Heart of Darkness

Rating: 7/10 (1 December 2005)

If you're looking for a masterpiece, read the short novel this is based upon: Joseph Conrad's _Heart of Darkness_. The film is merely OK in comparison.
I like the idea of translating Conrad's anti-imperialism from the Congo of 100 years ago to Vietnam in the '60s. The Idea is relevant, once we look through the alibi, the self-serving excuses, and the supposed idealism of the US taking up a former French colony after they cut and ran from the independence fighters there.
But the film's ponderous ambition tends to become bombastic at times, rather than the bottomless ambiguity of Conrad's novella.