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 uucp: {ucbvax,decvax,chico,pur-ee,ihnss}!teklabs!tekid!jm CSnet: tekid!jm@tek 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