Apocalypse Now
How does a scene in the movie that does not appear in the book add to the understanding of Heart of Darkness?
Since Apocalypse Now is based off of Heart of Darkness it contains many scenes that can also be found in the book. However, the movie also contains several scenes that were added in by the director. Often times these scenes serve to enhance the films powerful message and are extremely helpful in making the message hit home. One such scene is when Willard’s boat stops to inspect a small Vietnamese fishing boat. During the course of the inspection a Vietnamese women runs to the back of the boat in the attempt to protect a basket. Spooked, the crew opens fire. Soon after it is discovered that all the basket contained a puppy. The scene concludes with the crew getting ready to load the wounded women onto the boat in order to get her medical care. Willard insists against it, and when he is ignored he shoots the women in order to continue on with the mission.
Visually this scene is incredibly powerful. The senseless violence and disregard for human life conveys the brutality and darkness that is found when one enters the jungle. In Heart of Darkness the colonists go to Africa with the belief that the natives are savages and need to be “civilized”. With that belief comes a desensitization to the atrocities committed upon the natives. By including this scene in the movie viewers get an incredibly strong visual image of the disregard for native life. Willard shoots an unarmed, wounded woman for the sole purpose of continuing on with his mission without having to slow down in order to get her medical care. His disregard for her life acts as a powerful visual reminder of a fact that has already been conveyed to us from the book. However, the added sensations of viewing the scene rather than reading it (the dialogue, facial expressions and emotions, the feeling of panic throughout the scene) add to the understanding of how little regarded native life was in Heart of Darkness.
Sources:
http://www.imageandnarrative.be/issue08/donatameneghelli.htm
