The Year of Living Dangerously

Jakarta, 1965. Guy Hamilton, an Australian reporter, arrives on his first foreign posting knowing nothing. The person who opens doors for him is Billy Kwan, a Chinese-Australian photojournalist. Billy shares his contacts and introduces him to Jill Bryant from the British embassy. The country is in Sukarno's last days, and as the coup approaches Guy's hunger for the story collides with what Billy expects of him morally. Peter Weir directed. Mel Gibson plays Guy, Sigourney Weaver plays Jill and Linda Hunt plays Billy Kwan. That last role is what the film is remembered for. Hunt played a man and won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for it. She cut her hair and dyed it black, wore padding around her waist and shaved her eyebrows. Weir later said he never would have started out looking for a woman, but that from the moment he saw her test he knew she was right. Filming was planned for Jakarta and moved to the Philippines after death threats. In the sixth week there, in April 1982, the production relocated to Sydney and continued for six more weeks in Australia. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 88 percent. Roger Ebert wrote that it shows what great acting is, a magical transformation of one person into another. Weir was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes. The film was banned in Indonesia until 2000, the ban lifting after Suharto resigned in 1998. Who it is for: viewers who like political thrillers and stories about foreign correspondents. Who it is not for: anyone who wants Indonesia seen from its own side. The film looks at events from outside throughout, through Western journalists.