Re: THE GREAT DIRECTOR’S CHECKLIST SERIES - Volume #47 - The Films of PETER WEIR
Ranked:
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Gallipoli
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
The Truman Show
The Last Wave
The Year of Living Dangerously
Witness
The Mosquito Coast
Dead Poets Society
Peter Weir is one of my gods... the man has never made a completely worthless film, and several movies that I would call "great". Two of his films do I consider on the magnitude of a "masterpiece", and those are Picnic at Hanging Rock and Gallipoli.
Picnic is an obvious choice if you are looking for something that has "great art" written all over it, but it absolutely deserves this consideration. It's a major, major event in the development of film, especially expressionistic filmmaking. Up until the late '60s-early '70s, nobody had figured out a way to make expressionism work in a narrative film - unless you were German and had a hard-on for elaborate set design. 2001 the most important film of this kind, but Picnic at Hanging Rock is a worthly alternative for viewers who like a bit more emotional involvement in stories.
On the other hand, Gallipoli gets a lot of general acclaim for it's sensationalistic climax, but is considered too simplistic to warrant in-depth critical discussion. In reality, I consider the construction of the story and the screenplay absolutely exquisite. It is simplistic, but the simplicity took a great deal of intelligent design to create. It's a model of narrative perfection. Also, it serves as a very direct criticism of a later film - Saving Private Ryan. If you regard the two stories careful, you will find that both film base their premises war is wrong because it destroys individuals. Where Ryan's logic was fundamentally flawed, Gallipoli flawlessly builds to it's infamous climax.
Highest marks for a great story, well-told.
Master and Commander and The Truman Show are both awesome films, both rather perfect in their respective ways. Weir is a master of choosing a subject and hitting a bull's-eye with his responsible directing.
The Last Wave is a creepy little thriller, more obviously a horror film than his masterpiece, Hanging Rock. The punchline is terrific and the dream sequences are tops.
His eighties films -- The Year of Living Dangerously, Witness, The Mosquito Coast and Dead Poets Society -- is a less ambitious phase that yielded very satisfying genre efforts. I'm less enamored of Society than most, but these are all fine films. The Mosquito Coast is underrated, I find. Harrison Ford nailed the role; I know a person like this in real life, and believe me, Ford did not go over the top. The current trend of PC "philanthropist thrillers" (such as The Constant Gardener) owes more than a bit to the mixed-genre stylings of The Year of Living Dangerously.
I haven't seen Fearless or The Plummer.
