Intertextuality: Apocalypse Now and “Heart of Darkness”

John Simon’s objections to Coppola’s use of Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” in Apocalypse Now, is very brutal. He suggests that the movie wasn’t well thought out and that money made the movie. He also asks the question if the money spent on the movie was worth the price. Simon Says that it is “puerile and self serving” to believe that Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” “could provide the basis for a large scale attack on the Vietnam war.” This is to say that for Coppola to think that “Heart of Darkness” was written to direct hate against war is childish. Also, Coppola used his own opinion of what he thought the book meant to make his film. Simon Suggests that “the Conradian plot elements are forcibly and fuzzily superimposed on unrelated matter” (SIMON, 1650). He thinks Coppola’s use of some of the plot from “Heart of Darkness” is far fetched. He believes that the “Conradian” plot used in his film is not related in anyway to what its use playe...