Movie cup 2017

[Arthur Crabtree]

Not sure how widely seen it is.

[rich1uk]

as might have been expected the voting is very evenly spread so far

with just 2 sets of votes to come in think any of the options can win the week still

[sussexpob]

I imagine the ginger one gets my vote.... from previous film thread

[rich1uk]

Votes are in for week 3

1st= Apocalypse Now chosen by Sussex
1st= Dog Day Afternoon chosen by GJ
1st= Schindler's List chosen by Aidan
4th= Goodfellas chosen by Ginger
4th= The Killing Fields chosen by AC
6th Hotel Rwanda chosen by Andy
7th All the Presidents Men chosen by BN
8th The Wolf of Wall Street chosen by GG


Points after Week 3

1st= Aidan - 20 points
1st= Sussex - 20 points
3rd= AC - 16 points
3rd= BN - 16 points
3rd= Andy - 16 points
6th GJ - 15 points
7th= Ginger - 14 points
7th= GG - 14 points


Week 4 theme will go up late Friday night/early Saturday

[Arthur Crabtree]

Just out of interest, is Apocalypse Now a true story? Isn't it an adaptation of a fictional novel? Though Conrad worked in the setting of the novel (changed for the film). I suppose you could say Apocalypse Now by accident became partly a film about its own insanity.

Not rocking the boat (of course) just interested.Voted for Andy and BN. I've noticed that my vote is a kind of unwelcome kiss of death.

[rich1uk]

Just out of interest, is Apocalypse Now a true story? Isn't it an adaptation of a fictional novel? Though Conrad worked in the setting of the novel (changed for the film). I suppose you could say Apocalypse Now by accident became partly a film about its own insanity.

Not rocking the boat (of course) just interested.Voted for Andy and BN. I've noticed that my vote is a kind of unwelcome kiss of death.

if i am being honest i did think about that but it was after the voting had started and i had accepted the film, i was happy for the term "based on a true story" to be fairly loose any way

if anyone feels strongly about it i'll void the week and add another theme at the end

[Arthur Crabtree]

Not saying that at all. Just interested to know something about the film.

[rich1uk]

Not saying that at all. Just interested to know something about the film.

i know, just in case anyone was that was all

[Gingerfinch]

Knew I should have gone for 'Saving Mr Banks'

[Arthur Crabtree]

Lead starting to develop.

[GarlicJam]

I was wondering that myself, AC.


Surprised that my one got equal first - especially with Arthur not voting for it.

I went Killing Fields then AtP'sM.

[GarlicJam]

Lead starting to develop.

more importantly, I am off the bottom.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I went Killing Fields then AtP'sM.

You have exquisite taste GJ.

[sussexpob]

Despite having a rich uncle bankrolling his life, Joseph Conrad took up sailing as a profession out of pure passion, but he wasnt very good at it. He had very modest success, most of it down to his unbelievable skill at bullsh*tting people into believing he was some master sailor. After losing his job in the French navy due to his Russian nationality, and losing opportunities in the English navy that was skeptical of foreign labour at a time where manpower cuts were brought in due to larger capacity ships needing less voyages to transport goods, he was forced into approaching Belgian merchant jobs to keep his career progressing.

He took a job in the Congo in charge of a merchant vessel not long after the famous Henry Morgan Stanley expedition to relive Emin Pasha. To explain the history briefly, the Madhists had besieged and conquered Khartoum in Sudan in 1885, and were now threatening Southern Sudan where the west had a friendly King on the verge of collapse. The British were not in the position to launch an invasion to assist, as they were under pressure elsewhere, but Stanley suggested they rescue the Emin Pasha before he fall to the natives.

Stanley was actually at the time in the employ of the Belgian King Leopold, who apparently refused to the expedition unless Stanley took the route through the Congo River and up through Continental Africa, instead of the much quicker East Africa coastal route. Leopold had annexed the Congo Free State that year using Stanley as his tool, and he basically provided all the equipment for the expedition on the hope Stanley would discover more useful resources by chartering the inland route. Obviously, this is the story, the counter argument is Stanley was using Emin Pasha with Leopold as an excuse to further increase his Congo territory (more likely).

When Stanley set out, he left behind a "Rear Column" in Congo. On return from the expedition he found that this column had digressed into all manner of depravity, with ritual beatings, murders, etc being carried out on the natives. It is said that its commander, Edumnd Barttelot, a British Officer, while trapped in the jungle had essentially gone crazy. At first, he had been celebrated for his resourcefulness but as time went on his lost his mind. He then started routine executions and barbarity, apparently much of it without rational reason. He was shot by a native after he tried to stop a local ritual brutally.

You might ask what this has to do with Conrad? Conrad's mission in the Congo was to go to Port Stanley, I believe a colony setup as part of the Rear Columns responsibility, directly after this occurred. On the way to the Port he witnessed French and Belgian warships attacking unarmed tribes people, and on arrival into Port Stanley met Leon Rom, another fine Belgian colonial brutal warlord who had a thing about decorating his flowerbed with the severed heads of locals his routinely killed. He is also met a man called Roger (surname escapes me) who gave him a report of the brutality in the area, and asked him to take it to journalists. Finally, on the way out of Port Stanley back up the river, he transported an ill man who is said to have proclaimed before his death "the horror, the horror" (The famous last words of Kurst). The guys name was Kirst, which means little in German, something referenced in the book in relation to the character.

Essentially the Heart of Darkness is a mix of two things..... Conrad's witnessing of the aftermath of Stanley's trail blaze through the jungle and its aftermath on the local populace, and the embodiment of either the current or past brutality of the colonial masters, embodied in Kurst. The book is therefore not only self biographical (Marlow is essentially Conrad, I believe in the original drafts of the novel he made no attempt to mask the fact it wasnt the author), but all the plot twists are based on real interactions, people or events.

And obviously, the book is an acknowledged basis of the film.

If it makes it better, I did explain to rich it might be a dubious link for some people

[rich1uk]

it was my decision to allow it and as i said above i was quite happy to allow fairly loose interpretation of the theme

at least one of the remaining themes might need a loose interpretation too