Best and worst Conrad adaptations

This film is mediocre - it's watchable, it gives the viewer some idea of what Conrad's novella is about, but it could have been much better given the cast, source material, and director.

The same is true of the 1995 adaptation of Victory (a miscast Sam Neill didn't help), the TV series adaptation of Nostromo (mostly forgettable, but Albert Finney was great as usual). Critics really ripped the 1996 film of A Secret Agent, but I thought that it was decent if nothing spectacular.

The 1965 Lord Jim with Peter O'Toole was highly praised but I was underwhelmed by it, it seemed more like a superficial adventure story rather than an attempt to convey anything by Conrad. Ridley Scott's 1977 adaptation of The Duellists was great, however.

The best (loose) adaptation is obviously Apocalypse Now. One of the worst loose adaptations (also based on Heart of Darkness) is Hotel Colonial.

I've always thought that the film The Lightship, which was a loose adaptation of Conrad's Victory was somewhat underrated. It's certainly not a great movie or even a very good one, but it's decent.

Interestingly, Robert Duvall appears in all three of these films.