The Year of Living Dangerously

Plot synopsis:
Guy Hamilton (Mel Gibson), a neophyte foreign correspondent for an Australian network, arrives in Jakarta on assignment. He meets the close-knit members of the foreign correspondent community including journalists from the United Kingdom, the United States, and New Zealand, diplomatic personnel, and a Chinese-Australian dwarf of high intelligence and moral seriousness, Billy Kwan (Linda Hunt). Hamilton is initially unsuccessful because his predecessor, tired of life in Indonesia, had departed without introducing Hamilton to his contacts. He receives limited sympathy from the journalist community, which competes for scraps of information from Sukarno's (Mike Emperio) government, the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), and the conservative Muslim military. However, Kwan takes a liking to Hamilton and arranges interviews for him with key political figures.
Kwan introduces Hamilton to Jill Bryant (Sigourney Weaver), a beautiful young assistant at the British embassy. Kwan and Bryant are close friends, and he subtly manipulates her encounters with Hamilton. After resisting Hamilton because she's returning to the United Kingdom, Bryant falls in love with him. Discovering that the Communist Chinese are arming the PKI, Bryant passes this information to Hamilton to save his life, but he wants to cover the Communist rebellion that will occur when the arms shipment reaches Jakarta. Shocked, Kwan and Bryant withdraw their friendship from Hamilton, and he is left with the American journalist Pete Curtis (Michael Murphy), and his own assistant and driver Kumar (Bembol Roco), who is secretly PKI. Kumar, however, remains loyal to Hamilton and tries to open his eyes to all that is going on.
Kwan, outraged by Sukarno's failure to meet the needs of most Indonesians, decides to hang a sign saying "Sukarno feed your people" from the Hotel Indonesia expressing his outrage but is thrown from the window by security men, and dies in Hamilton's arms. His death is also witnessed by Jill. Still in search of "the big story", Hamilton visits the Presidential palace after the army generals have taken over and unleashed executions, after they learned of the Communist shipment. Struck down by an Army officer, Hamilton suffers a detached retina.
Resting alone in Kwan's bungalow, Hamilton recalls a passage from the Bhagavad Gita ("all is clouded by desire") which Billy told him. Kumar visits him and tells him about the failed coup attempt. Risking permanent damage to his eye, a heavily bandaged Hamilton implores Kumar to drive him to the airport, where he boards the last plane out of Jakarta and is reunited with Bryant.

Tags: murder

Review:
Eventually Hamilton must confront moral conflicts and the relationship between Billy and him reaches some problems connected with a British diplomatic attaché , at the same time the political upheaval takes place in coup détat.Mel Gibson is good as correspondent covering a conflict and finding himself becoming personally involved when he befriends a free-lance photographer named Billy Kwan and falling for a beautiful Embassy assistant, a mesmerizing Sigourney Weaver .The movie has its touching moments found primarily in the superb supporting performances as Michael Murphy as lively journalist , Bill Kerr as veteran Colonel and of course diminutive Linda Hunt who steals the show as sensible photographer in her Academy Award-winning character, a woman acting a man, and well deservedly prized.
Peter Weir's movie, set in Sukarno's Indonesia in 1965, can be seen as four films in one.
The third - and most important in commercial-cinema terms - is a convincingly acted romance between rookie foreign correspondent Guy Hamilton (Mel Gibson) and British diplomat Jill Bryant (Sigourney Weaver), culminating in an unlikely and sentimental ending to the film.But it is the fourth of these "sub-movies" which is the most intriguing; this concerns the diminutive and enigmatic Australian/Chinese photographer Billy Kwan, an astonishing - and Oscar winning - portrayal by actress Linda Hunt.
15 years after its release, I finally get to see what to my knowledge is the only english-speaking film that tells the story of Indonesia circa the 1965 revolution.A very young Gibson is convincing as the inexperienced but ambitious reported determined to make his mark in telling the story of Sukarno's last moments in power.
Equally brilliant is Sigourney Weaver, and yet one feels that this film did not give her the opportunity to show her true calibre.The one who ultimately steals the show, then, is Linda Hunt, playing the enigmatic and passionate Billy, who understands the true psyche of Indonesia better than any of the other foreign characters in this story.When Billy solemnly expresses his disappointment to Guy, proclaiming, "I created you", it evoked images of Weir's latest masterpiece, The Truman Show, where Christof has fashioned the persona of Truman Burbank for his TV spectacle.
Linda Hunt's portrayal of Billy Kwan is astonishing and won her a well-deserved Oscar in an incredible gender-switching performance that was inspired casting.One thing I never noticed before was how Billy placed each of the three main characters in their perspective as the Indonesian puppets he explains to Guy.
The chemistry between Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver, as young lovers in exciting times, is breath-taking!But Linda Hunt is the biggest gem in the movie, playing a little man named Billy Kwan.
First, it captures the feel of westerners living abroad, the cluster of expat personalities that you find were you to live or work abroad.Second, it is one of the best love stories ever crafted, with a "fleeting end of summer feel" between Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver.
Who could not be riveted by Linda Hunt's performance as "Billy?" Who could not be charmed and chided by Sigourney Weaver's sexy-yet-pragmatic character "Jill?" And who better than a devilishly handsome rogue like Mel Gibson to portray "Guy," a self-centered journalist whose nearly loses an eye because he can't really "see" the way Billy tries to get him to.
Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hunt all deal with the question through their characters in an interesting sort of "love triangle." The film is practically flawless with Peter Weir at the helm.
There are many strands in it - love story; evocation of a particular moment in history; the shadow puppets theme of how, Arjuna-like, good and evil can come together in one (Sukarno had started with good aims but had become a corrupt dictator); the shadow puppets theme of Billy benignly pulling the strings in people's lives; the question of how ethical it is for journalists just to report and not become involved in issues, etc.One strand I can relate to is the theme of "what should we do then?" in the direct face of developing world corruption and poverty.
When I decided to see TYOLD one weekday afternoon in 1983, I didn't expect a comedy and knew nothing more about the film than that Australians had written and directed it, so as I drove alone to the theater I only hoped that I had chosen a thought-provoking story that might offset the uneventful life I was living at the time.The Year of Living Dangerously did much more than provide me with a pleasant 2-hour escape from my dull routine.
While holding my interest with a compelling story about a passionate little photographer and an inexperienced journalist on a dangerous assignment, TYOLD clarified for me significant differences between Southeast Asian and Western cultures and enlightened me about Indonesian history (During the 1960's people talked about the possibility of a communist revolution in Viet Nam, not in Indonesia.).
In a review I once read of TYOLD, a professional critic mocked Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver by asserting, "Bogart and Hepburn they're not." Though I didn't leave the movie theater wishing that other actors had played their parts, I did see the relationship between Guy Hamilton, the journalist, and Jill Bryant, an assistant to an attaché of the British embassy, as the film's one weakness.That he pursued her and she ultimately accepted after much reluctance came across as believable enough, but since their relationship developed so little -- few meaningful conversations, not much exclusive time, her sudden transformation into lustful from discreet and aloof -- the apparent message that by story's end the two had bonded didn't feel convincing.
After taking on the themes of innocence and camaraderie in war in Gallipoli, Peter Weir and Mel Gibson teamed up once again to tell the story of a young Australian reporter who travels to the conflicted Indonesia in 1965 in The Year of Living Dangerously.
Gibson's Guy Hamilton is another classic character type, the hotshot reporter whose arrogance can sometimes make him a little too naive and die hard, getting him into dangerous situations but he's got the charm to come out on top.Of course this does eventually get him into some hot water, as the films focuses on his relationships with two people, the British diplomat Jill Bryant (Sigourney Weaver) and his helpful photographer Billy Kwan (Linda Hunt, playing a man in an Oscar-winning performance).
Like the majority of Weir's films, The Year of Living Dangerously is first and foremost a character study, focused on Hamilton and pulling him apart through the midst of this country in revolt.
He's a journalist who will do anything for his story, but the tragedy of the people he comes across lead him to learn that there are things much more important.It's a classic story, complete with betrayals and romance, but Weir's clarity and Gibson's endlessly compelling screen presence make it feel as though you're seeing it all for the first time.
Gibson shines in a role he was born to play, but it's Linda Hunt who steals the movie out from under him.She gives a performance that could have easily been entirely about the physicality of it (a woman actually playing a man straight-up with no gender confusion or anything of the sort), but Hunt manages to breathe such life and depth to the whole thing.
Their performances, coupled with Peter Weir's direction (he made the great Witness a few years later, and Dead Poets' Society after that), this film is extremely powerful and poetic, with a very moving portrait of what life must have been like in Jakarta at this time for many Indonesians and foreign journalists who weren't guaranteed protection from the warring political forces.
Signourney Weaver gives a decent performance but I found it difficult to think of her as English.Linda Hunt got an Oscar for her performance because the Academy thought it would be quirky and historical to give the Best Actress award to a Caucasian woman playing an Asian man.
It's the eve of his overthrowing by the military and the communist purge that quickly followed, and journalists in Jakarta huddle in sweaty bars, feeding on scraps thrown to them by Sukarno, knocking back beers and chasing tail to pass the time.The last guy left in a hurry, so young Australian foreign correspondent Guy Hamilton (Mel Gibson) arrives in Jakarta without a single informant or friend to lean on.
Peter Weir directed this account of the Indonesian revolution of 1965, which sees inexperienced Australian foreign correspondent Guy Hamilton(played by Mel Gibson) covering this story, with the help of a dwarf photographer(played by Linda Hunt, who won a best supporting actress Academy Award playing a man!) who has come to care deeply about the country, though will feel betrayed by its outcome.
It's Indonesia at the time of the 1965 revolution, and a young, ambitious reporter, played by Mel Gibson, is in Jakata to cover it in "The Year of Living Dangerously," a 1982 film that also stars Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hunt.Peter Weir does an incredible job at evoking the atmosphere of poverty, homelessness, crowds, oppression, danger, and ugly Americans in this film, and also what it feels like to be a foreigner.Guy Hamilton, the Australian reporter, is determined that this assignment will pay off for him, and it is his good luck that a tiny photographer, Billy Kwan (Hunt) offers to help him make connections.
Instead I applaud Weir for his contribution to pick the fine cast of  Australian Gibson, American Weaver who plays a credible Brit, and the wonderful Linda Hunt to play a male character.
This powerful 1983 film, starring Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, and Linda Hunt takes place in 1965 Indonesia where the forces of the left (PKI) and the right-wing military are threatening to overthrow the regime of Sukarno.
Billy Kwan, a Eurasian cameraman, played brilliantly by Linda Hunt (Best Supporting Actress), however, makes Hamilton look at the social conditions of the people and to report on it with honesty.
Indonesian affairs hit a fevered political and international level as Australian journalist Mel Gibson covers the events with a male dwarf guide (out of this world Oscar winner Linda Hunt as she plays the opposite sex) and has a torrid affair with an American (Sigourney Weaver).
There is nothing special about the romantic relationship between Mel and Sigourney but Linda Hunt personality and the poverty condition of Jakarta make it to be an interesting movie..
Peter Weir's "The Year of Living Dangerously" gives us an Australian foreign correspondent desperate to prove himself in his career, a marvelously strange character as his photographer sidekick, sets the whole thing in the politically tumultuous Indonesia of the 1960s, and then can think of nothing better to do with any of this material than focus on a boring love story between two white people.Ah well.
The movie's shining asset is Linda Hunt in the role of the photographer, an American Chinese dwarf named Billy Kwan, whose mysterious and ambiguous motives give the film what suspense it has, and far more than the "will civil war keep our two lovers apart?" story line that comprises most of the film.
THis movie is more about personality and moral dilemmas than it is about love.The acting is spectacular (though its a shame Sigourney Weaver is really underused), and most people are aware of Linda Hunt's achievement in this film, though just in case you're not, I won't tell you.
Linda Hunt most deserving of her oscar has the best time in the film playing a male dwarf photo journalist using the people in his world as shadow puppets dictating their future and changing their being.
In fact, Siqourney said of Mel Gibson after making the film; "He is the sexiest man alive"  Weir chooses moments of closeups of the couple and we can see and feel the desire pouring out and the game of romantics taking place.
Both the leads Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver are stunning (in my opinion one of the best movie couples ever committed on film) and Linda Hunt is amazing as the male dwarf (she won an Oscar for her work here).
Both the leads Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver are stunning (in my opinion one of the best movie couples ever committed on film) and Linda Hunt is amazing as the male dwarf (she won an Oscar for her work here).
I JUST finished watching it again this afternoon and found it to be as good since the last time I saw it.It's a rare & unique piece of film making that rises above the subject matter it covers and becomes its own piece of cinematic art.The movie tells the tale of a new, young reporter arriving in Jakarta on the brink of civil war.
This is played by 20something Mel Gibson turning in a wonderful performance as a naive reporter learning the ways of politics in a foreign culture.He is selected as a protégé by Billy Kwan, a photographer played by Linda Hunt.
(Yes she plays a man's character in the movie and quite convincingly).While there, Mel Gibson meets Sigourny Weaver who has been working there for about 5 years and is set to leave in a matter of weeks.The movie shows how the Billy Kwan character picks Mel's character as a protégé if you will, because he sees something within Mel that he believes has a greater depth than the rest of the typical press corp.Billy's character also comments on the fact that both he & Mel are born of parents of two different countries and perhaps that is why they don't 'fit' in with the typical mentality of your everyday press corp.Peter Weir creates a wonderful, mystical atmosphere in this movie that touches on several themes of brotherhood, loyalty and empathy of foreign cultures to name a few.The music is reminiscent of Chariots of Fire and works well to heighten the tension.Ms. Weaver is restrained and effective in her handling of her role of a woman of well heeled background who has perhaps become hardened to the strife around her yet carries within her a true loyalty and passion for the good cause.Mel Gibson must navigate himself through the intrigues surrounding him and learn what's important in his quest to get the big story.I think Weir has created a cinematically compelling tale that concerns itself with more than the superficial as most stories covering this ground would do.The movie delivers on many levels and really deserves a higher place in the pantheon of movies than it currently enjoys.If you enjoy movies with plenty of tropical atmosphere, good performances, and the unexpected movie 'moment', than you can't go wrong by choosing this flick.I think it's a great film.
A young Australian reporter (Mel Gibson) tries to navigate the political turmoil of Indonesia during the rule of President Sukarno with the help of a diminutive photographer (Linda Hunt).Of course, a film about Indonesia needed to be made.
And to do him credit, Mel Gibson, in one of his earlier appearances, manages a remarkably credible performance as the enterprising, if somewhat maverick, journalist Guy Hamilton, and is convincingly supported by Sigourney Weaver, who, despite being essentially his love interest and nothing more, is dependable as always.Where, perhaps, the film does falter, at times, is in putting the pieces together, so that it transcends the "docudrama" genre and becomes epic.
Someone watching this film today could easily not understand this political context...as well as the country's nearing civil war at the same time Southeast Asia was in crisis.Mel Gibson plays Guy Hamilton, an Australian journalist working in the capital, Jakarta.
Rookie Australian journalist Mel Gibson is sent to Indonesia in 1965 to cover the strife boiling over in Djakarta under President Sukarno's government; he's befriended by a half-Chinese male dwarf (impeccably played by Oscar-winner Linda Hunt), and gets inside information from him as well as from a beautiful, flirtatious assistant from the British Embassy.
I personally admire Peter Weir, the director of this film who also created such atmospheric masterpieces as "Picnic at Hanging Rock" and "The Last Wave." However, his decision to use an unattractive white woman to play a Chinese (Asian) man in "The Year" is not only politically incorrect in the extreme, but even, bizarre and grotesque.
THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY is an Australian film shot by Peter Weir that looks at a military coup in Indonesia in the 1960s.
I don't know how the other 6 could have left, because my date and I were nailed to our chairs by the story, performances and the direction.If there is a sexier scene in cinema than the one of Weaver and Gibson coming down the hill from the ambassador's party, I haven't seen it...and I see a lot of films.Linda Hunt deserved the Oscar....I wish she worked more often.
Continuing my plan to watch every Mel Gibson movie in order, I come toThe Year Of Living Dangerously (1982)Plot In A Paragraph: Guy Hamilton (Gibson) an Australian reporter, tries to navigate the political minefield of mid 1960's Indonesia during the reign of Presidant Surkarno.
He is aided by photographer Billy Kwan, who introduces him to Jill Bryant (Sigourney Weaver) and the pair start an affair.After working with George Miller for a second time on Mad Max 2, Gibson re-teamed with Peter Weir, in this very under rated movie.
Billy Kwan (Linda Hunt) mentions to Guy Hamilton (Mel Gibson) at the film's beginning Luke 3:10.
What with the rebel communists planning a military coup, Indonesia in 1965 was not the safest place to be.Chinese-Australian photographer Billy Kwan (Linda Hunt) takes a shining to Guy and so goes out of his way to help the enthusiastic journo make a name for himself, and a few friends as well.
It is sad that he melted down in recent years, because there were few actors as talented as he.Of course, much has been made of Linda Hunt's performance as the male dwarf Billy Kwan, who is the real focus of the film, around whom all the rest of the action takes place.