No, it is impossible, impossible to convey how you feel life in any particular period, impossible to convey what is the truth, meaning and purpose of this life. We live and dream alone... .
Joseph Conrad, "Heart of Darkness"
It seems that talented and brilliant directors do not follow the plot of this or that source accurately; they seem to have little discourse intended by the author, they always strive to reach a completely different ideological, semantic and figurative level. Such a fate, among others, was prepared for “The Godfather” Mario Puzo, “Solaris” Stanislav Lem, “Picnic on the roadside” and “It is difficult to be God” Strugatsky, “Carrier Barry Lyndon”. For Coppola, Tarkovsky, Herman and Kubrick, the original texts are nothing more than a launch vehicle that puts them into orbit, and it is impossible to predict where the main module will fly.
The same happened with the story of the British writer of Polish origin Joseph Conrad “Heart of Darkness”, published in 1899, which 80 years later turned into a new odyssey in the circles of modern Hell: in 1979 the world witnessed the “Apocalypse Today” by Francis Ford Coppola. Difficult in ideological terms, Conrad's story in the treatment of Coppola acquired a completely cosmic scale; "Apocalypse" became a classic of cinema.
And in 1993, the British director Nicholas Rogue filmed his adaptation of the story (which in the Russian box office for some reason turned into “The Spirit of Darkness”.) In the role of Charles Marlowe - a sailor who began to look for Colonel Kurtz, who was fond of collecting ivory in Central Africa, - Tim Roth, in the role of a colonel - even more beautiful John Malkovich. In addition to these two people, conscientiously played their roles, it is worth noting a good musical accompaniment and field shooting, quite conveying the atmosphere of the story.
Slow as the waters of the Congo, the film should be told almost everything; for me personally, it became both a virtue and a disadvantage. On the one hand, it is nice to see that the director faithfully recreates the original material, on the other – there is a feeling of emptiness and colorlessness, lack of creative impulse. However, perhaps this was Roeg's task - to make an extremely ascetic, devoid of any accents film.
This film proves that literature and cinema are two different forms of art. Nicholas Roeg turned out albeit not lettered (it is unlikely at all possible), but a very accurate film adaptation of Conrad’s story; it turned out to be a good, overall, film, only reading “Heart of Darkness” it may seem quite empty, nothing conceptually new does not offer, and the audience who did not read the story risks causing bewilderment and boredom.
6 out of 10