The Lost City of Z (2017)

The Lost City of Z is a long, at times uneven film that takes it’s time to find it’s feet but when it does, there’s a fascinating story anchored by great performances. Told over the span of more than a decade, it tells the story of Percy Fawcett, an explorer who was sent into the Amazon to help decide on the borderlines of Bolivia and Brazil, but whilst there he stumbles upon signs of a forgotten civilisation in the heart of the jungle which he then becomes obsessed with finding. There are a lot of thematic similarities with James Gray’s latest film Ad Astra though seen from the other perspective and with a fair bit more warmth at its heart. Whilst it tells the story of Percy Fawcett, it should be noted that there have been some fairly significant changes to the timeline of these events in order to make it filmable, for example in the film he makes 3 journeys to the Amazon, in real life it was 8, there are a few other details like this which are different. There’s obviously also a fair bit of guess work and imagination in the details of some of the jungle trips, but in the light research I did the day after, it seems that the important stuff is largely the same.

The film can be a little clunky as it covers such a huge chunk of this man’s life over so many years, locations and events. The first half hour in particular is filled with expository dialogue completely lacking in subtlety (a problem I also had with Ad Astra), some very amateurish editing gaffes and a tendency to try and stuff in every detail possible. One moment that sticks out is when Fawcett’s wife Nina (Sienna Miller) asks to join on an expedition leadig to an argument about her place as a woman, she also frequently refers to herself as an independent woman. All of this is supposedly completely true to life and the real woman, but the way it’s fudged in and never really touched on again feels a bit clumsy, although it was also important to give more space to Nina as she serves as the heart of some of the film’s most important moments. I suppose this is just part of the problem when adapting people’s lives into a single film. The film really soars when Fawcett is in the jungle with his men discovering things about the indigenous people and nearing the lost city. There is a real sense of adventure and danger to these sections and Gray does well to contrast the freedom of the jungle to the stuffy British society of the early 1900s. There are a few moments, most noticeable in the war section and the moments back home where Fawcett is shown to be impossibly heroic, masculine, sensitive, inspiring and ahead of the curve where it feels a little bit like a propoganda myth told about Augustus or someone similar. There is little time spent on his flaws other than his obsession with the jungle.

It’s a technically wonderful film other than the few editing errors, Darius Khondji captures the British countryside and the jungle with equal beauty and the elaborate British interiors with a slightly claustrophobic character. The score by Christopher Spelman is actually quite understated but emotive and beautiful, I think I’ll be listening to it a lot and it really enhances the feelings of wonder and magic as well as the danger. There’s a wonderful cast, Charlie Hunnam is a very strong and dashing lead who does well to take the audience on this journey, he has a wonderful chemistry with Robert Pattinson who plays his aide and friend Henry Costin with an understated intensity in a very interesting although sometimes mumbly performance. Sienna Miller is really wonderful as Nina and at points really breaks your heart, she takes a slightly underwritten role of the impossibly perfect wife and makes her largely feel grounded and real. Tom Holland does a good job as Percy’s oldest son Jack and Angus Macfadyen is a brilliant foil and antagonist as James Murray, an older, esteemed explorer who joins Percy on his second trip. Interestingly the indigenous people they come across are actually played by indigenous people from three different tribes where they were filming.

Though it is a slightly unbalanced film, the story it’s telling is really interesting and engaging, it’s thematically and emotionally loaded and once you key into that story, a lot of the shortcomings don’t really seem important. It’s made me interested to learn more about Fawcett as it shone a light on an era and culture of exploration that I really didn’t know anything about, even if it does take liberties with its source material. There are moments of great beauty in this film and a bold, poignant ending that really sticks. I don’t know that I’ll be rushing to rewatch it, but I definitely would rewatch it if it came up, and even if I don’t, it was a really wonderful, thought-provoking experience.