He must have embedded a lot of very personal touchstones into his script for Apocalypse Now. The end of Conan the Barbarian (1982) is basically Willard killing Kurtz all over again in a Sword & Sorcery setting. Farewell to the King (1989) is about Nick Nolte playing a saner, more reasonable version of Kurtz among the headhunters of WW2 era Borneo.
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Yeah, I have noticed this one.
Altough Milius had nothing to do with Brian DePalma's Scarface (to my knowledge), the ending of Scarface reminds me of Apocalypse Now's ending also (when the columbian walks down the stairs after shooting Tony in the back).
That's true. I hadn't thought about that scene, but it is somewhat similar. All those directors from the American '70s new wave knew one another from film school or some other means. It was a very tight knit circle, from what I have read. Plus, just the fact that AN was such an influential movie. Entirely possible that DePalma got some ideas one way or another from Milius.
Milius had a hand in writing so many classic movies. Dirty Harry, Jeremiah Johnson, Apocalypse Now, and so many others. He was literally everywhere in '70s Hollywood.
I see what you mean and I agree with your thoughts on this totally. Based on a few Milius interviews that I have seen, he really seems to emphasize the fact that he felt a connection with Conrad's Heart of Darkness during his formative years. It is no secret that Milius is an avid outdoorsman, this no doubt certainly is an element of the story that he connected to. The beauty of this film is that there are so many strong elements of quality writing and story telling, if you are going to take inspiration then why not take it from the cream of the crop?
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