jm (03/07/83)
I had the pleasure of seeing 3 movies by Peter Wier this
week: The Year of Living Dangerously, Gallipoli and
Picnic at Hanging Rock. All three were FANTASTIC films,
and get my absolutely unqualified recomendation (gush, gush).
The most recent of the three is The Year... . It is set in
Indonesia in the early sixties and is the story of an
Australian Journalist and a British Diplomat (played
by Sigourney Weaver). It is being billed as a romance
and it is, sort of. It is much more, however. It is not
particularly violent or bloody, but the action takes place
during a period of extreme political/social upheaval and
it is not a pretty sight.
The Australians seem to celebrate their defeats and
tragedies (usually as cannon fodder for the British Empire)
and this tells one such story. During WWI, the British
used the Australian Light Horse Cavalry as a diversion
so they could make an amphibious landing at Gallipoli
(in Turkey). The Light Horse was ordered to charge with
bayonets into the face of machine guns. The result was
disasterous. A very powerful film. (For another film
about Britain vs Australia, see Breaker Morant
directed by Bruce Beresford.)
In 1900 a group of girls from a girls college in Australia
went on a picnic to Hanging Rock Park. 2 girls and
one of the chaperons disappeared without a trace.
They have never been found. No answers are given,
but this film will send shivers down your spine like no
other. You get the feeling that these people are
teetering on the raw edge of insanity to begin with.
All these films are wonderful in their texture:
You can feel the heat of Jakarta, the grit in the
trenches and the thinly concealed tension in the
lives of the girls... This guy's good.
They don't make movies like that over here...
Jeff Mizener
Tektronix, ADG
Beaverton, OR
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ARPA: tekid!jm.tek@rand-relay carey (03/08/83)
My thanks to Jeff Mizener for his review on the films by Peter Wier. I was interested in a review by anyone who had seen The Year of Living Dangerously. I have not had the opportunity of seeing this film yet, but I was fortunate enough to catch Gallipoli on HBO. I thought it was a superb movie and also recommend it very highly. M. Carey
glossman (03/10/83)
#R:tekid:-98700:fortune:6900008:000:215 fortune!glossman Mar 9 13:45:00 1983 I didn't like "Last Wave" or "Picnic at Hanging Rock", but I just saw "Year of Living Dangerously" over the weekend and it was EXCELLENT. It is very strange, but very worthwhile. Bob Glossman ...!fortune!glossman
logo (03/11/83)
Seconded. All of the Peter Wier movies I have seen are excellent. If it is directed by Peter Wier, I am automatically interested in seeing it. I do not, in general, notice a director explicitly enough to feel this way. David