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The Year of Living Dangerously | 
 enlarge | Director: Peter Weir
Actors: Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hunt, Michael Murphy, Bill Kerr
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.96
Buy New: $5.36
You Save: $9.60 (64%)
New (44) Used (21) Collectible (1) from $4.88
Rating:  63 reviews
Sales Rank: 7431
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 115
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 5.7 x 0.6
MPN: WARD65068D
ISBN: 0790744287
UPC: 012569506824
EAN: 9780790744285
ASIN: B00004RFGO
Theatrical Release Date: January 21, 1983
Release Date: June 6, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New and Factory Sealed Item Fast Shipping
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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
Product Description
Guy hamilton is a journalist on his first job as a foreign correspondent. His apparently humdrum assignment to indonesia soon turns hot as president sukarno electrifies the populace and frightens foreign powers. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 02/08/2005 Starring: Mel Gibson Sigourney Weaver Run time: 117 minutes Rating: Pg Director: Peter Weir
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| Customer Reviews: Read 58 more reviews...
 Absolutely great story of youth, commitment, integrity, and politics November 21, 2008
This is one of my all-time favorite films. I recall seeing this as a student of international relations, absolutely fascinated that recent history - the end of Sukarno's regime in Indonesia - could actually form the backdrop of a film that portrays a personal and political dilemma to the viewer. It is not only a great romantic story, but also gets the viewer to think as well as learn about a historical period.
Guy, a young man eager to succeed in his only shot at a career as a foreign correspondent, appears in Jakarta during the heyday of non-alignment politics: neither capitalist not communist, but forging its own way with its one rhetoric. Though he arrives without contacts, one of whom appears to have sabotaged him by leaving without making introductions for him, he must make a go of it. To do so, he makes an unusual friend, a dwarf named Billy (played by the phenomenal Linda Hunt), who is the narrator of the story and brilliant observer while also handicapped as a person. Billy makes the connections for Guy, including an extraordinary beauty (Weaver) who works at the British Embassy. (Billy describes her as a person whose life force burns extremely bright, but who needs committed love to guard against falling into promiscuity and cynicism. It is a brilliant summation of character, one of many.) They become passionately involved as events unfold. I do not want to play the spoiler here, but a believable moral dilemma emerges during the political turmoil.
The characters in the film, in my viewing, are wonderfully three-dimensional and fascinating, from journalists to diplomats, spooks, revolutionaries, and the local people. You see extreme poverty and careers in the making, with disillusionment and hope all rolled into one. Through the film, the characters also evolve and grow, learning from their mistakes and illusions and tragedies. Of course, the romance is very very hot, one of the best portrayals I have ever seen of that great youthful passion: perhaps not meant to survive, it provides a beacon for the rest of one's life. (There is a wonderful scene where they run a curfew roadblock, laughing as guards shoot at the car and kissing with the naive hunger of youth.) I was as moved to see this as I was 26 years ago, when I saw it with a special girlfriend in Paris. The acting is uniformly excellent.
In addition, the historical context is accurately portrayed in spite of the fictional characters. While it might appear quaint to view communist revolutionaries in retrospect, the Cold War was very much alive at the time the film appeared. Underneath the events, you learn of the horrific consequences of under-development, upon which many of the characters piggyback their careers. The atmosphere comes alive vividly. I even allowed my son (9) to watch parts of this with me, explaining the violent politics and history to him.
I am very happy to own this film, and will watch it at least once a year. Perhaps it means so much to me because of the dreams of my youth, but I think that everyone can find things to enjoy in the complexity that the film portrays with such great success.
Warmly recommended.
Impressed October 24, 2008
I was worried, but it turned out to be a great movie. Arguably one of Mel Gibson's better performances.
 The Year of Living Dangerously September 23, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Based on the book by C.J.(Christopher) Koch who studied with Wallace Stegner at Stanford's creative writing program as did Ken Kesey, Scott Turow, and Larry McMurtry, among others. Loosely based on the life of Koch's brother who was an Australian journalist based in Indonesia during the 1960's. Directed by Peter Weir; starring Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver.
The amazing Linda Hunt September 15, 2008
Different from Mad Max and all the rest of Gibson's apocolyptic movies, "The Year of Living Dangerously" is a wonderful period piece that really develops its characters. Linda Hunt is obviously the standout in this production and her "Billy" is really the unhearlded star of this film. There are a number of actors who could have portrayed Guy Hamilton as well or better than Gibson did and Sigourney Weaver's character is little more than "love interest". Having said that, Gibson's and Weaver's roles should not be marginalized; they both did an outstanding job but Linda Hunt simply carries this movie to a much higher level and I doubt many actors could have equalled her performance.
This is an outstanding movie that captures the essence of the oppresive time of Sukarno's Indonesia and the plight of the Indonesian people torn by two opposing political forces fighting for control of Southeast Asia.
This movie also features a haunting theme melody that apparently cannot be found on any soundtrack recording of the film. I have tried unsuccessfully. The music remains in your head long after the film has ended.
The Year of Living Dangerously July 20, 2008
I think everything about this film is great. The music, powerful and beautiful; the actors, the political statements, the relationships, everything. Who's more beautiful than early Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver? That's a passionate enough pairing, and then set in the dramatic backdrop of Jakarta in the mid-60's, political upheavals flaring at every turn, make for a very intense and engaging movie. What to speak of the musical score, I just had to go and buy the soundtrack right after I saw this. Linda Hunt is one of the most interesting characters I'd seen in a long time. I loved her in this. I felt, also, that this film brought home the fact of what individuals will sacrifice for their freedom, not only for themselves, but for their families, and country.
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