Maidexpl
Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast
Tobias Burrows
It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
Nicole
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
Kimball
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
BasicLogic
The problem of this film is the dialog, too pretentious, too unrealistic, too poetic, too theatrically formulaic flawed. Those dialog out of the mouth of the bandit general, the tribal woman, the employer Mr. Stein, and out of the mouth of the main character, Jim, all of them were simply too obnoxiously false. Joseph Conrad was a great writer with lot of great stories written. He was a philosophic and profound literary man, a writer who probed the darkness and weakness of the main character and those supporting characters in his novel. Although his philosophic thoughts described in the narrations of his novels looked, read, and felt profound, when those words about life, death, honor, love or whatsoever coming out as the dialog and out of the mouths of these characters would suddenly felt false. How the General, a vicious, barbaric murderer in this film could and would have spoken in such deep and so profound words? A tribal woman who fell in love so easily and conveniently with the psychotic and unstable Jim could have spoken those deep words like those traditional dialog we used to only hearing from a drama on a theater stage?
When these overly pretentious words and sentences were out of the mouths of these characters on the silver screen, they just felt so impossibly funny and untrue. When Jim was tortured by the General with burning knife from the fire stove, he was critically burned, but later during the fights, it was totally gone, he ran, he jumped, he dashed like nothing happened at all, his burned wound was just conveniently disappeared just like his white shirt and sailor uniform suddenly became so clean without any stains. There were so many inexcusable overlooks and ridicules in this supposed to be a classic film from a supposed to be great novel, but it just felt unnaturally pretentious and unrealistic. Joseph Conrad had made lot of his created characters speak like philosophers or literary professors.
Prismark10
Lord Jim is an overlong, literate would be epic about redemption of a cowardly sailor.Adapted from the novel by Joseph Conrad, Jim (Peter O'Toole) is an officer in the merchant navy in 19th century far east. In heavy storms he joins his crew in abandoning his ship and his passengers bound for Mecca to perform the hajj pilgrimage.The ship and passenger reach port safely, Jim faces censure for his cowardly actions and stripped of his sailing papers.Jim disappears into anonymity working anywhere he can find a job. One day he gets a chance at redemption as he defends some island villagers from a ruthless warlord and later a river bandit.Director Richard Brooks was hoping O'Toole and Jack Hawkins would elevate this film to the heights of Lawrence of Arabia. The film was extensively shot in Cambodia, there is a literate screenplay and it has all the hallmarks of a would be epic.Yet the film fails because it is uneven, it is overlong, after a promising start it becomes plodding, at times it even looks cheap despite the overseas shooting. O'Toole has a good stab at playing the doubting, depressed Jim but somehow he lacks passion. I think both Brooks and O'Toole realised that the source novel was just too difficult to adapt.
ma-cortes
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.
ilprofessore-1
Yes, it's too long and too pretentious with Richard Brook's heavy hand pounding out Conrad's philosophies about Good and Evil, Bravery and Cowardice, but the film has many redeeming qualities for those willing to sit through the longeurs, among them a sterling cast of international character actors at their very best: Russia's Akim Tamiroff, Germany's Curt Jurgens, America's Eli Wallach, England's James Mason and Hungary's Paul Lukas. Lovers of the supreme and subtle art of the British lighting cameraman (so different from the usual Technicolor gloss) can revel in Freddie Young's mastery of atmospheric color photography, some of it shot on location in Southeast Asia, but much of it reproduced magnificently at London's Shepperton Studios with perfect sets by Geoff Drake who learned his trade as Vincent Korda's assistant. The sound effects (uncredited) and native music used during the action scenes are particularly effective. Trivia fans will note that the gorgeous Asian girl played by the Israeli actress Daliah Lavi is now on her fourth marriage and apparently living in Ashville, North Carolina far from the heart of darkness.
