The Year of Living Dangerously (1983)

Continuing my plan to watch every Mel Gibson movie in order, I come toThe Year Of Living Dangerously (1982)Plot In A Paragraph: Guy Hamilton (Gibson) an Australian reporter, tries to navigate the political minefield of mid 1960's Indonesia during the reign of Presidant Surkarno. He is aided by photographer Billy Kwan, who introduces him to Jill Bryant (Sigourney Weaver) and the pair start an affair.After working with George Miller for a second time on Mad Max 2, Gibson re-teamed with Peter Weir, in this very under rated movie. It's a complex movie that sucks you in, and you really feel like you know the time and place, in fact you feel like you could be there. It's actually a lot more about people than anything that's politically happening, but that's what makes it so intriguing. The movie (and certainly the promotional work) plays to Gibsons looks and my DVD cover looks like the cover of a romance novel. But it also shows he can do dangerous and reckless (outside of Mad Max) very well too. I'm sure a lot of women lusted after Gibson after watching this. Gibson is well cast as the journalist addicted to risk taking, but Weavers character is pretty uninteresting as far as her usual roles go, but she is as solid as ever. Has she ever gave a bad performance?? But the movie belongs to the person playing Billy Kwan. The man Billy Kwan, is played by a woman! A New York stage actress called Linda Hunt, who is so brilliant, so that character, that it never occurs to us that she is not a man. This is what great acting is folks. The Year Of Living Dangerously grossed $10 million dollars at the domestic box office to finish they year 71st highest grossing movie of 1983.

THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY is an Australian film shot by Peter Weir that looks at a military coup in Indonesia in the 1960s. The story is told through the eyes of Aussie reporter Mel Gibson, in one of his early fresh-faced star-making turns, and is one in a slew of similarly violent journalist abroad-based true stories made during the era (THE KILLING FIELDS perhaps being the best of these).It's an engaging story for sure, but I found the film a little lacklustre. Too much of it seems to focus on a romance with the fine Sigourney Weaver, and there isn't much political context. In fact, I found that the film only really gets going in the last 40 minutes or so and until that point the pace flags. Towards the end, however, we get some excellent plot twists and some very hard-hitting material, and it's very good indeed; a shame that the rest of the movie didn't follow suit.My enjoyment of the tale was also spoilt by the presence of Linda Hunt playing a young Chinese guy in the ultimate Hollywood example of 'yellow face' make up. Hunt is never convincing and a complete distraction, especially when you hear her soft feminine vocals coming out of this supposed guy's mouth. The Spock ears don't help much either. I was astonished to read that she won an Oscar for this caricature performance, which to my mind is no better than that of Peter Sellers in MURDER BY DEATH.

The chance to watch two future stars lock lips at their physical prime against the backdrop of an imploding Asian nation seems a great cinematic opportunity, but it's that emphasis that ultimately bogs down "The Year Of Living Dangerously."June, 1965: Guy Hamilton (Mel Gibson) is an Australian reporter sent on his first overseas assignment, covering Indonesia as communists and right-wing generals vie for control. He makes two important friends. Billy Kwan (Linda Hunt) is a crafty photographer whose amiable exterior hides a soul in torment. Jill Bryant (Sigourney Weaver) is a British embassy secretary who struggles to reconcile her sense of duty with her romantic feelings for Guy.Gibson and Weaver got star billing, but Hunt got the Oscar. That was fair. For much of the film, it's Hunt's performance that gives us a handle on what is going on. Kwan helps Guy land a scoop interview with head Communist D. N. Aidit, all the while pushing Guy not to lose sight of the human dimension involved, the suffering of the people and the unfulfilled desire for freedom."Add your light to the sum of light," says Kwan.That Hunt was a woman in a man's role gets a lot of attention, as does the fact the American plays a part-Chinese character. It's kind of pointless getting hung up on that. She's about the only thing in "Year Of Living Dangerously" that makes you care.It's not a bad movie, just a confused one, with long slow passages where Guy and Jill make small talk amid the bamboo. In one inane sequence, they run a roadblock and are met with a barrage of automatic-weapon fire, something they treat as a lark.I was more interested in Guy's teamwork with Billy, who uses his short stature to negotiate dangerous crowds and gives Guy the leads on important stories. "That little twerp knows everything," sneers a Washington Post reporter (Michael Murphy) who does everything but wear an ugly-American T-shirt for easy identification. Gibson and Hunt are an easy pair to like; Gibson with his put-upon mien, Hunt with her enigmatic serenity."Don't take it personally," Kwan tells Guy as he is menaced by an angry crowd. "You're just a symbol of the West.""Feel more like a spittoon," Guy answers.Eventually they fall out, over a story that Billy claims jeopardizes Jill. That Billy is angry I get, though we don't actually see Jill menaced for the information she gave and Guy seems to have no choice but to use the information. A labored connection is made between Guy's "betrayal" and a similar disillusionment Billy feels for Indonesia's embattled leader, Sukarno. Even when Billy is visited with personal tragedy, his over-the-top reaction is something even Hunt can't sell.The music is first-rate; so is the camera-work. You know you can count on those things in a Peter Weir movie, and the celebrated director indeed delivers. There are also several small moments, like one where a corporal of the guard at a scene already awash in blood briefly menaces a pair of helpless travelers before apparently taking mercy and sending them on their way with a smile.Too often, though, the film reaches for more than it delivers. The second half of the movie, when the romance between Guy and Jill is thickest, slows to a crawl. Putting the political intrigue in the background creates needless plot confusion just as things are reaching a boil. We don't even get to see the major crisis point in the movie, Guy getting his biggest (and last) story.The frustration with "The Year Of Living Dangerously" is ultimately more than it can manage. While noble in its refusal to traffic easy answers (despite what others say, this is not a "good-communist" movie), there is a failure to present the questions in a clear or compelling way. Instead, it is content to reference the Indonesian art of "wajang" and employ shadow puppets in place of clearer characters or setting, a poor brush-off of the need to tell a good story.

I'very disappointed with this boring, irrelevant movie. Basically nothing relevant happens: A guy are working in a tropical hellhole and meet some unlikely, unbelievable character, like a midget philosopher-photographer, a tough British soldier who don't like ice and the only one attractive woman in the whole Jakarta who, of course fall in love with him. Almost anyone in the movie behaves very irrationally, crashing armed checkpoints for bring a girl at home, wandering crime riddled streets just for fun, getting out of the car to face a machete-armed hostile crowd, and continuously,blithely ignoring a whole army of mean-looking armed guards. This movie is just an excuse for presenting the real heroes: the commies, who tries to "liberate" Indonesia, as they "liberate" China, Korea and Vietnam.