Peter Weir's "Year of Living Dangerously" is one of the best 80s foreign dramas available. It stars an up and coming Mel Gibson in the middle of a politically volatile setting in 1960s Indonesia. Mel Gibson acts young, alive, and foolish as an Australian journalist Guy Hamilton in a country impoverished with a power struggle about to erupt between a communist type faction and the local in-power dictatorship. As a well done secondary plot, I found Gibsons's romance with Sigourney Weaver particularly enthralling about the middle 30 min of the movie, especially 2 scenes where career and relationship runs head-on at odds - and leading up to that with Weaver walking in the tropical rain amid squalor while contemplating that communicates atmosphere and feeling to perfection together. As a third supporting character, Linda Hunt's Billy does well as sort of a dismayed but hopeful dwarf journalist, and an on-looking supporter of the impoverished. The movie captures political tension very well as it does the setting - a hot, humid southeastern Asia(filmed in Phillipines and Australia) marred by inhumane living conditions and famine. Towards the end, one of the local characters remarks "Westerners don't have answers anymore"....almost 25 yrs after this movie, this still rings true. Excellent settings, characters, and intrigue along with mostly good music.
Review of The Year of Living Dangerously
