Hacker Cinema
The Year of Living Dangerously
1982 · Film · 114 min
Directed by Peter Weir
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.
6 positive2 neutralfrom 8 commenters
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8 comments on Hacker News
If anyone is looking for a good movie to get a sense of what Jakarta is like, highly recommend "The Year of Living Dangerously" with Mel Gibson/Sigourney Weaver
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086617/
1) God damn that movie is so good.
2) I think part of why it stands out so much is that there are incredibly few excellently-made age of sail war films. A few of the black & white and early color era ones are pretty good (The Sea Hawk and such) but those are pretty different in tone. Master and Commander is very nearly unique. You have to switch over to sci fi (Star Trek, maybe Forbidden Planet) to scratch a similar itch. If you want specifically age of sail, with that structure and tone (war, edge-of-civilization exploration with a ship), your options are very limited.
3) I have discovered only very-belatedly that Peter Weir is one of my favorite directors. I had no idea for the longest time that the same guy did The Mosquito Coast, Master and Commander, The Year of Living Dangerously, Dead Poet's Society, Witness, and The Truman Show. Dude just knocked out one quietly-great movie after another, across multiple genres. I've gone back and picked up some others (Gallipoli, The Cars that Ate Paris) and have yet to be disappointed. The remainder of his all-too-short catalogue is high up my to-watch list. I've seen zero duds from him so far.
"The Year of Living Dangerously" is a surprising one to show up. Reasonably profitable and successful film for the time.
Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver - she usually doesn't get the romantic role.
She became so enamoured with Mel Gibson that the man whom she eventually married resembles Gibson.
Linda Hunt won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress (her character is male in the movie), she played the "boss" on NCIS-LA TV show for several years.
wikipedia page says 88% on Rotten Tomatoes.
A link to just the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7Eup7JXScZyvRftA2Q5hv69XiegDm6tQ
From IMDb:
The 11th Hour (2007, Documentary, 7.2) The Wind and the Lion (1975, Adventure Epic, 6.8) Mr. Nice Guy (1997, Martial Arts Dark Comedy, 6.2) City Heat (1984, Buddy Cop, 5.5) Michael Collins (1996, Docudrama, 7.1) The Adventures Of Pluto Nash (2002, Space Sci-Fi Comedy, 3.9) Chaos Theory (2007, Comedy Drama Romance, 6.6) Mutiny on the Bounty (1962, Historical Globetrotting Adventure, 7.2) Dungeons & Dragons (2000, Adventure Fantasy, 3.7) Return Of The Living Dead Part II (1988, Zombie Horror Comedy, 5.7) The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990, Dark Comedy, 5.6) The Accidental Tourist (1988, Comedy Drama Romance, 6.7) Critters 4 (1992, Horror Sci-Fi, 4.1) Murder in the First (1995, Legal Thriller, 7.3) The Year of Living Dangerously (1982, Drama Romance War, 7.1) December Boys (2007, Drama Romance, 6.5) Waiting for Guffman (1996, Satire, 7.4) Lionheart (1987, Adventure Drama, 5.1) Oh, God! (1977, Comedy Fantasy, 6.6) Crossing Delancey (1988, Comedy Romance, 6.9) Price of Glory (2000, Drama Sport, 6.1) Flight of the Living Dead (2007, Horror, 5.1) Deal of the Century (1983, Dark Comedy Satire Crime, 4.6) Deathtrap (1982, Dark Comedy Suspense Mystery, 7.0) The Mission (1986, Historical Epic Jungle Adventure, 7.4) SubUrbia (1996, Comedy Drama, 6.7) Hot To Trot (1988, Comedy Fantasy, 4.5) True Stories (1986, Comedy Musical, 7.2) The Science of Sleep (2006, Quirky Comedy Drama Romance, 7.2) The Big Tease (1999, Comedy, 6.1)
And for entertainment there is the multiple AA winning preAmerica Mel Gibson vehicle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Year_of_Living_Dangerously_(film)
Once banned in Indonesia..
For a fictional connection:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Year_of_Living_Dangerously_(film)
Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, and Linda Hunt with a stand-out and very deservedly academy award winning supporting role.
The newsman is Kevin Sanders[1] an Australian TV journalist and presenter. He's not particularly well known, but he was a newsreader for GTV 9 (Melbourne) and a presenter for A Current Affair back in the 70s.
His accent is the "broadcast accent" that was cultivated at the time. If you can lay your hands on a copy of Peter Weir's The Year of Living Dangerously[2] you'll hear a young Mel Gibson switch between his normal and a broadcast accent for his scenes in the recording booth.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1467242/
[2] https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/11541-the-year-of-living-dangerously
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Year_of_Living_Dangerously_(film) is a very good movie about that time.