Kurtz (Heart of Darkness) circumstances and remote settings to assert power over others. It is widely believed that Conrad drew influence from these characters, as well as Stevenson's plot lines, when writing "Heart of Darkness". In the 1958 loose adaptation for the CBS television anthology series "Playhouse 90" Kurtz was played by Boris Karloff. This version uses the encounter between Marlow and Kurtz as its final act, and adds a backstory in which Marlow had been Kurtz's adopted son. Francis Ford Coppola's acclaimed Vietnam War film "Apocalypse Now" (1979) centers on the protagonist's mission to find and kill the renegade Colonel Kurtz (played by
Heart of Darkness a little (and only very little) beyond the actual facts of the case." Other critiques include Hugh Curtler's "Achebe on Conrad: Racism and Greatness in Heart of Darkness" (1997). Moving beyond ideology critique, French philosopher Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe called "Heart of Darkness" "one of the greatest texts of Western literature" and used Conrad's tale for a reflection on "The Horror of the West". "Heart of Darkness" is criticised in postcolonial studies, particularly by Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe. In his 1975 public lecture "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness", Achebe described Conrad's novella as "an offensive and deplorable