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The Year of Living DangerouslyRating:
Release Date: 05 February, 2002 Retail Price: $14.96 OUR Price: $11.99 You SAVE: $2.97! Cast: Complete Cast (5 total) |
The Year of Living Dangerously Reviews
Romance and intrigue amid squalor and poverty
Guy Hamilton is an opportunistic Australian journalist looking to make his name in Indonesia so that he can go on to bigger and better things. Hamilton (played by Mel Gibson) is lost amid a foreign culture and political machine so competely alien to him and gets help from Billy Kwan (played in a cross-gender role by Linda Hunt), an educated native who is desperate to do something about the rampant poverty he sees every day. The two develop a partnership: Guy supplies the words, and Billy, the images. However, their partnership undergoes strain due to their contrary aims: Guy wants to break the story of Communist aggression and insurrection, while Billy wants to blow the lid off of the poverty in his country. Guy's response is that people don't want to hear about starving kids. Things are complicated when Guy falls for a British diplomat (Sigourney Weaver, whose beauty and brilliant performance make up for a marginal British accent) who gives him the story he wants, but broadcasting it may just be bad for everyone. At end of the movie, everyone has committed themselves to what they feel is important, and for some, it isn't what one would initially imagine them choosing.
This is another 80s gem from Peter Weir, who is simply brilliant in setting up an utterly realistic impoverished Indonesia circa 1965. The acting, as I mentioned, is excellent: Gibson has rarely been better, and Weaver is one of the greatest living actresses today. Linda Hunt got much recognition for the role of Billy, but this is no gimmick or Oscar-bait performance--Hunt shows a compelling portrait of betrayed patriotism. Weir, as in Gallipoli, shows a weakness for the music of the times, and there is some 80s synth in the movie again (this time, from Vangelis). Other than this, though, this is a movie which is compelling all the way through and comes highly recommended from this viewer.
Smoldering
They just don't make these kinds of films anymore that blend romance,action,intrigue, political machinations, and manage to keep it modern and original. Set against the backdrop of Suharto's regime, Mel Gibson plays an investigative Australian reporter hunting stories against martial law uprising. Just 26 years old when he played the leading man, Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver shine. It's a classic!
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