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 little difference between so-called civilised people and those described as savages; "Heart of Darkness" raises questions about imperialism and racism. Originally issued as a three-part serial story in "Blackwood's Magazine" to celebrate the thousandth edition of the magazine, "Heart of Darkness" has been widely re-published and translated into many languages. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked "Heart of Darkness" 67th on their list of the 100 best novels in English of the twentieth century. In 1890, at the age of 32, Conrad was appointed by a Belgian trading company to serve on one of its steamers. While sailing up the