Percy Fawcett is a hard-working man but promotion eludes him due to his “unfortunate choice of ancestors.” This provides the desperate motivation in him agreeing on a mapping “adventure” deep in the Amazonian jungle. If disease doesn’t kill him, the hostile “savages” are likely to, but to restore his family name and support his family, off he goes…never to return.
I’m getting ahead of myself. Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) was a real British explorer who did get sent to the Amazon. While surveying there he believed he found a previously unknown, unfathomed advanced civilization. Back home he is ridiculed by his peers, but he’s obsessed, not just with a potentially huge discovery, but with proving himself. His fire is lit, his wife (Sienna Miller) supports him and his aide de camp (Robert Pattinson) enables him until one day he just disappears into the jungle.
Shooting a movie in an honest to blog jungle is difficult and uncomfortable. Director James Gray asked Francis Ford Coppola (who did the same for Apocalypse Now) for advice, and he was told “Don’t go”, which, incidentally, is the same thing Roger Corman told Coppola. Nobody listens, but it’s probably solid advice. If you do disregard it and trek to the steamiest of locations, make sure you don’t plan to film digitally. Gray was shooting 35mm thankfully, as the humidity shut down all the laptops and would have done the same to digital cameras. The actors and crew withstood and great deal of hardship – was it worth it?
The Lost City of Z (it’s pronounced Zed, you filthy Americans) has a meandering pace that reminds me of the epic adventure movies of 50 years ago or more. I can’t justify its runtime (141 minutes!) and I know exactly what I would have left on the cutting room floor, but I do love lots about the movie. I love the complexity that Hunnam brings to the role. I love the subtlety and the refusal to exploit that Gray insists upon. I love the authenticity of the script, the honest portrayal of sacrifice, the bold ambition of the story. There aren’t exactly a lot of surprises to be had. It’s about finding oneself while literally losing oneself. But there’s a lot to enjoy along the way. The jungle itself plays a stunning role; tip of the old safari hat to cinematographer Darius Khondji who captured things no CGI could hope to emulate.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
Ooh sounds good!
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Good old classic-feel to this character-driven drama. I saw it on 35mm at the cinema and actually could have watched it for longer. Great review as usual.
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That’s so cool! It was unfortunately a very quick blip in theatres. I’d read the book and was looking for it and still nearly passed me by.
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I saw this one. Enjoyed it, especially since I’d just read Douglas Preston’s recent nonfiction book about the Lost City. Wasn’t the guy who played the son the same actor who plays in the new Spider-Man? Looks like him.
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It is indeed!
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looks good
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Nice review. I thought this was fairly average, I was expecting a bit more.
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“I love the complexity that Hunam brings to the role”. On a par with Pacific Rim, then? Seriously, though, not a sentence I’ve ever expected to read, but I like him. I’m also very interested in this flick, though this is the first I’ve heard of it’s existence!
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Yeah, it’s an interesting character. Of course you love his sense of adventure but you hate that he abandons his family to do it, and you love how much he respects the aboriginal populations he encounters, and he treats them as equals…but can’t quite do the same for his own wife.
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I spent a bit of time reading about this lost city and, in particular, the search for Fawcett. I have a few articles saved for later, so I guess that’s a few hours and days gone!
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I loved the insight about shooting in the jungle. Just yesterday I was reading about the documentary “Lost Soul” about the movie that failed, Island of Dr Moreau that was initially shot by Richard Stanley. It was shot in a similar atmosphere…
“It’s easy to see why parallels have been drawn between Gregory’s film and the grand daddy of all ‘making of’ documentary features Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (the making of Coppola’s Apocalypse Now) – for jungle isolation does indeed appear to have a strange effect on the human psyche – inciting feral behaviour in even the most civilized of individuals after a time.”
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Ooo! Right to the top of my TBS list!!!
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I’ve had this book on my “to read” list for a long time – perhaps the movie should give me motivation to finish the book so I can see it (and not then feel compelled to abandon the book).
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You had me at Robert Pattinson.
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They keep saying not to do it, yet filmmakers keep going into the jungle. Although, I bet they couldn’t have gotten the shots they got if they faked the jungle.
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You are being far too kind with this film Jay. IMO its a solid tale made lacklustre in the telling.
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