I so loved how Linda Hunt narrated this film. Her Academy Award Oscar was so worthy. This is a timely film for what is going on today with journalists globally. Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver give fabulous performances as well. I loved how Linda Hunt kept a file on the people that crossed her path...fascinating.
The Year of Living Dangerously is a 1982 Peter Weir film adapted from the novel The Year of Living Dangerously by the author Christopher Koch. 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 on the eve of an attempted coup by the so-called 30 September Movement in 1965.
The film stars Mel Gibson as Guy Hamilton, an Australian journalist, and Sigourney Weaver as Jill Bryant, a British Embassy officer. It also stars Linda Hunt as the male dwarf Billy Kwan, Gibson's local photographer contact, a role for which Hunt won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.[1] 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 1999. 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 borrowed the line for the title of his Indonesian Independence Day speech of 1964.
Showing posts with label journalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label journalism. Show all posts
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Veronica Guerin - 2003
I love just about EVERYTHING actress Cate Blanchett does. This is another one you may have missed that is based on a true story. A brilliant performance! Have a Cate Blanchett MARATHON MOVIE night and you'll see 'catch my drift'.
Veronica Guerin, nicknamed "Ronnie", and her four siblings were born in Dublin and attended Catholic school where she excelled in athletics. Besides basketball and football, she was a camogie player and a fan of the Manchester United football team. Veronica Guerin's father was an accountant, and she studied accountancy at Trinity College, Dublin. After graduation, her father hired her at his company. When her father died three years later, she changed professions and started a public relations firm, which she ran for seven years. In 1983-4, she served as secretary to the Fianna Fáil group at the New Ireland Forum.
In 1990, she changed careers again, switching to journalism as a reporter with the Sunday Business Post and Sunday Tribune. In 1994, she began to write about criminals for Irish newspaper the Sunday Independent. She used street names or pseudonyms for underworld figures to avoid Irish libel laws. When she began to cover drug dealers, she received numerous death threats.
The first violence against her occurred in October, 1994 when two shots were fired into her home after her story on a murdered drug kingpin was published. Guerin dismissed the "warning". Three months later, she answered her doorbell to a man pointing a revolver at her head. The assailant shot her in the leg. Regardless, she vowed to continue her investigations. Independent Newspapers installed a security system to protect her, and the Garda Síochána (Irish police) gave her a 24-hour escort; however, she did not approve of this, saying that it hampered her work.
On 13 September 1995, convicted criminal John Gilligan attacked her when she confronted him about his lavish lifestyle with no source of income. He later called her at home and threatened to kidnap and rape her son and kill her if she wrote anything about him. Guerin received the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists in December, 1995.
This film is the second to be inspired by Guerin's story. Three years earlier, When the Sky Falls centred on the same story, although the names of the real-life characters were changed.
Veronica Guerin, nicknamed "Ronnie", and her four siblings were born in Dublin and attended Catholic school where she excelled in athletics. Besides basketball and football, she was a camogie player and a fan of the Manchester United football team. Veronica Guerin's father was an accountant, and she studied accountancy at Trinity College, Dublin. After graduation, her father hired her at his company. When her father died three years later, she changed professions and started a public relations firm, which she ran for seven years. In 1983-4, she served as secretary to the Fianna Fáil group at the New Ireland Forum.
In 1990, she changed careers again, switching to journalism as a reporter with the Sunday Business Post and Sunday Tribune. In 1994, she began to write about criminals for Irish newspaper the Sunday Independent. She used street names or pseudonyms for underworld figures to avoid Irish libel laws. When she began to cover drug dealers, she received numerous death threats.
The first violence against her occurred in October, 1994 when two shots were fired into her home after her story on a murdered drug kingpin was published. Guerin dismissed the "warning". Three months later, she answered her doorbell to a man pointing a revolver at her head. The assailant shot her in the leg. Regardless, she vowed to continue her investigations. Independent Newspapers installed a security system to protect her, and the Garda Síochána (Irish police) gave her a 24-hour escort; however, she did not approve of this, saying that it hampered her work.
On 13 September 1995, convicted criminal John Gilligan attacked her when she confronted him about his lavish lifestyle with no source of income. He later called her at home and threatened to kidnap and rape her son and kill her if she wrote anything about him. Guerin received the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists in December, 1995.
This film is the second to be inspired by Guerin's story. Three years earlier, When the Sky Falls centred on the same story, although the names of the real-life characters were changed.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Shattered Glass - 2003
I love a good drama based on a true story. I thought of this one because my Sunday NY Times newspaper was not delivered today. I hate when that happens! In any case, this is a great film as Hayden Christensen gives a stellar performance as Stephen Glass. The performance of Peter Sarsgaard as Charles Lane was singled out by several critics for praise as well.
The screenplay is based on a September 1998 Vanity Fair article by H. G. Bissinger. In it he chronicled the rapid rise of Stephen Glass's journalistic career at "The New Republic" during the mid-1990s and his steep fall when his widespread journalistic fraud was exposed. The film is based on real events and also captures the high-pressure world of national political journalism as well as being a character study of sociopaths.
The 'real' Stephen Glass saw the film and when reflecting about the experience, he said, "It was very painful for me. It was like being on a guided tour of the moments of my life I am most ashamed of".
The screenplay is based on a September 1998 Vanity Fair article by H. G. Bissinger. In it he chronicled the rapid rise of Stephen Glass's journalistic career at "The New Republic" during the mid-1990s and his steep fall when his widespread journalistic fraud was exposed. The film is based on real events and also captures the high-pressure world of national political journalism as well as being a character study of sociopaths.
The 'real' Stephen Glass saw the film and when reflecting about the experience, he said, "It was very painful for me. It was like being on a guided tour of the moments of my life I am most ashamed of".
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