Victory

Rating:
Summary: too smart for American audiences?
Review: Conrad is difficult. Conrad is difficult? Who are we kidding? Exotic locales, action, angst, and history, what's not to like? This may be the most accessible Conrad story for a movie-length treatment. A stronger female character than he's usually known for... a more straight-forward plotline that resolves more quickly... and a message. Ah, now, the message is the trouble isn't it? The explanation of how the title applies is a bit too philosophical for American audiences, I'm sure. And yet people sat through drivel like the Bridges of Madison County in droves? I don't get it.

Casting. Rufus Sewell is the shining star -- and he's not even on the cover of the box. As is so often the case with his supporting performances, he injects a level of energy into this film that should have come from its stars. Sam Neill can be forgiven; he's playing an opium addict aristo. But Dafoe is so understated he seems to be sleepwalking at times. He should have watched Peter O'Toole in "Lord Jim" before playing this part. (And yet, the tiredness of his character and others makes you feel the oppressive heat and barbaric surroundings they live in, so it is not altogether uncalled-for.)

As someone else said, Sam and Rufus are the best part of the film, wonderfully scummy and intensely watchable. Conrad is the next best (even adapted to film, the complexity of his stories shines through), and the setting follows. It's a great story that takes its time and rewards smart viewers, but this isn't the kind of movie you can watch with six people in the room blabbing at the same time. Pay attention, and you will find yourself transported to another time, another world, another way of thinking that could only come from the mind of someone who lived there. That is what makes Conrad great, and the people who made this movie wanted to be true to his themes even where they may not have been entirely true to the book. I think they did an admirable job.

Rating:
Summary: too smart for American audiences?
Review: Conrad is difficult. Conrad is difficult? Who are we kidding? Exotic locales, action, angst, and history, what's not to like? This may be the most accessible Conrad story for a movie-length treatment. A stronger female character than he's usually known for... a more straight-forward plotline that resolves more quickly... and a message. Ah, now, the message is the trouble isn't it? The explanation of how the title applies is a bit too philosophical for American audiences, I'm sure. And yet people sat through drivel like the Bridges of Madison County in droves? I don't get it.

Casting. Rufus Sewell is the shining star -- and he's not even on the cover of the box. As is so often the case with his supporting performances, he injects a level of energy into this film that should have come from its stars. Sam Neill can be forgiven; he's playing an opium addict aristo. But Dafoe is so understated he seems to be sleepwalking at times. He should have watched Peter O'Toole in "Lord Jim" before playing this part. (And yet, the tiredness of his character and others makes you feel the oppressive heat and barbaric surroundings they live in, so it is not altogether uncalled-for.)

As someone else said, Sam and Rufus are the best part of the film, wonderfully scummy and intensely watchable. Conrad is the next best (even adapted to film, the complexity of his stories shines through), and the setting follows. It's a great story that takes its time and rewards smart viewers, but this isn't the kind of movie you can watch with six people in the room blabbing at the same time. Pay attention, and you will find yourself transported to another time, another world, another way of thinking that could only come from the mind of someone who lived there. That is what makes Conrad great, and the people who made this movie wanted to be true to his themes even where they may not have been entirely true to the book. I think they did an admirable job.

Rating:
Summary: Racier than the book--and the book's better
Review: The film "Victory" is based on Joseph Conrad's novel. The story takes place before WWI and revolves around Heyst--a man who lives a solitary life on a remote island. On a rare trip from his island, Heyst encounters Alma (Irene Jacob) a violin-playing prostitute who is attempting to stave off some very unwelcome attentions.

Heyst takes Alma back to his island, and there of course, they fall in love and take off their clothes several times.

A trio of thugs, urged on by wild rumours that Heyst has a fortune hidden away on his island, arrive suddenly. Heyst insists that Alma puts her clothes on and hides her in his hut.

The film became much more interesting with the advent of the thugs. And really the thugs were the best part. Sam Neill played the rather oily, misogynistic "Mr Jones," and Rufus Sewell played the insane, violent and lust-driven "secretary." Both Dafoe and Jacob played their characters too flatly, and there was just no chemistry between them. Dafoe really makes a problematic hero even at the best of times. The ending, unfortunately, was ruined as always happens when a book is turned into a screenplay.

Rating:
Summary: Racier than the book--and the book's better
Review: The film "Victory" is based on Joseph Conrad's novel. The story takes place before WWI and revolves around Heyst--a man who lives a solitary life on a remote island. On a rare trip from his island, Heyst encounters Alma (Irene Jacob) a violin-playing prostitute who is attempting to stave off some very unwelcome attentions.

Heyst takes Alma back to his island, and there of course, they fall in love and take off their clothes several times.

A trio of thugs, urged on by wild rumours that Heyst has a fortune hidden away on his island, arrive suddenly. Heyst insists that Alma puts her clothes on and hides her in his hut.

The film became much more interesting with the advent of the thugs. And really the thugs were the best part. Sam Neill played the rather oily, misogynistic "Mr Jones," and Rufus Sewell played the insane, violent and lust-driven "secretary." Both Dafoe and Jacob played their characters too flatly, and there was just no chemistry between them. Dafoe really makes a problematic hero even at the best of times. The ending, unfortunately, was ruined as always happens when a book is turned into a screenplay.

Rating:
Summary: An Intelligent Adaptation
Review: Victory (the novel) is hardly one of Conrad's masterpieces, and is his most melodramatic piece of fiction. These melodramatic elements lend themselves very well, however, when it comes to translating Conrad to film (which hasn't been done very well to this stage, apart from Coppola's loose adaptation of Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now). Director Mark Peploe, a sometime collaborator with Bernardo Bertolluci, has fashioned a script that comes close to the spirit of Conrad's novel. The changes that have been made have to do with the book's ending, yet they don't hinder the artistic flow of the film in any manner.

The story is a classic good vs. evil allegory, with Heyst (Willem Dafoe) representing a fallen Adam trying to make his way back to paradise. Just for reinforcement of the concept, Heyst's father stares down in glaring disapproval from a painting Heyst has had delivered from his old digs in San Francisco. He's now living in a paradisical setting (the Javanese vistas the camera captures are beautiful indeed), yet is living in isolation. His loneliness is cured when he rescues a young, French violinist playing in a travelling all-female orchestra which is performing at Herr Schomberg's hotel. Schomberg, who hates Heyst, is in the process of purchasing Lena (who we learn is actually named Alma) from San Giacimo, the oily impresario who conducts the orchestra and who, along with his iron-fisted wife, has absolute control over the female orchestra members.

After Heyst has rescued Alma and hidden her away on his island retreat, Schomberg receives a trio of unwelcome guests at his hotel. These are the Satanic duo of the mysterious Mr. Jones and his "secretary," Ricardo. A swarthy henchman named Pedro also acts a criminal aide-de-camp to Ricardo. In order to get rid of the trio and to exact his revenge on Heyst, Schomberg tells them that Heyst has swindled a former partner and had him killed, and that he then cashed in a huge insurance policy, the proceeds of which Heyst has secreted away somewhere on his island.

In the meantime, Heyst, who had been a reluctant benfactor at first, has fallen in love with Alma, who appears to have fallen for him as well. Suddenly, the trio appear at Heyst's dock in an open boat, and they look to have suffered from water deprivation and exposure. Heyst is suspicious of them from the outset, but acts the samaritan and gives them food, drink and shelter. Plot description beyond this stage would involve spoilers.

This movie is extremely well directed and well cast. Dafoe fits the bill for the Conradian westerner isolating himself in the far east. Sam Neil captures the "please allow me to introduce myself" quality of Jones and Sewell is a perfect Ricardo. Irene Jacob, who slept-walked like Lady Macbeth in her role of Desdemona in the 1995 Othello, is a convincing Alma. Ho Yi, Simon Callow, and Jean Yanne as Schomberg round out an excellent ensemble. Yet the major credit goes to Peploe for an intelligent script and assured direction. It's not easy adapting psychological novelists to the screen, which is why there are so few efforts at it. Nostromo, Conrad's masterpiece, for instance, reads almost like cinema, yet it hasn't been atttempted in a screen version, save for a rather weak BBC television adaptation. The Peter O'Toole Lord Jim was nothing like the novel. This neglected version of Victory may not be perfect, but it's as close as a filmmaker has come thus far.

BEK