Heart of Darkness compared to Apocalypse Now Heart of Darkness written by Joseph Conrad and "Apocalypse Now" a film directed by Francis Coppola are two works parallel to each other but at the same time reflect their era in time and their creator's personal feelings and prejudices. “Apocalypse Now” was released in 1979 after two years in the making, as Coppola's modern interpretation of Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness (Harris). Conrad's book is an excellent example of the progress made by writers and philosophers in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This progress is about civilized humanity's ability to be prepared for and know the unknown. (Johnson) By comparison, Copolla's film does the same in the late 1970s. “Apocalypse Now” dares to push the limits of the sanity of soldiers in a stressful and protested Vietnam War. One of the many similarities between Heart of Darkness and "Apocalypse Now" is race. Joseph Conrad and Francis Coppola both use white men as characters who have dominance (Bradley). The white men not only dominate their respective crews, but also the native peoples of the country the white men are visiting. The character that Conrad uses, Marlow, and Coppola uses his character, Willard, both look at the natives as if the white men are the civilized culture and the natives are the savage culture (Franklin). Both works also reflect the theory that "civilized" white men who go to an uncivilized land become savages and do not return to white civilization. An example of this found in the book is Marlow's appointment with the doctor. The doctor measures Marlow's skull to compare its current size to the size of his skull upon his return from the Congo. The idea is that the skull of a civilized man has different dimensions than that of a savage. When Marlow asks the doctor what the results of this test have been in the past, the doctor comments that there are none because no civilized person has ever returned from the Congo. An example of this in the film is when Willard confronts his personality whether or not to complete his military mission to kill Kurtz or abort it. If he completes the mission he will still be civilian, otherwise the jungle of Vietnam will have conquered him. The first soldier sent to kill Kurtz did not kill Kurtz, but actually became one of his followers.