In the film The Heart of Darkness, Kurtz's godly figure is portrayed by John Malkovich. He does not look as though I expected. I myself, saw a middle aged white man, beaten down by the harsh African environment. He was, in this movie, shown as an older man whose voice sounded as though he had never had to yell in his life. He sounded wise and almost godly, just as the savages thought he was. This power, however, would prove to be his downfall, driving him mad with power and eventually killing him.
A lot of scenes in this movie were cut for some reason. The book was only 76 pages in length, and it could not be fit into a movie? This shows you how much emotion and complexity was deliberately put into making the book the way it was. There was so much information that filmmakers had to visualize the scenes they thought made the book, and delete the ones that didn't seem important enough.
My English class read the book for an astounding 3 months in order to understand all of what was going on. Then we watched the almost two hour movie which left us in awe. This was not entirely because the movie was one actually worth watching in school, but because of the simplicity of what was made to seem so complicated. This was shown; when the boat was sunk, he could have just said that it was sunk, but it was made complicated by describing the scene and making it come to life in your mind. The book and movie is enough evidence to declare Conrad a racist in some people's minds, but in order to see that he is not you must read understand, or watch the movie.
I would only recommend this movie to people who have read the book and understood what happened, so when you watch the movie you can see what was cut out and what the maker of the movie wanted you to see. If you research Conrad's background, you will also find that Marlow appears in a lot of Conrad's books. Though this is not completely certain, it is thought that Marlow is actually Conrad. I would give this movie 6 out of 10 stars, however I would give the book 8. After seeing this movie you will see that we all have the same qualities, how we demonstrate these qualities is what makes us all different.
A lot of scenes in this movie were cut for some reason. The book was only 76 pages in length, and it could not be fit into a movie? This shows you how much emotion and complexity was deliberately put into making the book the way it was. There was so much information that filmmakers had to visualize the scenes they thought made the book, and delete the ones that didn't seem important enough.
My English class read the book for an astounding 3 months in order to understand all of what was going on. Then we watched the almost two hour movie which left us in awe. This was not entirely because the movie was one actually worth watching in school, but because of the simplicity of what was made to seem so complicated. This was shown; when the boat was sunk, he could have just said that it was sunk, but it was made complicated by describing the scene and making it come to life in your mind. The book and movie is enough evidence to declare Conrad a racist in some people's minds, but in order to see that he is not you must read understand, or watch the movie.
I would only recommend this movie to people who have read the book and understood what happened, so when you watch the movie you can see what was cut out and what the maker of the movie wanted you to see. If you research Conrad's background, you will also find that Marlow appears in a lot of Conrad's books. Though this is not completely certain, it is thought that Marlow is actually Conrad. I would give this movie 6 out of 10 stars, however I would give the book 8. After seeing this movie you will see that we all have the same qualities, how we demonstrate these qualities is what makes us all different.