpool (taking the form of a battle with all the leaders dead) being referenced.
The reason Apocalypse Now is nessesary to metion is because apart from it, heart of darkness doesn't have much of a presence in popular culture apart from the ocasional reference.
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