10 Films Substantially Different From Their Source Material

In adapting Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness,' Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now switches continents from Africa to Asia, the century from the 19th to the 20th, and the subject from slavery to war. The grand narrative of colonial imperialism persists, if altered, but it is rather the spirit of Conrad's work than any particular detail that is retained.

Coppola's 1979 war epic sees Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) undertake a mission to travel up river from Vietnam to Laos to seek out and assassinate rogue Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who is believed to have gone insane. The differences between the film and the novella are interesting: Marlow, the protagonist in the book, has undertaken a job with a colonial outfit of ivory traders in the Congo, and is sent to Kurtz not to kill him, but rather check up on him. In both, however, contemporary social issues and the horrors of imperialism are depicted, if with differences of nuance and perspective.

The journey up river into the depravity of the human soul is the dark heart of both film and book; suffice to say, both are heavy, controversial pieces, though undoubtedly masterful ones.