Readers of Graham Greene will fall for this movie, and in particular the portrayal of Brown by the late Richard Burton, who may well play the perfect Greene anti-hero. Burton brings a subtlety to the role which may well be beyond the skill level of any actor working today. His is a haunting, yet totally convincing performance of a cynic, sinner, and dissolute sort searching for an excuse to remain alive, and initially finding that excuse only in pleasures of the flesh.
The film seems to have been lost in the shuffle, and that is unfair. While not easy to grasp---at least for those unfamiliar with the works of Greene---it is full of outstanding performances by some of the industry's former greats. Amongst Alec Guinness, Peter Ustinov, James Earl Jones, Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, the only one who comes up short---delivering a wooden and uninteresting performance that makes an elicit romance unattractive out of boredom rather than sin--- is Taylor. Everyone else is superb, including the sidebars played for both a touch of humor and moral rectitude by Paul Ford and Lillian Gish.
Action junkies will be unimpressed with the pace of the film and its low key approach to the violence, but anyone who has experienced a land where brutality and oppression rule the day will find the seeming banality of evil, as portrayed in the film, remarkably realistic and properly underplayed.
The film seems to have been lost in the shuffle, and that is unfair. While not easy to grasp---at least for those unfamiliar with the works of Greene---it is full of outstanding performances by some of the industry's former greats. Amongst Alec Guinness, Peter Ustinov, James Earl Jones, Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, the only one who comes up short---delivering a wooden and uninteresting performance that makes an elicit romance unattractive out of boredom rather than sin--- is Taylor. Everyone else is superb, including the sidebars played for both a touch of humor and moral rectitude by Paul Ford and Lillian Gish.
Action junkies will be unimpressed with the pace of the film and its low key approach to the violence, but anyone who has experienced a land where brutality and oppression rule the day will find the seeming banality of evil, as portrayed in the film, remarkably realistic and properly underplayed.