Copyright (c) Pedro Sena 1994
FILM TITLE: HEART OF DARKNESS DIRECTOR: NICHOLAS ROEG COUNTRY: USA 1993 CINEMATOGRAPHY: ANTHONY B. RICHMOND MUSIC: STANLEY MYERS CAST: Tim Roth(Marlowe), John Malkovich(Kurtz), James Fox(Gosse), Isaac de Bankole(Mannum), Morten Faldaas(HArlequin), Imman (The Black Beauty) SCREENPLAY BY: Benedict Fitzgerald, from Joseph Conrad's novella. SUPER FEATURES: The story, and the right man to film it.
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It's been a long while since Nicholas Roeg has done a film that suits his ability.... that is, a film that is psychological, that is complicated, that is hard to define, something that his work has not shown since the days of PERFORMANCE, WALKABOUT, THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH, and to some extent INSIGNIFICANCE. This QUALITY adaptation of Joseph Conrad's novella stands out as the directors finest piece in several years, and shows that he is (still) quite a capable director.
HEART OF DARKNESS has been a well read story. It also has been adapted in many forms to the screen, the most famous of which is APPOCALYPSE NOW, by Frank Ford Coppola. But none of these adaptations, had ever been faithful and close to the novella as this one has been. The story is in Africa where the jungle was once considered a living hell, where the white man could not survive the various diseases and the indigenous black people's. As such, these jungle hells, were at one time considered the part of the earth that associated with the horrors of man's mind, which had to be conquered, and delivered from evil. In the 60's, this kind of thought was taken to Vietnam. Today, it may be Bosnia, and the former Yugoslav republics. Tomorrow it will be somewhere else, like South Africa. But 100 years ago, Africa had it all.
And amidst the colonials that are out to make a fortune on ivory by killing the elephant population, is a group that has mingled with the indigenous cultures for various reasons. Some for greed, some because they got stranded, and some for spiritual reasons. The story of the Commander Kurtz, is one of a spiritual evolution, and one that leaves behind its mark. It is a dedicated attack on the mind of everything that the industrial revolution has become.... a symbiotic evil, where anything is killed in the name of progress, and greed. The English had become the symbol of this type of people. Their ruthlessness for adventure, in the search for riches, took them to every corner on the face of the earth. And in every corner, there is a Kurtz, waiting to tell you his story...... have we listened for the past 100 years...???? likely not... we still rape, plunder, and plunge ahead, thinking our idealism is the law of the land, and the mercy of the weak. But the horrors will plague us as long as this happens.... the horrors, repeats Kurtz, as he is dying.
The film has many of the bits and pieces which helped the story and defined the Coppola film. The fears which turn the characters into scared men, the jungle diseases at the time, and of course, the enemy that stalks their victims at every turn. The enemy always knows what is going on when we don't. The enemy is powerful and we are weak. And Nicholas Roeg uses this, with close, tight angles of camera work, to help define the novel even better... at every turn there is something which can be seen, but can not be defined. And to those who are fearful, this can be a deadly thing. To those who have purpose and courage, this is a challenge for life....... but as the novel tells us so well, a challenge of what....????
Outstanding set of performances, specially Tim Roth as Marlowe, the adventurous captain, and John Malkovich as Kurtz. The film was done in the jungle'd places of Belize, and is nicely done. It was originally done for television, and later released on video. It is a very well done, and faithful adaptation, of a master novelist, whose work still is of importance today, still quite visible as the decaying industrial society still rapes and plunders.
4 GIBLOONS Member of the Internet Movie Critics Association
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