IMDb plot summary: A young Australian reporter tries to navigate the political turmoil of Indonesia during the rule of President Sukarno with the help of a diminutive photographer.
Directed by Peter Weir. Starring Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, and Linda Hunt.
The Year of Living Dangerously is set in the weeks before the overthrow of Indonesia's President Sukarno in the mid-60s. Mel Gibson plays an Australian journalist new to Jakarta, Linda Hunt a (male) photo-journalist who has been there for some time, and Sigourney Weaver the British embassy worker they both fall in love with. The romance is easily the least interesting part of this movie, so it's too bad that it takes up the most space. I'm much more interested in Hunt's character, who is immersing himself in the lives of the downtrodden in Jakarta and becoming increasingly frustrated with how their government has abandoned them. (The choice to cast Hunt as a man is fascinating, and she does throw her all into this part and make Billy a well-fleshed-out character, although of course the fact that her character is half-Chinese is a messy bit of yellowface.) It made me want to learn a lot more about that time in Indonesian politics, which I admittedly know almost nothing about, and I always found myself irritated when it tried to recenter me back on Gibson and Weaver's bland love affair. The two sides of the story don't help reinforce each other, they just fight against each other, and the side that "wins" in terms of dominant theme is the least compelling side.
How it entered my Flickchart:
The Year of Living Dangerously < Pete's Dragon
The Year of Living Dangerously > K-19: The Widowmaker
The Year of Living Dangerously < Anchors Aweigh
The Year of Living Dangerously > Father of the Bride (1950)
The Year of Living Dangerously > National Velvet
The Year of Living Dangerously < Sideways
The Year of Living Dangerously > Ralph Breaks the Internet
The Year of Living Dangerously < The Resurrection of Gavin Stone
The Year of Living Dangerously > Sullivan's Travels
The Year of Living Dangerously > Splash
The Year of Living Dangerously > Bee Movie
Final spot: #2552 out of 3958, or 36%.
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