One of my all time favourite films is The Year of Living Dangerously, by Australian film director Peter Weir, and starring a young Mel Gibson. There is just something wonderfully inviting about Peter Weir’s earlier films. A deftness of touch in the story telling, vivid characterisation and beautiful photography, and, perhaps above all, a love for the subject that shines through in every frame.
In this gorgeous film Mel Gibson is the ABC reporter on his first overseas posting in Jakarta during the Soekarno-era and the communist uprisings. Gibson gets entangled with the local problems and gets involved with the resident community of foreign journalists and international embassy personnel, amongst whom we find Sigourney Weaver, his love interest.
The chemistry between Gibson and Weaver is almost tangible and thoroughly believable. There are priceless scenes at the British Embassy parties where a colonel straight out of central casting is slightly protective of assistant Sigourney Weaver’s attraction to Gibson.
Linda Hunt is amazing as Gibson’s local reporter. There is a deep sense that behind the façade in Java, there lurks a whole hidden cosmos of ghostly whispers, gossip set to gamelan music, and exotic intoxication.
I just love the feel of this film and I must admit that I’ve always been a sucker for those films where a Western reporter is stationed in some tropical otherworld where he or she has to deal with a bewildering host of strange new impressions. Add to that a good tense story and I’m your man.
If you like Peter Weir’s more recent films but haven’t seen his earlier ones, this is definitely one to watch.
In this gorgeous film Mel Gibson is the ABC reporter on his first overseas posting in Jakarta during the Soekarno-era and the communist uprisings. Gibson gets entangled with the local problems and gets involved with the resident community of foreign journalists and international embassy personnel, amongst whom we find Sigourney Weaver, his love interest.
The chemistry between Gibson and Weaver is almost tangible and thoroughly believable. There are priceless scenes at the British Embassy parties where a colonel straight out of central casting is slightly protective of assistant Sigourney Weaver’s attraction to Gibson.
Linda Hunt is amazing as Gibson’s local reporter. There is a deep sense that behind the façade in Java, there lurks a whole hidden cosmos of ghostly whispers, gossip set to gamelan music, and exotic intoxication.
I just love the feel of this film and I must admit that I’ve always been a sucker for those films where a Western reporter is stationed in some tropical otherworld where he or she has to deal with a bewildering host of strange new impressions. Add to that a good tense story and I’m your man.
If you like Peter Weir’s more recent films but haven’t seen his earlier ones, this is definitely one to watch.
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