Analysis of Joseph Conrad's novel “Heart of Darkness” Essay

Apocalypse Now is an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness. The setting is changed from colonial Africa to the Vietnam War. Instead of ivory, the capitalist resources for the source of greed and war over control over South Vietnam. The multimedia movie is a powerful and important analysis of not only America's military involvement in Vietnam, but like Conrad's novel, a disturbing examination of the treatment of natives and how it creates the inescapable darkness in their hearts.
In Heart of Darkness, the narrator, Marlowe, recounts the achievements of Roman explorers, calling them "knight-errants" of the sea, implying that such voyages served a sacred, higher purpose. But the narrator then says that
"They were no colonistsThey were conquerors, and for that you want only brute forcethey grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness."
The narrator implies that in order to become victors in foreign lands, you must act like criminals. The American soldiers stole recreational activities, like dirt bikes and alcohol from the Vietnamese villages and plunged their natural resources in the name of democracy. All the participants in the war system inevitably become less humane, less civilized in their lust for material goods.
Just as the doctor told Marlow in Heart of Darkness that "the changes take place inside." Willard is a changed man after returning from his first tour at Vietnam. He suffers from PTSD. Willard is holed up in a hotel room, heavily intoxicated, practicing his judo moves. He thinks to himself, "When I was here, I wanted to be there when I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the jungle." He thinks returning
Vietnam will give him an opportunity to numb himself again from his humanity. He can be uncivilized without being judged by his peers. Vietnam was the first war that was casted on TV, which caused the American public to turn against the war and against the veterans. If Willard returns to Vietnam, he will be free from civilized oppression.
Willard meets with his military superiors and a CIA operative, who brief him on the rogue colonel, Kurtz, "who has very obviously gone insane" who is being charged with murder. Kurtz authorized the killing of South Vietnamese double agents and successfully stopped the uprisings. He is marked as an "unsound" criminal because he undermined the government and has taken action into his own hands. He is especially dangerous because he can't be controlled by the government anymore and has created his own to do his bidding. He wants the war to end, whereas the government wants it to continue, so they can exploit and take their resources. Willard is ordered to find and "terminate with extreme prejudice" against Kurtz. The government wants him stopped before he is too large to be stopped.