"Lord Jim blasts the screen with breathless adventure!"
After being discredited as a coward, a 19th century seaman lives for only one purpose: to redeem himself. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2000.
Peter O'Toole
Lord Jim
James Mason
Gentleman Brown
Curd Jürgens
Cornelius
Eli Wallach
The General
Jack Hawkins
Marlow
Paul Lukas
Stein
Daliah Lavi
The Girl
Akim Tamiroff
Schomberg
Jūzō Itami
Waris
After being discredited as a coward, a 19th century seaman lives for only one purpose: to redeem himself. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2000.
_**Lawrence of the Jungle**_ In the late 1800s, a gallant officer in the English merchant service (Peter O'Toole) falls prey to cowardice in a weak moment and is ousted to drift from job to job until he is inspired to help a Southeast Asian village purge a cruel general (Eli Wallach), hoping for redemption. The peripheral cast includes Paul Lukas, Jack Hawkins, Curd Jürgens, Daliah Lavi and James Mason. Richard Brooks’ “Lord Jim” (1965) is heavily boiled-down from the superfluous prose of Joseph Conrad's 1900 novel and comes across as overly sentimental and melodramatic. The fictitious village of Patusan is located in Malaysia in the book where the population is largely Muslim while in the movie, which was made in 1964 when the Vietnam situation was escalating, Patusan is deftly moved several hundred miles north to mainland Southeast Asia where the population is Buddhist. At its heart, this is an exploration of the negative effects of fear and the thin line between cowardice and heroism, which is reminiscent of “They Came to Cordora” (1959), but with the setting and general tone of “The Ugly American” (1963), albeit 60+ years in the past. With O’Toole playing a character that helps a ragtag group of idealist indigenous people you can’t help but think of “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962) transferred to the jungle. But “Lord Jim” comes across awkward and boring by comparison, not to mention more old-fashioned even though it’s newer by a few years. The ending is questionably done and leaves a bad taste. On the positive side, some elements are well done, even artistic, and clearly influenced Coppola’s outstanding “Apocalypse Now” (1979). The movie runs 2 hours, 34 minutes, and was shot in Lantau Island, Hong Kong; Angkor Wat, Cambodia; and Malacca, Malaysia. Studio work was done at Shepperton Studios, Surrey, England. GRADE: C
There is much of his TE Lawrence performance in Peter O'Toole's eponymous characterisation of William Conrad's 19th Century sailor. He is cashiered out of the service on grounds of cowardice after being forced to abandon some Muslim pilgrims amidst a storm at sea. Many years on, when he manages to thwart some would-be maritime saboteurs, he allies with trader "Stein" (Paul Lukas) and sets off up river to help some locals who are being enslaved by the "General" (Eli Wallach) and his drunken, cowardly pal "Cornelius" (Curd Jürgens). Battles ensue before "Jim" finds himself further embroiled in the machinations of James Mason's "Brown" on the hunt for some gold and.... Essentially this film (as was the book) is about redemption. "Jim" constantly regrets his earlier, hasty, actions and will stop at nothing to demonstrate that a coward he isn't. Richard Brooks keeps this film moving along quickly with plenty of attention to the gist (if not always the detail) of the book. The episodic nature of the narrative allows the other characters - including Jack Hawkins' "Marlow" - to play their parts for twenty or minutes or so before the plot moves on to pastures a bit new and so it is rarely dull. The production standards are high, and O'Toole, Wallach and especially Jürgens are on good form throughout. I enjoyed this.
Erstwhile childhood friends, Judah Ben-Hur and Messala meet again as adults, this time with Roman officer Messala as conqueror and Judah as a wealthy, though conquered, Israelite. A slip of a brick during a Roman parade causes Judah to be sent off as a galley slave, his property confiscated and his mother and sister imprisoned. Years later, as a result of his determination to stay alive and his willingness to aid his Roman master, Judah returns to his homeland an exalted and wealthy Roman athlete. Unable to find his mother and sister, and believing them dead, he can think of nothing else than revenge against Messala.
Two small children and a ship's cook survive a shipwreck and find safety on an idyllic tropical island. Soon, however, the cook dies and the young boy and girl are left on their own. Days become years and Emmeline and Richard make a home for themselves surrounded by exotic creatures and nature's beauty. But will they ever see civilization again?
On the Arabian Peninsula in the 1930s, two warring leaders come face to face. The victorious Nesib, Emir of Hobeika, lays down his peace terms to rival Amar, Sultan of Salmaah. The two men agree that neither can lay claim to the area of no man’s land between them called The Yellow Belt. In return, Nesib adopts Amar’s two boys Saleeh and Auda as a guarantee against invasion. Twelve years later, Saleeh and Auda have grown into young men. Saleeh, the warrior, itches to escape his gilded cage and return to his father’s land. Auda cares only for books and the pursuit of knowledge. One day, their adopted father Nesib is visited by an American from Texas. He tells the Emir that his land is blessed with oil and promises him riches beyond his wildest imagination. Nesib imagines a realm of infinite possibility, a kingdom with roads, schools and hospitals all paid for by the black gold beneath the barren sand. There is only one problem. The precious oil is located in the Yellow Belt.
Middle-aged Gerald Kingsland advertises in a London paper for a female companion to spend a year with him on a desert island. Young Lucy Irving takes a chance on contacting him, but once on the island, things prove a lot less idyllic than in the movies. Gradually, it becomes clear that it is Lucy who has the desire and the strength to try and see the year through.
Traumatized by a fishing boat accident many years before, Joe Gastineau has given up his hopes for a life beyond the odd jobs he takes to support himself. That quickly changes when nomadic club singer Donna de Angelo and her troubled teen-age daughter enter Joe’s life. Both mother and daughter fall for Joe, increasing the friction between them. The tension continues to build when Joe invites them on a pleasure cruise up the Alaskan coast, discovering too late that the trip may cost them their lives.
A rogue submarine captain pulls together a misfit crew to go after a sunken treasure rumored to be lost in the depths of the Black Sea. As greed and desperation take control on-board their claustrophobic vessel, the increasing uncertainty of the mission causes the men to turn on each other to fight for their own survival.
Set in the eighteenth century, Moonfleet is about John Mohune, a young orphan who is sent to the Dorset village of Moonfleet to stay with an old friend of his mother's, Jeremy Fox. Fox is a morally ambiguous character, an elegant gentleman involved with smugglers and pirates.
Faced with the suspicious death of their father, two brothers must motivate one another to get back on their bikes and take the Las Vegas Motocross Championships by storm.
Zack Mayo is an aloof, taciturn man who aspires to be a navy pilot. Once he arrives at training camp for his 13-week officer's course, Mayo runs afoul of abrasive, no-nonsense drill Sergeant Emil Foley. Mayo is an excellent cadet, but a little cold around the heart, so Foley rides him mercilessly, sensing that the young man would be prime officer material if he weren't so self-involved. Zack's affair with a working girl is likewise compromised by his unwillingness to give of himself.
When a wounded Christian Grey tries to entice a cautious Ana Steele back into his life, she demands a new arrangement before she will give him another chance. As the two begin to build trust and find stability, shadowy figures from Christian’s past start to circle the couple, determined to destroy their hopes for a future together.