Victory
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DVD Cover Information Actor: Irene Jacob, Rufus Sewell, Sam Neill, Willem Dafoe Director: Mark Peploe Brand: Buena Vista Home Video Producer: Yves Attal Producer: Chris Auty Producer: Simon Bosanquet Producer: Jeremy Thomas Producer: Bob Weinstein Producer: Harvey Weinstein Producer: Ingrid Windisch Writer: Joseph Conrad (novel) Writer: Mark Peploe (screenplay) Writer: Frederick Seidel (screenplay) DVD: Region Code 1 Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Format: NTSC Picture Format: 2.35:1 Running Time: 99 minutes DVD Release Date: 2012-01-06 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Studio: Lionsgate |
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Movie Reviews of Victory
Movie Review: Tell Tale Heart
Summary: 4 Stars
Axel Heyst (here played by Dafoe), like many of Conrad's outcasts, is a wounded creature who has beaten a retreat from the mainstream of life. But even in the far-flung colonies, the imperial heart of darkness still beats.
Written in 1913, Victory went to press just as WWI erupted and so Conrad considered changing the title of the book so as not to mislead readers into thinking this was a war novel. But he opted to keep the title anyway. The title "victory" refers to the protagonist's victory not so much over historical circumstance (which can never be transcended) but despite the crushing effects of historical circumstances. Arguably, its not much of a victory at all. Its not a happy book by any stretch of the imagination, its a deeply philosophical book about man's alienation from himself. The dense impenetrable tropic setting, as always in Conrad, serves as a symbol of man's dark impenetrable heart. In this book that heart is especially dark and the densely philosophical prose damn near impenetrable.
Although Victory is considered to be the best of Conrad's late period, the achievements of his late period, interesting though they may be, are nowhere near as rich as those "victories" of his middle period ("Nigger of Narcissus," "Heart of Darkness," Lord Jim, Nostromo).
No matter how you approach it, Victory is an awkward novel. What makes it a particularly difficult read is that Conrad does not fully explain what shaped his main character until very late in the book which means that for much of the book Heyst is simply an angst-ridden enigma to us and to himself. The film is, for the most part, faithful to the book and so the film has the same strengths and weaknesses as the book. In Conrad existential brooding and inaction is usually tempered by (and momentarily assuaged by) moments of intense action. But the action all comes pretty late in Victory. Love is supposed to be a kind of clarifying force as well as a salvation from self, but this theme is weakened by Conrad's inability to create a female character. In Lord Jim the female that won the protaganist's heart was an island girl and freedom fighter, but since so much was going on the fact that she rarely spoke did not really seem to matter. Here, the love interest (Irene Jacob) is a European but since so little is going on for most of the novel, the weakness of this character is readily apparent. But whats strong here is very strong. Peploe captures the novel's brooding beauty and the villains (Sam Neill & Rufus Sewell) are top-notch. Arguably, most viewers will feel that too little happens too late, but for Conrad fans and fans of island and/or colonial narratives this is well worth your time.