A story like this demands authenticity, and the film only goes halfway. The Cambodian setting and people are the best thing about this film. Every extra and every bit actor who speaks Cambodian but the film never bothers to subtitle, they are the true stars.
Its main actors are badly miscast. Eli Wallach, a New York Jewish actor mostly known for playing gangsters and crooked cops, as the General, a Khmer warlord, isn't at all believable in Yellowface makeup.
An Israeli actress playing a Cambodian? An Englishman playing an Arab trader? They stick out, and aren't believable.
The film doesn't do justice to Conrad's great work, but is still worth seeing. Conrad's meditation on courage and justice is turned into Lawrence of Southeast Asia by O'Toole.
Its main actors are badly miscast. Eli Wallach, a New York Jewish actor mostly known for playing gangsters and crooked cops, as the General, a Khmer warlord, isn't at all believable in Yellowface makeup.
An Israeli actress playing a Cambodian? An Englishman playing an Arab trader? They stick out, and aren't believable.
The film doesn't do justice to Conrad's great work, but is still worth seeing. Conrad's meditation on courage and justice is turned into Lawrence of Southeast Asia by O'Toole.