The Year of Living Dangerously (film)

The Year of Living Dangerously
Theatrical release poster
Directed byPeter Weir
Screenplay by
Based onThe Year of Living Dangerously
1978 novel
by C.J. Koch
Produced byJames McElroy
Starring
CinematographyRussell Boyd
Edited byWilliam M. Anderson
Music byMaurice Jarre
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release date
  • 16 December 1982 (1982-12-16)
Running time
114 minutes[1]
Countries
  • Australia
  • United States
Languages
  • English
  • Tagalog
  • Indonesian
BudgetA$6 million[2][3]
Box office

The Year of Living Dangerously is a 1982 romantic drama film directed by Peter Weir and co-written by Weir and David Williamson. It was adapted from Christopher Koch's 1978 novel The Year of Living Dangerously. The story is about a love affair set in Indonesia during the overthrow of President Sukarno. It follows a group of foreign correspondents in Jakarta during the weeks leading up to the attempted coup by the 30 September Movement in 1965. The film is considered one of the last in the Australian New Wave genre.

The film stars Mel Gibson as Australian journalist Guy Hamilton, and Sigourney Weaver as British Embassy officer Jill Bryant. It also stars Linda Hunt as a Chinese-Australian man with dwarfism, Billy Kwan, Hamilton's local photographer contact, a role for which Hunt won the 1983 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.[6] The film was shot in both Australia and the Philippines and includes Australian actors Bill Kerr as Colonel Henderson and Noel Ferrier as Wally O'Sullivan.

It was banned from being shown in Indonesia until 2000, after the forced resignation of coup-leader and political successor Suharto in 1998.[7] The title The Year of Living Dangerously is a quote which refers to a famous Italian phrase used by Sukarno: vivere pericolosamente, meaning "living dangerously". Sukarno used the line for the title of his Indonesian Independence Day speech of 1964.

  1. ^ "THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY (PG)". British Board of Film Classification. 17 February 1983. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  2. ^ David Stratton, The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry, Pan MacMillan, 1990 p166-171
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Formica was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference ausbox was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference mojo was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Worrell, Denise; Clarke, Gerald (23 April 1984). "The Night off the Great Prom". Time. Archived from the original on 29 October 2010. Retrieved 24 May 2010.
  7. ^ Paddock, Richard C. (11 November 2000). "'Year' at Last Gets Its Day in Indonesia". The Los Angeles Times.