Lord Jim

"Lord Jim blasts the screen with breathless adventure!"

1965 2h 34m EN

👍

6.8

SOLID

★6.8TMDB · 87

AdventureDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

After being discredited as a coward, a 19th century seaman lives for only one purpose: to redeem himself. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2000.

“Lord Jim blasts the screen with breathless adventure!”

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Cast

Peter O'Toole
Lord Jim
James Mason
Gentleman Brown
Curd Jürgens
Cornelius
Eli Wallach
The General
Jack Hawkins
Marlow
Paul Lukas
Stein
Daliah Lavi
The Girl
Akim Tamiroff
Schomberg

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Richard Brooks
Writers: Richard Brooks
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Clocks in at 154 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

61 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Richard Brooks, shot by Freddie Young. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Bronislau Kaper. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Alan Osbiston shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Peter O'Toole and James Mason and Curd Jürgens carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Lord Jim blasts the screen with breathless adventure!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Richard Brooks directs. Freddie Young behind the camera. Bronislau Kaper scores. Alan Osbiston cuts. Produced in United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Clocks in at 154 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.
261 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
3International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.
4Directed by Richard Brooks, shot by Freddie Young. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Bronislau Kaper. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Alan Osbiston shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Peter O'Toole and James Mason and Curd Jürgens carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Lord Jim blasts the screen with breathless adventure!".
9IMDB entry: tt0059399 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Only 87 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
11Classified under 14 themes, including "ship", "based on novel or book", "redemption", "cowardice".

The technical file

Cinematography: Freddie Young
Original score: Bronislau Kaper
Editing: Alan Osbiston
Production design: Geoffrey Drake
Costume design: Phyllis Dalton
Makeup / hair: Gordon Bond
Runtime: 154 min · 2h 34m
Status: Released
Original language: EN
IMDB: Lord Jim (1965)

Also by

Richard Brooks

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Wuchak2020-09-15
★ 5/10
Lawrence of the Jungle In the late 1800s, a gallant officer in the English merchant service (Peter O'Toole) falls prey to cowardice in a weak moment and is ousted to drift from job to job until he is inspired to help a Southeast Asian village purge a cruel general (Eli Wallach), hoping for redemption. The peripheral cast includes Paul Lukas, Jack Hawkins, Curd Jürgens, Daliah Lavi and James Mason. Richard Brooks’ “Lord Jim” (1965) is heavily boiled-down from the superfluous prose of Joseph Conrad's 1900 novel and comes across as overly sentimental and melodramatic. The fictitious village of Patusan is located in Malaysia in the book where the population is largely Muslim while in the movie, which was made in 1964 when the Vietnam situation was escalating, Patusan is deftly moved several hundred miles north to mainland Southeast Asia where the population is Buddhist. At its heart, this is an exploration of the negative effects of fear and the thin line between cowardice and heroism, which is reminiscent of “They Came to Cordora” (1959), but with the setting and general tone of “The Ugly American” (1963), albeit 60+ years in the past. With O’Toole playing a character that helps a ragtag group of idealist indigenous people you can’t help but think of “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962) transferred to the jungle. But “Lord Jim” comes across awkward and boring by comparison, not to mention more old-fashioned even though it’s newer by a few years. The ending is questionably done and leaves a bad taste. On the positive side, some elements are well done, even artistic, and clearly influenced Coppola’s outstanding “Apocalypse Now” (1979). The movie runs 2 hours, 34 minutes, and was shot in Lantau Island, Hong Kong; Angkor Wat, Cambodia; and Malacca, Malaysia. Studio work was done at Shepperton Studios, Surrey, England. GRADE: C
CinemaSerf2024-09-05
★ 7/10
There is much of his TE Lawrence performance in Peter O'Toole's eponymous characterisation of William Conrad's 19th Century sailor. He is cashiered out of the service on grounds of cowardice after being forced to abandon some Muslim pilgrims amidst a storm at sea. Many years on, when he manages to thwart some would-be maritime saboteurs, he allies with trader "Stein" (Paul Lukas) and sets off up river to help some locals who are being enslaved by the "General" (Eli Wallach) and his drunken, cowardly pal "Cornelius" (Curd Jürgens). Battles ensue before "Jim" finds himself further embroiled in the machinations of James Mason's "Brown" on the hunt for some gold and.... Essentially this film (as was the book) is about redemption. "Jim" constantly regrets his earlier, hasty, actions and will stop at nothing to demonstrate that a coward he isn't. Richard Brooks keeps this film moving along quickly with plenty of attention to the gist (if not always the detail) of the book. The episodic nature of the narrative allows the other characters - including Jack Hawkins' "Marlow" - to play their parts for twenty or minutes or so before the plot moves on to pastures a bit new and so it is rarely dull. The production standards are high, and O'Toole, Wallach and especially Jürgens are on good form throughout. I enjoyed this.