Beyond Rangoon

Plot synopsis:
Andy Bowman persuades her sister Laura to go on a trip to Burma after Laura’s husband and son are killed in a home invasion and Laura had gone into a deep depression. One night, unable to sleep because of nightmares, Laura leaves her hotel in Rangoon and gets caught up in an anti-government protest. She is very impressed by the bravery of Aung San Suu Kyi.
When her tour group leaves the country, Laura cannot leave with them as her passport was stolen the previous night. While staying behind waiting for her new passport, she meets U Aung Ko, who acts as an unofficial tour guide and drives an ancient Chevy. He takes Laura out into the countryside to a Buddhist monastery. The car develops problems, but fortunately they are able to coast to the house of some of Ko’s friends and former students. Laura learns that Ko used to be a college professor, who was banned from teaching for supporting anti-government activity led by his former student Min Han. She has a breakdown and tells Ko what happened to her family.
The next morning they learn that the 8888 uprising began the previous day. Ko takes Laura to a station to get train back to Rangoon. She sneaks on board, but the soldiers start beating Ko and when Min Han intervenes, Han is shot and killed. Laura gets Ko into the car and they leave, pursued by the soldiers, but Ko is shot and wounded. They end up crashing into the Irrawaddy river, but get away from the soldiers. They get on a raft taking bamboo to Rangoon. Laura, who is a doctor operates on Ko to remove the bullet.
The next day the raft stops at a village. Laura goes to find drugs to treat Ko. She reluctantly accepts a pistol from one of the crew. At a clinic Laura finds the drugs she needs, but has to shoot a soldier to keep from being raped. When they arrive in Rangoon, the city is in the throes of a full-scale revolt. When Laura attempts to get into the US embassy the military tries to arrest her for helping Ko. The student demonstrators rescue her and Ko. After they witness soldiers killing civilians they get put on a truck heading for the border. Near the border the group has to abandon their truck and make run through the jungle. They meet up with a group of Karen rebels. Laura has a dream where her son Danny tells her she has to let him go. Ko urges Laura to do so, telling her, "All things pass, Laura. They are shadows as we are shadows. Briefly walking the earth, and soon gone."
The next day, Laura and her group of refugees make a harrowing river crossing into Thailand under mortar fire and reach a refugee camp. Having found a new purpose in life Laura begins helping at the camp’s hospital.

Tags: violence, historical

Review:
If you allow yourself to identify with the Patricia Arquette character, you will find it to be a very moving story of a woman regaining a sense of purpose to her life, and finding a new will to live.Arquette's performance is brave because it is purposefully "wooden" -- it's a way of defining her character's spiritual death, her complete lack of a desire to be alive.
What is moving is how in the course of the story, she is reawakened -- by the Burmese landscape, by the beautiful quality of its people and landscapes, and by the primal choices she is forced to confront.Boorman supports this visually (and Hans Zimmer supports it with one of his most gorgeous, haunting scores) with an often static camera and with a propensity to shoot through glass, windows, windshields, etc.
During their escape through the Burmese jungle, tracked by the military, Laura finds herself forced to fight her way back into life.
I discovered a city, a country, a lost revolution and even a Nobel prize winner thanks to this masterpiece of cinema.If you haven't seen this movie, you can't say you've seen anything .A great lesson of courage, humility and life.I haven't seen anything as good since.T.E. Saturday, January 9th, 1999.
Patricia Arquette plays American doctor Laura Bowman, who takes a holiday to Burma in an attempt to heal her spirit after the murders of her husband and young son.
She is left behind in Rangoon during a military crackdown and leaves the city with an aging man who works as a "tour guide."  But he is no simple tour guide; he is a professor who introduces her to the life outside of the tourist traps ...
the two of them get caught up in the political upheaval and Laura sees with her own eyes how the government betrays and oppresses its own people.This movie is one of my favorites because of its themes.
Thirdly, it's about compassion and sacrifice, and people coming together - without even knowing each other - to endure pain and fear.Just about every beautiful scene in this movie is important; nothing is wasted here.
An Underrated Film that Has not Aged with Top-Notch Performance of the Gorgeous Patricia Arquette.
In the 90's, the American doctor Laura Bowman (Patricia Arquette) travels to Burma (presently Myanmar) with her sister and also doctor Andy Bowman (Frances McDormand) to recover from the loss of her beloved husband and son that were murdered in a theft at home.
Laura sees a political pro-democracy manifestation to support the leader Aung San Suu Kyi and she decides to participate; however she loses her passport and she is not allowed to leave Rangoon.While waiting to have another flight, Laura meets the unofficial tourist guide U Aung Ko, who is also a leader of an underground movement, and she decides to visit the countryside of Burma.
However, the military dictatorship represses the movement and Laura, U Aung Ko and several civilians try to escape to Thailand in a dangerous journey."Beyond Rangoon" is an underrated film that has not aged, with top-notch performance of the gorgeous Patricia Arquette, I saw this film twice on VHS in the 90's and it is amazing that the military dictatorship still does exist in this country.
In accordance with the statement of John Boorman in the Extras of the DVD, the dramatic scene when the commander orders to shoot the politician Aung San Suu Kyi did really happen.
This movie was working toward two goals: to make a political point and to tell a scary adventure story.
Beyond Rangoon finds a good balance between politics and storytelling.I already knew that Aung San Suu Kyi had won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, and knew something about the oppressive political situation in Burma, so the political message of the movie was mostly a dramatization of what I already knew.
But I thought the movie did a good job of telling about Aung San Suu Kyi and the mostly-faceless dictators who have for years tried to silence her.
The directing is strong also, keeping up the tension throughout the race to escape the forces of the dictatorship.This movie had additional impact on me and my wife because of other events of the same time period.
This film should be seen by as many people as possible as it concentrates on the human rights problems in Burma.
Patricia Arquette is superb as the American lady who due to personal tragedy has become reckless with her own life decisions and gets caught up in the ensuing conflict.
It makes you empathize with the people under such a government and makes you want to learn more about their lives, their struggles and a potential leader Aung San Suu Kyi. It makes one wonder why our government will interfere places we are not wanted yet ignore those who ask our help..
A touch of the exotic east would take me away from everything that reminded me of what had happened..."So begins the film "Beyond Rangoon", about an emotionally troubled American who is urged by her sister to take a vacation in Rangoon, Burma to try and get over the devastating loss of her husband and child.
Aung San Su Kyi was a woman who was trying to bring Burma (Now Myanmar) to democracy, but was denied by the government.
Patricia Arquette portrays the American, Laura Bowman, with depth, very frozen by the horrors of her loss, "I tried finding something in those stone statues, but nothing stirred in me.
Patricia Arquette amazingly portrays Laura Bowman, who we meet as a shut-down and quit despondent young doctor, unable to deal with her grief over the loss of her husband and son.
Throughout the course of the film, as she is trapped in Burma, witnesses the Democratic uprise and massacres in the capital city of Rangoon, flees for her life, and saves her tour-guide's (U Aung Ko's) life, she is regaining her will to live.
Patricia Arquette, as usual, gives a wonderfully convincingly and believable performance as the emotionally wounded Laura.
Superbly directed by John Boorman, and intensly acted by Patricia Arquette, this film can easily be called one of the best films of the 90's.
"Beyond Rangoon" is mostly a petite, robust Arquette running barefoot all over Burma from the military junta bad guys while trying desperately to help a wounded super good guy professor.
The film mechanically tells its by-the-numbers story about a recently widowed American physician on vacation who gets stuck in the traveler's favorite vacation spot, Burma (yeah, right!), in the midst of a clash between restless citizens and the ruling military junta.
etc etc What is meant to be a political and educational statement  about the so called atrocities  of a military dictatorship in Asia ends up as a "How To" travel guide for disillusioned Americans....especially those who wish to protest that the water in the hotel does not work....
"excuse me....do you know where is MacDonalds?" This movie is meant to be a serious drama but ends up as a parody and rip-off of all those "killing fields" type of films designed to confirm tha Asian stereotype held by much of western "civilization" and re-inforced by Hollywood Fantasies such as this.....
Boorman is a fine actor and has made many great movies - like "Excalibur" and "Hope and Glory" but this is a total failure.
It is impossible to "unite" with the actors and actresses world in so short a time and therefor one only looks at this movie and don't feel anything about the horrors that it is supposed to make you upset about.
But there is at least one thing good about this movie and that is the performance of Arquette - very convincing and colorfully done, but why didn't you give her an other half hour to give us more depth?
They seem to rely on emotions, sometimes clichéd (not always a bad thing, and you do handle it well, in that your people say what one would expect a person to really say in that situation, even if it has that feel of a cliché), and lots of water and green vegetation, mud, earth, breath in the cold, dragon's breath, stuff like that.Your films remind me of David Lean and David Attenborough, which makes sense, but, as you would probably agree, more dreamy.A possible misgiving is an expectation set up with your stuff that right away tips me in a certain direction, and takes away possible surprise.Not so with Beyond Rangoon, which I found was beyond the others you have done that I am most familiar with (Emerald Forest, which I need to see again, and Excalibur).Beyond Rangoon is the story of one woman set against the backdrop of events in Myanmar (Burma).
I always like Patricia Arquette, and her leading man in this film is just great.
Actually, she's the lead in this film, and that is what is great.So much of the film is told with film language, that is, images, that I can see some critics being a little impatient with it, but it is probably because they overanalyze and find it fearful to feel anything too deeply.Anyone out there wondering if this movie is worth it should watch it to find out.
The most amazing performance in this film is by a Burmese man whose own name is the same as that of the character he plays, U Aung Ko. This is the only film in which he ever appeared, according to IMDb, so he was not an actor but 'a real person'.
Then I discovered that our hero lives in exile in Paris, having left Burma to live in France in 1975 (where he had previously studied at the Sorbonne), where he is married to a French woman, has assisted in the preparation of a documentary film about his country's plight, and works as a translator and language teacher.
The other lead in the film is Patricia Arquette, who gives a magnificently stalwart and powerful performance and clearly endured a great deal of physical hardship in doing so.
Frances McDormand appears early in the film as Arquette's sister who has to leave her behind because she is forced to leave Burma with a tour group while Arquette is stranded while she waits for travel papers from the incompetent US Embassy.
Arquette has been widowed and is recovering from intense grief, and as a result of her amazing adventures which ensue 'beyond Rangoon' when she gets out into the countryside (officially barred to foreigners), she finds a new meaning and value to life in helping others.
And yet those same parents who are content to let their kids sit around all day watching meaningless blood and gore on the screen with fictitious 'action heroes', and play computer games where everybody gets rewarded for killing other people (is that sick or what?), would doubtless complain because there are many grim real life situations portrayed here.
It came to be in my mind, a story about Aung San Suu Kyi, and the struggles of women to remain strong in the face of uncertainty, danger, and sadness.
It was high time a movie about the situation in a largely ignored Asian country like Myanmar had to be made and Beyond Rangoon is Hollywood's answer.
When I heard a movie was made on my real-life experience which I was too young to absorb, I had to get the DVD and needless to say, I could hardly have any complaints about it as it is an eye-opening wonder for me..
This is a great film in many different ways...perhaps the most important is that it introduces Western audiences to the remarkable, tragic story of Aung San Suu Kyi and her fight for freedom and democracy.
When an American tourist comes to Burma with her sister to try and move on from the murder of her husband and son.
She discovers a world of atrocities that have not been exposed to the media.There's no denying that there is a great story here  it is a powerful tale of injustice, military rule and massacres that happened away from the public eye.
Outside of Arquette the support cast are good  U Aung Ko in particular, but McDormand and Grey are OK.The film continues with Hans Zimmer's standard `Far East' score (compare this to Black Rain to see what I mean) and Arquette discovering herself and spuing philosophy everywhere.
However at the end the film acts as a metaphor for why the US didn't know about events in Burma  because no one cares about massive deaths unless a Westerner is involved.
But if one American was killed then it would be the lead story with politicians running from all corners to comment on it.The film manages to take a terrible, emotive story and make it into a beautifully shot drama about one American woman who only sees things in terms of how they affect her.
I think the Burmese people deserve better films to illustrate their struggle..
Not so the music from Hans Zimmer, which, as often happens in other films with his music, one senses the plagiarism as he wanders about from cuasi-Isham to almost Vangelis forms; Boorman's directing was rather loose at times and some poor editing did not help.
Notwithstanding all this, the film maintains interest precisely because it is Burma  now Myanmar  which is the true protagonist of the unfolding story  not the actors.
Patricia Arquette is in this movie.
Her guide is injured by soldiers and she spends the rest of the movie trying to get him and herself to safety.Every time I watch this it reminds me that we in the United States forget that to a peasant living under military rule, SOCIALISM, where at least eating is virtually guaranteed, looks pretty darn good..
It makes me thankful to live in a country where the Government isn't likely to shoot people in the streets.The story of Laura Bowman was a good thread to hold the story of political struggle together..
Patricia Arquette plays wonderfully a widow whose husband and son has been murdered and she goes with her sister on a a trip to Burma to try to forget the horrible thing.
Boorman tries to capture the life of the people of Burma and he did a great job.
A peaceful vacation to Burma for two sisters (Patricia Arquette, Frances McDormand) turns nightmarish when they get caught in the middle of a political oppression.
I always wanted to see this film and when I finally got to I knew I was in for a nice surprise when John Boorman's name appeared on the screen.
Known mostly for his epic films (he directed the first Conan and wrote Apocalypse Now) put together in the classic Hollywood structure, this one fits nicely with his catalog.I also can't express how perfect the timing was considering that Myanmar (Burma) is once again experiencing an uprising by monks and students against the military "junta" run government which is the very same one (there has been a change of leadership since but it's essentially the same) depicted in the movie from 1988.
Based on an actual story, John Boorman shows the struggle of an American doctor, whose husband and son were murdered and she was continually plagued with her loss.
A holiday to Burma with her sister seemed like a good idea to get away from it all, but when her passport was stolen in Rangoon, she could not leave the country with her sister, and was forced to stay back until she could get I.D. papers from the American embassy.
Although the scenes can not cover the entire brutalities, such as using rape as a weapon, carried out by the regime, the film indeed portrays the events with a moving plot; Patricia Arquette, a tourist in Burma, witnesses the inspiration of Burmese students who are willing to sacrifice for freedom.Turning this VHS into DVD would be helpful in letting the world glimpse at the human rights conditions in Burma.
I know that a lot of Italian films are done this way, I have no idea why this movie was done this way, (though I suspect that the Asian actors' accents were too thick and it just became easier to loop entire scenes to preserve the sound ambience).
As it is love or hate the movie you should still come away with the idea that there still exist military dictatorships in the world in this century, and until one of our own is hurt we ignore their oppression.Aung San Suu Kyi, is the female political leader in the movie.
Beyond Rangoon is intelligent, detailed, involving and thoroughly engrossing,with an exceptionally brave performance by Patricia Arquette.The political backdrop of the squelching of the Burmese embryonic democracy movement told from the perspective of a visiting American doctor recovering from her own personal tragedy is a nice juxtaposition.Here we see Patricia Arquette leave her own personal grief behind to embrace a greater grief.Another excellent film by an engaging director..
The movie is pretty atrocious at times and you'd need to have some appreciation for the country of Burma to really enjoy it.
A young women -Laura, excellently portrayed by Patricia Arquette, is encouraged by her sister to take a vacation in Rangoon to get over the devastating loss of her Husband and child.
Its not long before she gets herself entwined in the true life battle between the Military dictatorship and the forces of democracy lead by Aung San Su Kyi. Kyi is leading a opposition to the Military rule in Burma (Now Myamar) and Laura goes and watches one of Kyi's speeches.
A powerful movie that has recovered much of its meaning in this second half of 2007 after the new desperate movements of the Burmese people against their tyrants.
John Boorman denounces the Burmese military dictatorship in this drama filmed with energy and lyric, where is also outlined a reflection on the pain and the freedom.