Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness share parallel characters, ideas and dialogues, but most important is the distinct similarity between central themes. Each deals with the primitive, animalistic qualities stifled within the modern, refined man which will emerge indefinitely in the absence of civilization. The Kurtz's from each work abandon society and become engrossed in the primitive ways of the jungle, rediscovering their basest human instincts.
             On a superficial level, one could compare the characters of Heart of Darkness to those of Apocalypse Now. Marlow, on his downriver journey in Africa is a parallel to Willard, on his assassination mission on the river in Vietnam. Each man is on an intrinsic journey as well as a physical one, finding spiritual enlightenment in the darkest of places.
             The Kurtz's are obvious parallels, not only appellatively but also behaviorally, in that they feed on their instincts and desert their learned morals. Although both men are high-ranked military prodigies, the high attained from being coveted as a god among the natives causes them to depart from their ethics. Even the most minor characters, such as Phillips and Phillips and the Russian and the photojournalist are parallel.
             In both works, Kurtz is seen as the rebel. He has broken off from the rest of society and rebelled from the mores that had been imposed upon him, living by his instincts. The disenfranchised can be seen as the native Africans who are treated like animals and worked to death in camps in Heart of Darkness , and the civilian Cambodians in Apocalypse Now . In both works we see a genius turn rebel, choosing to join in the lives of the disenfranchised in order to be worshipped as a deity.
             There are also similarities within the dialogues of the novel and the movie.I don't want to bother you much with what happened to me personally?yet to understand the effect of it on me you ought to know how I got out there, what I saw...