Mackey.PA@PARC-MAXC.ARPA (11/01/83)
"Heat and Dust" has two stories in one movie, similar to "The French Lieutenant's Woman." The story taking place in our time concerns a woman traveling through India to research the life of her grandmother's sister, who was an Englishwoman. She is doing the research as a result of reading letters her grandmother's sister wrote during the 1920's in India with her husband, who was an officer in the military. The letters indicate a liberated, curious, and strong-willed woman, who didn't fit in either English or Indian society. The other story is of this woman. Our heroine of the present, while trying to understand her grandmother's sister, is also in search of herself. The start of the movie is confusing since scenes from the two periods are mixed together, and there are jumps in time within them. But it's not long before you know who's who, and start to see the parallels between the two women's lives. The scenery, sets, costumes, and acting is good. But the pace is uneven, and the stories are not clear. Perhaps this is a problem with all "in search of self" movies, since it's difficult to see inside the searcher. On a different level, it's interesting to see the differences between the two cultures, and how they change over time. ~Kevin