Joseph Conrad: A Credo of Visualisation; Part-21

In this his work is very similarto the cinematic approach adopted by Howard Hawks,in his films ,( be it,Road to Glory, 1926, Rio Bravo,Air Force etc) . Hawk's protagonist, like Conrad's central character exhibits the same thematic preoccupation , the same recurringmotifs, incidents, the same visual style and tempo, so much so that we Could actually construct a species of Hawksian and Conradian protagonists. Hawk's heroes are cattlemen, fishermen, racing drivers, hunters habituated to danger and living apart from society, actually cut-off from it by dense forests, sea, snow, desert etc. Hawk's heroes pride themselves on their professionalism. The heroes who exclude others from their elite on the basis of "how good is he" are themselves excluded from society, exiled to the African bush or Arctic.They are , however, cruelly stunted and there are moments when they turn against the world and unleash upon it destruction and brutality.. For them 'Nihilism' is no more than being in danger of losing your life and often they regress back to childhood or savagery. And so we have Kurtz and Nostromo excuded by the society as symbolized by the Congo river and the sea respectively Both are stunted in their desire for more ivory and the desire to be thought well of. And both like Hawk's protagonists revert to savagery and nihilistic concept of life. They are both professionally competent. Captain Mitchell describes Nostromo as " a fellow in a thousand, who at the head this time of the company's lightermen, hels the jetty against the rush of the 'rabble" . He was the man who could deliver Sulaco from the clutches of Sotillo by bringing Barrios. And yet he has about him an "aloofness" and was therefore the "more to be feared" . And yet he is clearly disfigured by his need to "well-spoken of" and by his moral corruption when he realizes " I am nothing. Nothing to anyone" In his death he achieves the quiet heroism of a man who " died without a word or a moan after an hour of immobility broken by short shudders testifying to the most atrocious sufferings" Conrad with his conscious exploration of unconsciously penetrated space , with his juxtaposition of various immutable and unrelated perspectives according to a pre-determined concept is a montage writer. It would not be far wrong to say that Conrad with his visual constructionshas brought cinema to its present organic embodiment of a single idea conception. Part of the Dream Weave Walk 1999-2010