Lord Jim

source: Lord Jim

There were some good things about this movie. The opening half hour or so depicted some very realistic depictions of life at sea, and an exciting ride as the storm hit the Patna, in the last half particularly there are some reasonable depictions of battle and action scenes and throughout there's a potentially interesting character study that's going on. That study revolves around the lead character of Jim (Peter O'Toole) a sailor who finds himself in disgrace after an act of cowardice and then spends the rest of his life trying to redeem himself. Jim was a character with some interesting background and with interesting demons to do battle with. The culmination of his struggle leads to a worthwhile philosophical reflection: "Maybe the difference between heroes and cowards is that they're ordinary men who for a split second do something out of the ordinary." That's not a bad lesson. There's also some good photography in this, and some great scenery. Unfortunately, all the potential gets lost in a story that I felt resembled little more than a long and drawn out muddle. To me it seemed to have a lot of unnecessary filler and it failed completely to hold my attention. By the end, my attention had wandered so often and so far that I really had little idea what was happening on the screen. That could be a critique of my own attention span, I suppose, except that it's unusual for me to lose track of the story even if I don't find it particularly interesting. Personally, I was disappointed in this.

The dialog is laughable and the acting is painful to watch. Peter O'Toole's is pathetic. He is always cringing in fear, stumbling around, crawling on the ground, or pompously mouthing platitudes. The staging of the action is completely unrealistic and unbelievable. Eli Wallach's accent swings between phony French and some Japanese/Chinese hybrid. Curd Jürgens, James Mason, and Jack Hawkins also got roped into this disaster, and would probably like to forget about the whole thing. What a waste of talent! This is without a doubt, one of the most clueless productions I have ever seen. After hanging on for two hours, I could not stand to watch the last 39 minutes.

Exciting and brooding picture based on the complex novel written by Joseph Conrad (who also wrote Darkness heart) and brought to the screen in lavish budget and colorful visual style .After being discredited as a coward, a 19th century seaman (Peter O'Toole) in British Merchant Marine lives for only one purpose : to redeem himself. As he suffers a deep scar and pain for the rest of his life . But then , he becomes leader of a Southeast Asia village in spite of his past clouded by allegations of betrayal and cowardice . Meanwhile , the native villagers are being slavered by a group nasty cutthroats led European thugs (Eli Wallach , Curt Jurgens) . As the belief shown in him by the villagers is put to the test . This is a thought-provoking and intelligent story based on Joseph Conrad's novel written in 1900. This prestigious novel has been simplified for easier compression , appreciation and nicely developing . This adventure flick contains , thrills , action , intrigue and wonderful outdoors . Excellent acting by Peter O'Toole in the title role , he is a sailor in Souteast Asia who is adopted by a suppressed village as its leader . After the film's tepid reception, especially for his own starring performance, a once-enthusiastic Peter O'Toole declared, 'It was a mistake and I made the mistake because I was conservative and played safe and that way lies failure'. Movie's biggest moments provided by strange acting by the great Peter O'Toole . Supporting cast is frankly sensational such as Curd Jürgens , Eli Wallach , Jack Hawkins , Paul Lukas , Daliah Lavi , Akim Tamiroff , Andrew Keir , Jack MacGowran ,Ric Young , Noel Purcel , Walter Gotell , among others .Evocative and exotic cinematography by Freddie Young , shot on location in Malacca, Malaysia Lantau Island, Hong Kong, China and Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia. Although the Cambodian government never demanded any script approval, one condition of its agreement to allow on-location shooting in the troubled nation was for the production company to build a lot of rooms addition to an existing hotel near the famed Angkor ruins . Directed and screen-played with awesome style by Richard Brooks . He was a fine writer/director so consistently mixed the good and average which it became impossible to know that to expect from him next . Firstly he worked regularly as a Hollywood screenwriter . After that , his initial experience of directing was one of his own screenplays called ¨Crisis¨. The Richard Brooks films that have the greatest impact are realized during the 50s and 60s as ¨Cat on a hot tin roof¨, ¨Something of value¨ , ¨Elmer Gantry¨, ¨Sweet bird of youth¨, ¨In cold blood¨ , ¨Lord Jim¨. Brooks was a writer and director of Chekhovian depth , who mastered the use of understatement, anticlimax and implied emotion . His films enjoyed lasting appeal and tended to be more serious than the usual mainstream productions . Richards formerly directed two good Western titled ¨Bite the bullet¨ and ¨The professionals ¨ with various tough stars as Burt Lancaster , Lee Marvin , Jack Palance and Robert Ryan , including the same musician , Alex North , and similar outdoors . The ¨Lord Jim¨ is an authentic must see , not to be missed for buffs of the genre . A magnificent movie , hardly noticed for its theatrical release ; however , being nowadays very well considered . Rating : Above average because of its awesome acting , dialog , score are world class.

This film is certainly overlong, the narrative tends to meander and O'Toole's overly earnest performance becomes monotonous after a while. But it still includes bits of excellent dialogue, Eli Wallach and James Mason give smashing performances and, near the end, some philosophical depth is actually achieved. Overall, not a very successful picture, but one with enough redeeming qualities to be worth watching at least once.

Will someone please explain to me why Hollywood insists on taking the titles of excellent books and then proceeding to make a movie completely unrelated to the story and the characters of that book? Do NOT see this movie if you have read Lord Jim. Unfortunately, the amount of talent wasted in this terrible adaption is great. Peter O'Toole is an ideal actor to handle the role of Tuan Jim but no actor could be expected to salvage this bizarre mixing of a Tarzan jungle serial and Vietnam-esque battle against an evil general. If they had decided to make this movie without attaching ********* ******* name to the film, it might have been entertaining. As it stands, it is a travesty and a waste of resources, talent and the audience's time.

During the Berlinale 2009 I had the chance to see this film in 70 mm representation on an extra large screen. This format allows extremely accurate representation of the settings. And unfortunately only for this exotic environment the film is worthwhile watching, for the rest unfortunately not: The plot is not convincingly developed and despite the interesting settings there is no real suspense, you are in real danger to fall asleep. But the worst of all is the main actor who looks throughout the film like a doped lunatic, not one minute you can imagine how the beautiful girl could go for this "zombie". Incredible how such "acting-just-by-staring" by O'Toole was tolerated by the director.

Was very surprised by the almost identical scenes, music, and style of some of Brooke's Lord Jim to Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Weird how Coppola would bother to steal from such a lame movie. But it worked! If you loved Apocalypse see this for the references. Spooky. And now I see I have to write more lines of text in order for this to be posted. OK. The eery reed-like/flute sound scape of Kurt's lair clearly comes from Lord Jim. As does the spears from the forest, the candles on the water, the assassination of Kurtz while a ceremony takes place outside, etc. There. Is that enough words? No. OK. I'll keep trying. There's also the Eli Wallach character who's a 'general' at the head of an army in the jungle doing nasty things. And he does a bit of the old shaving the head with the razor blade thing. And there's the drunken/drugged out hanger on, Kurt Jurgens in Lord Jim, Hopper in AN. Similar sycophantic characters. That must be enough. Just go see the movie. Sheesh.

Peter O'Tooles eyes are disturbingly blue. Lots of visual detail, good cinematography, cheap special effects. It moves slowly and doesn't really explain the motivations of the main character very well. O'Toole is good but oblique. The movie doesn't really pick up until Eli Wallach shows up. He is quite good, cheerfully cruel and sadistic, and I think he may have taken things from this role that he later expanded on in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Curt Jurgens is delightfully seedy, a sweaty and cowardly drunk who needs a haircut. I don't know anything about the rating system here but I'm giving it a seven for just for watchability.

Conrad's novels,like those of Pasternak,are often read more for the mood and the tone than for the plot.In certain cases,the facts are the least important aspect.In my opinion,this is the state of "Lord Jim".The middle part does appear to be similar to a cross between a Tarzan movie,any film revolt against oppression,and "Treasure Island".Oh,but isn't Wallach's General,philosophical and sadistic,evily wise and perceptive,a vast improvement on the original?Sherif Ali was a crook,masquerading as a religious fanatic.The appearance of the pirates,however,enjoyable as it is,really proves to undermine Conrad's intrention.This is a bungled robbery,and Mason's sterling performance shows us a clever and insightful crook manipulating a dupe.In the original,the pirates appear almost as an instrument of fate,allowing Jim to destroy himself.Brown is Jim's unrecognized alter-ego;without acknowledging his own dark impulses,and dealing with them constructively,he(and the rest of us as well) fouls up his career and life.Everything else considered,this is still an enjoyable film,and a great tale of adventure.Watch it,but read the novel when it comes time to do the book report.