Product Description: The story of a fiery romance born on the eve of revolution in Sukarno's Indonesia. Genre: Feature Film-Drama Rating: PG Release Date: 8-FEB-2005 Media Type: DVD
Amazon.com essential video: Australian director Peter Weir had made several excellent films before The Year of Living Dangerously was released to critical acclaim in 1983, but it was this moody tale of romance and political upheaval that bought Weir and star Mel Gibson their tickets to Hollywood. (Weir's next film was the 1985 Harrison Ford hit Witness.) Set in Indonesia in 1965, the film focuses on a group of Caucasian journalists and photographers who are in Jakarta to cover the political upheavals that are threatening to collapse the unstable government of President Sukarno. Gibson plays an Australian correspondent named Guy Hamilton who's determined to get the best story, and he's given invaluable assistance from Billy Kwan (Linda Hunt), a half-Indonesian, half-Australian photojournalist who knows the culture inside and out. Billy introduces Guy to Jill (Sigourney Weaver) and their romance develops in an atmosphere of political unrest and constant personal danger. This journalistic adventure is compelling in itself (and Hunt's gender-switching performance won her a much-deserved Oscar), but it's Weir's creation of a rich, authentically exotic locale that gives the movie its alluring and subtly mysterious atmosphere. A tale of tragedy and survival, it's also a story about fascinating people at a turbulent juncture of history, and the empathy they feel for each other and the culture that surrounds them. --Jeff Shannon
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: DVD Brand: Warner Brothers EAN: 9780790744285 Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC ISBN: 0790744287 Item Dimensions:25 Label: Warner Home Video Languages:EnglishOriginal LanguageDolby Digital 2.0 StereoFrenchOriginal LanguageDolby Digital 2.0 MonoEnglishSubtitledFrenchSubtitled Manufacturer: Warner Home Video MPN: D65068D Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Warner Home Video Region Code: 1 Release Date: June 06, 2000 Running Time: 115 minutes Studio: Warner Home Video Theatrical Release Date: January 21, 1983
Customer Reviews
A Fine Film, But The DVD Isn't
The reason this great Peter Weir film gets only three stars is the bowdlerized 2000 DVD release. It bears little resemblance to Weir's original portrait of the multicultural hothouse and political tinderbox that was Sukarno's Indonesia in 1965. Sadly, this version is a butchered old print with a muddy, poorly mixed soundtrack. Such a disappointment.
Like another reviewer here, I remember the original theatrical release of TYOLD. It was an amazing production that has stayed with me through ... Read More