I confess a certain nostalgia for books and movies from an earlier era in my life, even eras for which I have no memory. One such era is the period when the skinny necktie and slim suit were in fashion. The men and women of the Kennedy era looked so well dressed by the standards of what was to follow. The tie-dye generation remade fashion, and that trend reached its most ridiculous phase in the late 1970s.
Author Charles Koch achieved a sort of trifecta of things that interest me by publishing a book in 1978 about 1965 that was made into a movie in 1982. It is a fantastic movie that stars a young and emerging Sigourney Weaver, and provides a great vehicle for Mel Gibson. The Year of Living Dangerously garnered an Oscar for a woman playing a man, so that take, today’s Motion Picture Academy that seeks to make everything old new again.
The book and the movie concern a young Australian journalist, Guy Hamilton, who has taken on his first overseas assignment in Indonesia during the final days of President Sukarno’s rule in 1965. This is Hamilton’s big chance, but his predecessor has screwed him by leaving behind no contacts in a business and culture where personal introductions are mandatory.
But Hamilton is smart enough to form a crucial alliance with Billy Kwan, a half-Chinese, half-Australian photographer who has deep sympathies for Indonesia’s crushing poverty and destitute poor. Kwan admires the Indonesian strongman, Sukarno, and he aids Hamilton in gaining access to key political figures while also introducing the savvy but cynical Westerner to the nature of Indonesia’s unrest.
Kwan also introduces Hamilton to Jill, a British diplomat’s assistant, and we see her through the lens of Billy Kwan as well. She is a roving diplomat who drifts in and out of relationships as the men ebb and flow around her. When Jill warns Hamilton of an impending military coup, he faces a moral and professional dilemma. He acts on her tip as any good journalist would, though she only provided it to him to save his life. Meanwhile, Billy, disillusioned by Sukarno’s failures and Hamilton’s opportunism with Jill, begins to spiral down as his already fragile and tragic view of the world grows darker. In the end, Kwan and his idealism perish while the two good-looking white people jet off to safety.
Gibson and Weaver turn in great performances but Linda Hunt’s turn as Billy Kwan stands as one of film’s true legendary performances. Kwan narrates the film because the movie is Indonesia as seen through the lens of Billy Kwan.
There are many wonderful supporting performances as well. Michel Murphy plays Pete, an American journalist who longs to go wherever the misery is the greatest, and he spends his extra time with the poverty-stricken prostitutes that live in the graveyards. Noel Ferrier is an Austrian actor who plays another journalist who exploits the young boys in Indonesia. Billy sees them taking advantage, which further diminishes his view of humanity and causes him to lose hope.
This was one of the great soundtracks of the era as well, and the theme, tone melody and integration of the music to this film has not been surpassed. Here is an example:
1982 is as far removed from now as 1939 was to 1982. Time has moved on. I did not watch the Oscars this year, but I know which films were nominated and what won. I do not think we are in a greater fertile period of creative history such as we were still in back in 1982. One of the many reasons is that there are just fewer eyes through which to see the world anew. In 1982, the massive baby boomer generation was coming into its own and the principles of The Year of Living Dangerously were all boomers. Linda Hunt was born in 1945. Sigourney Weaver was born in 1949. Mel Gibson was born in 1956. The director, Peter Weir, was Silent Generation, the people who so often led the boomers in their most creative period. He was born in 1944, in Australia, and his other films include Gallipoli, and The Truman Show.
It will be a long time, I suspect, before we enter a period of cinema creatively and see films like this again. There are still great movies, and creativity springs from unsuspecting places, but this film fits its time and place with perfection.
UPDATE: Here is Linda Hunt winning the Oscar for playing Billy Kwan. She never found a role as good ever again.
TomRoushOnline 