On this day in movie history - Heart of Darkness (1994 movie & novel):

 

Heart of Darkness

directed by Nicolas Roeg,

written by Benedict Fitzgerald,

based on the novel by Joseph Conrad,

released in the United States on March 13, 1994.

Music by Stanley

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Cast: Tim Roth, John Malkovich, Isaach De Bankolé, James Fox, Morten Faldaas, Patrick Ryecart, Michael Fitzgerald, Geoffrey Hutchings, Peter Vaughan, Phoebe Nicholls, Allan Corduner, Jan Tríska, Alan Scarfe, Michael Cronin, Iman, Timothy Bateson, Stephen Oxley, John Savident, Charles Kay, Ian McDiarmid, Bhime Souaré, Candice Daly.

Recommended reading:

Heart of Darkness

by Joseph Conrad.

Mass Market Paperback
First published 1899.
Published by Penguin Books.

ISBN 13: 9780140431681
ISBN 10: 0140431683
ASIN: B001KTM47C

Author Joseph Conrad based this novella on his own personal experiences, during a voyage up the Congo River in 1890.

This novella was the inspiration for the movie Apocalypse Now (1979), directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

Description:

Written in the last year of the nineteenth century, Heart of Darkness can be seen in many ways as the first twentieth-century novel.

Its climate of doubt and vagueness, its loss of moral confidence and its need for belief in the midst of spiritual wilderness, its exploration of the subconscious and its affirmation of individual freedom are all themes that were to have an influence on writers such as Orwell, Godling Céline, Borges and Eliot.

In Heart of Darkness Conrad unfolds the story of Marlow’s search for Mr Kurtz, the company agent whose ‘unlawful soul’ has been ‘beguiled beyond the bounds of permitted aspirations’ in his dealings with the natives of the Belgian Congo. Marlow’s adventure involves him in a crucial reappraisal of his own values. It is Kurtz, however, who attains to a vision of the inexpressible, terrifying reality of the heart in this extraordinary exploration of human savagery and despair.

Book cover image: The Steamer Stanley, by F. Hens.

On this day in television history - Murder in the Heartland (1993)

Murder in the Heartland

a made-for-TV miniseries directed by Robert Markowitz,

written by Michael O'Hara,

was released in the United States on May 3, 1993.

Based on the true Charles Starkweather murder case (1957-1958).

Music by Patrick Williams.

Cast:

Tim Roth, Fairuza Balk, Kate Reid, Brian Dennehy, Randy Quaid, Roberts Blossom, Tom Bower, Rondi Reed, Bob Gunton, Ryan Cutrona, Angie Bolling, Jake Carpenter, Heather Kafka, Don Bloomfield, John Hussey, James Hansen Prince, John S. Davies, Mark Walters, Jennifer Griffin, Milo O'Shea, Gerry Bamman, Jeff Perry, Connie Cooper, Jimmy Ray Pickens, Valentina Marie Lomborg, Tom Smith, Renée Zellweger, Darryl Cox, Marco Perella, John Cantwell, Chamblee Ferguson, Gary Mitchell Carter, Suzi McLaughlin, Joan Arenstein.