Disgraced and stripped of his sailing papers for abandoning the rusty, dilapidated Patna when she foundered during a storm, once distinguished executive officer James 'Jim' Burke (Peter O'Toole) takes a job transporting gunpowder and rifles by river to Patusan (in southeast Asia) to help the town lead an uprising against bandits led by a villainous General (Eli Wallach)).
Lord Jim is a 1900 novel written by Polish-born author Joseph Conrad [18571924]. The novel was adapted for the movie by American film-maker Richard Brooks, who also directed the movie. Conrad's novel was adapted once before in the 1925 silent film, Lord Jim (1925).