The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)
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.
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What critics compared The Year of Living Dangerously to
Warwick Davis , who looks like a cross between his former Ewok self and Linda Hunt’s Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously, is Willow Ufgood, a little person from a whole colony of little people.
The sea and the ships are beautifully depicted by cinematographer Russell Boyd, an Australian who shot many of Weir's best movies, including "The Year of Living Dangerously," "Picnic at Hanging Rock," "The Last Wave" and "Gallipoli."
Among his most notable works The Year of Living Dangerously , Dead Poets Society , and The Truman Show .
This is Mr. Weir's best movie in ages, conveying the subtle sense of mystery that underlay "Gallipoli" and "The Year of Living Dangerously."
Over the years, Mr. Weir has acquired a deserved reputation for tackling difficult subjects, though despite such praiseworthy efforts as The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), Witness (1985) and The Truman Show (1998), I have felt just as often that his reach has exceeded his grasp.
By turns brutal and majestic, Peter Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (hereafter Master and Commander) reunites the antipodean director with Russell Boyd, the cinematographer with whom he shot The Last Wave, Gallipoli, and The Year of Living Dangerously, and the two have produced a picture on par with those films: historically aware, but more notable for its epic beauty and scope.
Directed by Peter Weir ("Picnic at Hanging Rock," "Gallipoli," "The Year of Living Dangerously") and written by Tom Shulman (who was inspired by one of his own teachers), "Dead Poets Society" tries to be heartwarming, uplifting, and inspirational.
The only times he made one after another was in his collaboration with Mel Gibson, which produced "Gallipoli" in 1981 and "The Year of Living Dangerously" in 1982, and then "Dead Poets Society" in 1989 and "Green Card" with Gerard Depardieu and Andie MacDowell in 1990.
Director Peter Weir ("Witness," "The Year of Living Dangerously") and screenwriter Thom Schulman do a marvelous job of delineating the various characters so that we know each one, and though the film is a bit long (two hours, 10 minutes), given the nature of the material, and there are a few recognizable stereotypes and predictable moments from too many coming-of-age films, "Dead Poets Society" nevertheless is ultimately moving and has an ending that will leave the audience thinking as it leaves the theater.
Fourth-estate-centric films tend to focus on the glamorous or dangerous world events their protagonists are covering ( The Parallax View , The Year of Living Dangerously , All the President’s Men with its Deep Throat intrigue), or satirize the sensationalism of a corrupt media ( Ace in the Hole , Network ), or throw in a workplace romance just to glory in zingy reporters’ banter ( His Girl Friday , Broadcast News ).
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Working from an exceptionally good script by Andrew Niccol (the 34-year-old New Zealander wrote and directed "Gattaca" ), Weir ( "The Year of Living Dangerously," "Witness" ) moves us seamlessly through this unusual premise, never veering from the central idea.
Think of Mel Gibson's journalist in Indonesia in "The Year of Living Dangerously," Harrison Ford's cop in an Amish community in "Witness," even Jeff Bridges as a plane crash survivor who can't readjust to normal life in "Fearless."
Director Peter Weir ("Gallipoli," "The Year of Living Dangerously" "Witness") has created a whale of a good movie, a rich, entertaining, thoughtful work that is at once lyrical and ominous.
Peter Weir, renowned director of such films as Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Year of Living Dangerously, and Dead Poets Society, is leery of good reviews.
Weir, who was also responsible for Gallipoli and The Year of Living Dangerously, guides Carrey to a powerfully restrained, amusing and touching performance.
Linda Hunt's Oscar-winning performance in the male role Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously (1983).