Comparison between Marlow from Heart of Darkness and Willard from Apocalypse Now Whenever books are adapted for film, changes inevitably have to be made. The film medium offers numerous advantages and disadvantages over the book: it is not as adept at exploring people's inner workings - it cannot explore their minds as easily; however, the film's additional visual and audio capabilities open up entirely new areas of the imagination that, in the hands of a competent writer-director, can more than make up for it. Heart of Darkness relies heavily on long philosophical and expository passages, as well as some very unusual and complex imagery; “it's not the easiest material to rewrite as a screenplay” (Canby, 18). However, Francis Ford Coppola rewrote it, altering the time and place of the novel from 19th-century Congo to 20th-century Vietnam. Coppola made an original film, with concepts and ideas taken from Heart of Darkness, rather than making a direct film version of the book. As a result, there are many similarities and differences between the film and the book. The character of Marlow is renamed Willard in Apocalypse Now. This is noteworthy; Kurtz's character has the same name in both the text and the film, so why not Marlow? “This is probably due to the fact that the character of Kurtz in the film is almost identical to the one in the book, while Willard is very different from Marlow” (Benner, 34). Kurtz is the person who has disconnected from society; he is not tied to any particular era, so his character works just as effectively in the 20th century as it did in the 19th. However, Marlow is the common man in Heart of Darkness - the only common man in the entire book, more or less; it is he who links the book to the society of... half of the paper... tif/Symbol/Metaphor http://164.116.90.3/public/jarvinen/an.html (accessed January 23, 2018) 2000).Benner, Ralph Heart of Darkness: A Film Review by Ralph Benner http://uk.imdb.com/Reviews/57/5777 created 1996 (accessed 26 January 2000).Canby, Vincent. "Apocalypse now." New York Times Movie Reviews. New York: The New York Times and Arno Press, 1981. Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness and the Secret Sharer. New York: Penguin Books, 1978. Fortmeyer, Russell. "Apocalypse" Cast Filled with Anger http://collegian.ksu.edu/issues/v099B/fa/n022/ae-apocalypse-fortmeyer.html created in 1994 (accessed January 23, 2000). Heart of Darkness: Theme/Symbol/ Allusion/Foreshadow http://164.116.90.3/public/jarvinen/hod.html (accessed January 23, 2000). Urch, Martin. Apocalypse Now: A Film Review by Martin Urch http://us.imdb.com/Reviews/30/3030 created in 1994 (accessed January 23. 2000).