Nostromo

A saga, a silver mine, lots of horses and guns, an Ennio Morricone's score, an incredible cast...

It's hard to say something bad about this TV-serie, it has suspense, political drama, love, greed, action, but in the end, after all these hours I've spent to watch and love these characters, nothing really stays with me, something is lacking. It's 309 minutes well spend but it stops so brutally that I fell cheated. All that for that?

It is surely a "must see" for any Colin Firth's fan, but nothing that will stop the Earth turning!

Josef Conrad's epic novel set in a fictional South American Country is stunningly brought to life in this BBC production. The movie follows the novel quite closely, surprisingly - however, the acting comes off as cheezy at times. There are, however, some very noteworthy performances - Albert Finney is brilliant, as usual. And there are also some fine performances by Serena Scott Thomas, Brian Dennehy, Joaquim de Almeida, and Colin Firth. However, the cast is huge - as I'm sure the budget must have been limited for such a grand scale story. I must say that it came off quite grandly. I own the VHS, and have had the pleasure of seeing this visual treat many times.

A good taste adventure series produced in Cartagena in Colombia in the mid-'90s and based on Anglo-Polish author, Joseph Conrad's novel. The vivid tropical colours of Colombia, Latin-American settings, flair set-pieces and Late 19th-Century costumes are sumptuous while Lancastrian actor Albert Finney (''Scrooge'' (1970), ''Under the Volcano'' (1982)) is quite superb as the drunken cynical Dr Monygham. Produced at a time when the Beeb could conjure higher classical things with a feel for adventure and flair apropos of the equally adventurous ''The Search for the Nile'' (1971) and ''The Voyage of Charles Darwin'' (1978) there is nothing bland or mediocre about it.

Konrad Korzeniowski came out of Poland and from Marseille began a sailor's life on merchant ships, surviving shipwreck, pirates and all the pains and glories of an adventurous seafaring life. After 15 years of this he settled in London and began writing novels. What kind of English he picked up by crews made up of Filipinos, Galicians, Greeks, Italians, Chinese, Indonesians and so on, might be anybody's guess: however, reading his novels you find his command of English is absolute, as well as his ability to paint real characters with all the fears and hates and loves and feelings in general, together with a philosophical pattern which holds his `yarns' together, such that all his novels are considered modern classics. Among them two stand out as being among the mightiest achievements in English-language literature: Lord Jim and Nostromo.

Joseph Conrad's character `Nostromo' was an Italian working as a jetty foreman in a port in South America. Throughout more than 450 pages Conrad builds up an incredible portrait of this man, interweaving all the other characters around him. Conrad's art is to tell an adventure story but with high quality literature that has never been surpassed in this genre. It is as if he had applied the art of writers like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky in his work, so profound he is. The novel `Nostromo' is a cathedral in English-language literature.

Fortunately, when four European TV Film companies got together, helped by a Boston station, to turn this magnificent novel into a TV series, they were up to the mark. A huge production, beautifully made, definitely worthy of the great novel. Filmed around Cartagena de las Indias, which is more or less spot on where Conrad put it, superb cinematography, excellent acting from everyone, all directed unerringly by Alistair Reid, puts this mini-series in a special category. Not since `Marco Polo' (1982) (qv) had a European production reached such magnificence. And once again, Ennio Morricone puts the final touch with his wonderful music.

Special mention for Claudio Amendola as Nostromo, and of course Lothaire Decoud, Claudia Cardinale and Albert Finney are all excellent – as is the rest of the cast. But in this great work nothing was done by halves: BBC, RAI and TVE have combined to give all the authenticity of the novel's multi-racial setting.

`Nostromo' sits in pride of place in my video collection.

....you'll probably be pleased with the result. It's reasonably faithful to Conrad's novel, and considering the abundance of different characters and the intertwining plot lines all centering on the Mina San Tome silver mine, the miniseries manages to generally keep it all on track. The performances are generally very fine, particularly by the great Albert Finney, Colin Firth, Serena Scott Thomas, Claudia Cardinale, Lothaire Bluteau, Robert Escobar, Joaquim de Almeida, and Ruben Rabasa. Claudio Amendola is excellent in the title role, conveying both the self-confident ability and the vulnerable integrity of the novel's character very believably. Finney is also superb as the cynical Dr. Monygham. About the only weak performance is that of Ruth Gabriel, who is unconvincing as Antonia Avellanos.

It is admittedly a pretty long miniseries -- there's a lot of ground to cover -- but if you're willing to invest the time it's a superb tapestry of an adventure story.