Film Review: "The Lost City of Z" (2017).

"In 1925, Percy Fawcett ventured into the Amazon in search of a myth. What he discovered became legendary."

This is

The Lost City of Z

. This biographical adventure drama film written and directed by James Gray, based on the 2009 book of the same name by David Grann. A true-life drama, centering on British explorer Major Percival Fawcett, who disappeared whilst searching for a mysterious city in the Amazon in the 1920s.

In February 2009, Paramount Pictures and Plan B Entertainment hired Gray to write and direct a film based on Grann's book. But, for six years, the film remained in development hell, with numerous actors intended to play the lead role. Brad Pitt was initially to star as Fawcett, additionally providing production duties through his company Plan B Entertainment. However, in November 2010, Pitt withdrew from the lead role due to scheduling conflicts, but remained attached as producer. In early September 2013, Benedict Cumberbatch came on board to portray Fawcett. In February 2015, Cumberbatch dropped out also due to scheduling conflicts, and was ultimately replaced with Charlie Hunnam. By late August, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller, Tom Holland, Angus Macfadyen, Ian McDiarmid, Franco Nero, Harry Melling, Daniel Huttlestone, and Murray Melvin rounded out the film's cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced, and took place in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Santa Marta, Colombia. Intent on capturing the reality faced by the actual explorers a century earlier, Gray committed to shooting in remote rainforest locations, which presented challenges from all directions - including the trees. Gray wrote to Francis Ford Coppola asking for advice about shooting in the jungle. Coppola's two-word reply was "Don't go." When Coppola decided to make Apocalypse Now (1979), he received the same advice from Roger Corman. The film was shot on 35mm, and added an an additional $750,000 to its $29.25 million budget. If shooting on 35mm film posed significant logistical challenges in the middle of the Colombian jungle. Gray set up an elaborate routine in order to ship, process and review the film during production. After a series of plane changes, the film canisters eventually made their way to London to be processed.

The film stars Hunnam, Pattinson, Miller, Holland, Macfadyen, McDiarmid, Nero, Melling, Huttlestone, and Melvin. The performances, given by the cast properly larger than life, especially Hunnam as the British explorer, a lean, driven but relentless man who goes to the ends of the earth to any which way in his quest of exploration.

The Lost City of Z is a compelling piece of historical fiction that lingers in the memory largely because of its lush, claustrophobic atmosphere and the strong presence of Hunnam. The whole movie merges landscapes and character with such force that, once seen, you never forget it. It looks more magnificent and mad than any film in recent years, one of the great folies de grandeur of modern cinema, an expeditionary Conradian nightmare like Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Modern idiosyncratic visionaries don't come any more idiosyncratic or visionary than Gray.

Simon says The Lost City of Z receives:

Also, see my review for The Immigrant.