The Lost City of Z 4K 2016

A Royal Geographical Society major named Percy (Charlie Hunnam) goes on an expedition to the Amazon Valley to refine topographical maps. From then on, his life became a restless thirst for dicovery. That was an era full of crazy longings to wade through slumbering forests, to crawl and swim, to take cover from the natives, to go on the attack, as in war. So almost immediately and the main question arises - where in a person so fierce passion for adventure, whether it is possible to love a hobby more than life, to give up comforts and daily risk, leaving a beautiful wife (Sienna Miller), not to see how your children are born and grow, voluntarily leaving the most native for years and years. And for what?

Gray's 'The Lost City of Z' is based on the biography of an English explorer whose team disappeared somewhere on the border of Bolivia and Brazil, in search of the mysterious Eldorado. This fact insures against awkward fictions by the screenwriters, but it doesn't get rid of inordinate idealization. And it seemed to me that Percy, not too many motives, and plot engines. They are there, but as if tucked far into the wilds, much like the city of Z itself.

But for a sharp plot movie, the intrigue is not very clever: the antagonists somehow disappear one by one by themselves, (and it is honorable to defeat a strong antagonist). As for the love line, it is bland - just humility, while the father of the family spent his best years in dangerous hikes, only discretely watching his children grow up half a meter at a time, and he knows them only by letters. But each time, only to return, he is again beckoned by the complexly composed Eldorado, and presumably there is not only curiosity here, but fame and career vanity, complete with untold Inca gold. Which of these was the true lure, we can only guess.

Though I'm not a fan of either the historical or adventure genre, this work, while somewhat drawn out and falling into romanticism, is still appealing as high quality cinematography. And while everything flies seemingly to the inevitable - the major will go on the Amazon and the second and third time, as if flirting with death, and so he will turn into an even greater mystery for all connoisseurs of comfort travel.

James Gray is an accomplished director, he has a steady hand, a sense of proportion and taste, and the movie has some very valuable little words and acting precision. With the flaws present, the clarity of the plot is also a payoff - no mystical assumptions or guesses off the top of my head - everything is linear and simple. Although the hero's motivation remains tucked away in the 'jungle' of the time. Let's say that the hero simply had no choice to live another life. Or perhaps the authors were hinting - build resilience, we shouldn't think we've survived this crisis of discovery and overcoming. Man remains as he was conceived - the question of self-realization (when everything is for the dream) and in our world is more important than gold and domestic careerism, if only you have the patience and courage not to betray your inspired Eldorado. Maybe they didn't mean to, but that's what I heard.