|
starring: Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill, Irène Jacob, Rufus Sewell, Jean Yannedirected by: Mark Peploe
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 0786936219265
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC
Label: Walt Disney Video
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Walt Disney Video
Release Date: April 08, 2003
Running Time: 99 minutes
Sales Rank: 132198
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1995
Related Items:
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Filmed in 1995 and marginally released in Europe in 1998, Victory deserves a better life on video. Adapted by director Mark Peploe from Joseph Conrad's 1915 novel Victory: An Island Tale, this exotic melodrama takes place in the Dutch East Indies in 1913 and '14, where the reclusive Mr. Heyst (Willem Dafoe) lives alone on the secluded island where he once operated a coal mine. Rumored to have killed his business partner, Heyst makes a rare trip to a nearby island, rescues a beautiful violinist named Alma (Irène Jacob) from a wretched hotelier, and returns home with reward-seeking killers (Sam Neill, Rufus Sewell) in close pursuit. A misanthropic pacifist, Heyst faces a dual dilemma: he's fallen in love and must protect Alma at all costs. Preserving Conrad's literary elegance, Peploe opts for a simmering escalation of tension, with a conclusion that Miramax deemed too downbeat for U.S. audiences. Boasting fine performances and breathtaking locations, this gripping film is ripe for rediscovery. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Tell Tale Heart
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 ... Read More
Rating:  - "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 ... Read More
Rating:  - An Intelligent Adaptation
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 ... Read More
Rating: - too smart for American audiences?
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 ... Read More
|
