could a good heart of darkness movie be made?

Submitted by fifticon t3_z62mb6 in movies

there are currently two movies based HoD that I know of. Despite its trainwreck production, I like coppolas version a lot, for its mood and what it achieves. Also,I guess it gets an easier judgement by deviating so much from the book, which stops you fro. comparing them 'frame to frame'. I recently got hold of nicolas roegs movie from the nineties, in spite of its soso reviews. There are alot of facets from roegs version to appreciate. some of the good parts are a lot of good actors,with good parts. however, because it follows the book more closely, I tend to be more dissatisfied with it.

one of my gripes is the changed start. i can see how they are going for a mcguffin like motivation for why we want to investigate what happened ("what happened to the treasure"). but having marlowe sitting there cocky and healthy, ruins my expectations.. as I read the book, marlowe is this kind of weathered monklike mystic with sunken cheeks, spinning a yarn in the fading light, campfire-like. think peter postlethwaite vibe, godblesshissoul.

people say HoD is unfilmable, because so much of its mood is tied to marlowes internal dialogue. but is that unsolvable..? I think both roegs effort and coppolas, says no - they show a lot is possible. I want more fog, more darkness, more vibrant glowing colors, and I want an outstanding effort from kurtz. i dont blame malkovich, i get the feeling the surrounding environment didnt allow him to 'make a bigger marlowe' -the director must want a 'burning marlowe' for it to happen. I had the same problem with roth's marlowe - the way it was writtwn, i guess he did the best with the source material (roegs, not conrads). with movies like blade runner and phoenix' joker, surely a heart of darkness should also be possible. but possibly horribly expensive, with jungle and africa and tribes.

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DMCJR1992 t1_ixz52tr wrote

Anything’s possible, but the problem with HoD being developed into a film production stems for Joseph Conrad’s storytelling techniques. He wrote HoD on a first-person account in memoir style that is plagued with ego and prejudices –dynamics not only hard to capture & produce via cinematography but also a perspective that is simply unattractive. This is where I applaud Coppola’s version in turning the protagonist to a sympathetic war hero who could give us a proper scope on the actual tragedies of war. I, personally, would love to (and have tried) to develop a HoD screenplay but it’s been this far too difficult to reinterpret into something that isn’t clearly racist or societally harmful.

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TangentiallyTango t1_ixz5tg0 wrote

It's also really funny which I think people tend to miss. Tons of sarcasm and irony and dark humor.

That makes it a really tough tone to get right.

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HortonHearsTheWho t1_ixz8cnx wrote

It’s been a while since I read it but seems like you could go some way in “updating” Marlowe to make him a somewhat more palatable narrator, same as Captain Willard. Don’t give him blatantly modern attitudes because that would be stupid and cringey, but give him enough of a conscience for the modern viewer.

Not that too many people would want to see this anyway.

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Original_Common8759 t1_iy060s3 wrote

The modern viewer requires a narrator with a conscience? Wow, I must not be living in the same world as you are. In any case, to change the novel in the ways you suggest would destroy its meaning.

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fifticon OP t1_iy2qjas wrote

One idea I had - which I admit I haven't thought fully through.
What about film noir, and dashell hammett detective stories?

As I naively see it, Marlowe is a lot like a film noir detective, trying to solve a mission in circumstances that throw him around and often times out of his control, with lack of clarity and truth.

One of the reasons I mention Blade Runner, is that one of the versions has voice-over to explain Deckards internal thoughts (I'm aware a lot of people hate that.

The reason I think of usual suspects, is that it also has an enigmatic storyteller, who was personally involved in the story he reveals to us.

Personally I don't find Marlowe unlikable. He's sort of neutral - neither good nor bad, a bit like Eastwood's blue-eyes. He's swimming and surviving in a racist ocean, and for that, I don't see him as particularly racist, especially as he notices and highlights the pointless racism he is witness to. He doesn't condone the senseless beating of the random slave during the fire, and he also has contempt for the greedy morons brainlessly shooting their guns at the river bank foliage.

To me, he is more like a visitor to dante's inferno, and it appears to me he is repusled, but probably desentivized to the suffering and cruelty he witnesses.

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Marty-the-monkey t1_ixz7n24 wrote

I believe in the saying: 'You can make a good movie out of anything'.

They question is less whether you can make a good movie out of something and more a question of people's personal demand/preference in terms of direct adaptations.

I think very few people would call 'The Shinning' a bad movie. Except the author himself (Steven King) who said Kubric destroyed his works themes. Having read the book I see his point, but that doesn't take away from the fact the movie is a classic.

Similarly, the Godfather as a book and the movie are kind of far from each other l, but I don't think anyone would call the Godfather bad.

Rambo First Blood is an adaptations which is miles away from the themes of its book counter part (not to mention significantly less violent)

American Psycho changed a lot from the book, and is also a great movie.

So it's not a matter of 'could it' but more a question of how faithful do you require the adaptations to be.

Lastly, a great video game adaptation of the work has been made with 'SPEC OPs the line'. So most definitely it can be done..

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Jaggedmallard26 t1_ixztpg2 wrote

I agree with you but would take it a step further and apply it to meaning that good adaptations of Heart of Darkness have been done. Apocalypse Now, Ad Astra and Spec Ops The Line are all loose adaptations that capture the spirit and feeling of the book and fascinatingly each use it to explore the theme of the book through a radically different lens. They took the novella and turned it into a movie and a game by changing things to make it fit, its the loosest of adaptations but thats fine, Heart of Darkness was always about the themes and feel rather than the raw plot. If anything having adaptations tackle more recent issues is more in keeping with the novella which was very much a criticism of Imperialism in the Congo.

To me those are good adaptations of Heart of Darkness.

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fifticon OP t1_iy2qr4s wrote

I'll have to check out that Spec Ops you have all been mentioning, thanks for the tip!

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Jaggedmallard26 t1_iy2qxru wrote

Only thing to bare in mind is it very much intends to be a criticism of military shooters from the xbox 360 era. Some notable moments lose some of their kick without knowing what they're a deconstruction of. Still worth playing though.

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LauraPalmersMom430 t1_ixzd3oe wrote

Only if David Lynch does it. Maybe Cronenberg.

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fifticon OP t1_iy2qup9 wrote

I agree that David Lynch could pull it off. And also think, that it would be his completely own take, i.e. it would 50% be something not at all in Conrad :-)

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AmeliaMangan t1_ixzew5u wrote

There's a really fascinating version from 1958, performed and broadcast on live television, starring Boris Karloff, Roddy McDowall and Eartha Kitt. The set is deliberately surreal and artificial, like a school play production of Where The Wild Things Are (or an adolescent's anxiety dream, which it is sort of framed as), and there's a heavy emphasis on then-fashionable Freudian psychology and sadomasochistic overtones. Obviously not super-faithful to the source material, but I think it's a really strange, interesting, almost fairy-tale interpretation of the story.

(It's rendered even weirder by the occasional ad breaks. Roddy McDowall writhing half-naked in chains as he succumbs to his repressed desire for colonialist brutality is brought to you tonight by LUXO SOAP [TM]!)

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GrayRoberts t1_ixzk4ze wrote

no. it is too much. but. someone could make a liver of darkness movie. no. still too much. maybe a gal bladder of darkness. yes. i think that could be made.

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fifticon OP t1_iy2qwrt wrote

Well, army of Darkness exists. It suggests Hand of Darkness is not far off.

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fifticon OP t1_ixz0xq1 wrote

oh,and usual suspects too.

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Ebolatastic t1_iy0t7n0 wrote

I feel like Heart of Darkness is one of the most remade/spoofed stories in all of modern media. There's even a critically acclaimed video game adaptation of it called Spec Ops: The Line. Personally, my favorite adaptation so far has been the Animaniacs spoof, which is more of a spoof of Apocalypse Now, but still.

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Cjaylyle t1_iy19p2c wrote

…….lol wot

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Vidzphile t1_ixz90ns wrote

Ad Astra (2019) is a loose adaptation and a slow burn, but if you enjoy sci-fi, it's worth a watch. Also, Up (2009) has some similar story elements, but probably not what you're looking for as it's geared more for kids (though adults enjoy it as well).

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fifticon OP t1_ixzk89i wrote

by Jove you are right, that is a HoD! And I actually liked it very much.

It's sort of if you focus on Kurtz, and leave out the greedy depravity of the environment (of the original). I guess I can relax now :-), even if they don't do others.

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fifticon OP t1_ixzkcsx wrote

and it still has the 'worried company'.

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Blade_Trinity3 t1_ixz66pa wrote

Isn't heart of darkness so problematic it shouldn't even be read?

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HortonHearsTheWho t1_ixz7kq8 wrote

No.

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Blade_Trinity3 t1_ixzb87h wrote

Idk the first google search is a new Yorker article about how it's problematic. Personally I'm not going to risk reading a book like that and I would be very hurt and upset if a movie was made from said book.

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HortonHearsTheWho t1_ixzc6zn wrote

oh gee well if the New Yorker says I shouldn’t read it

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