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VictoryRating:
Release Date: 01 June, 2004 Retail Price: $19.99 OUR Price: $17.99 You SAVE: $2.00! Cast: Complete Cast (9 total) |
Victory Reviews
"We are the world, Mr Heyst, come to pay you a visit."
I love Joseph Conrad but the films never seem to work. "The Duellists" was too thin, "The Secret Agent" terrible. "Lord Jim"s the best of a bad bunch so far.
This doesn't up the score much, but it's an honest try. The locations are good and it has the feel of the time and place. Casting is arse over face, with pudgy Sam Neill as the novel's skeletal Mr Jones (hammy, mannered, ineffective) and Willem Dafoe as the novel's pudgy Heyst (very good indeed). Irene Jacob's a blank sheet, but at least she's better here than in "U.S. Marshalls." Best of the bunch is Rufus Sewell, who has Jones' 'private secretary' to perfection, and he's an actor I've no time for in anything else.
Biggest drawback is the narration. Bill Patterson may be great, but he barely keeps his trap shut for more than two minutes. He's always telling us back story, what Heyst thinks, what Schomberg thinks. It's as if Mark Peploe can't let go of the novel or as if the producers didn't think the audience would get it. Considering it sat on the shelf for years, probably the last.
The end is under effective because you never get any feel that the lovers bring each other to life. Dafoe does well, but Jacob is like Isabelle Adjani at her weakest here, doing too little. Good stuff along the way, and Neill does redeem himself with the great line "We are the world, Mr Heyst, come to pay you a visit." Now that's Conrad.
Racier than the book--and the book's better
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.
More Customer Reviews (4 total)
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