Into the jungle
Fawcett discovers great adventure in ‘Lost City’
James Gray’s “The Lost City of Z” (the “Z” is pronounced “zed” by the film’s British characters) is precisely the sort of grand adventure that made me fall in love with movies in the first place. In this case, it is a journey from early 20th century Britain to still uncharted South America. Based on the 2009 book by David Grann, “The Lost City of Z” tells the fact-based story of Percy Fawcett (a slightly problematic Charlie Hunnam), a dashing, albeit under-achieving officer in the British military, whose family has a stain upon their name, and who struggles to succeed and rise in rank in spite of that handicap. Fawcett is married to the beautiful and devoted Nina (a very good Sienna Miller), and they have a young son. Fawcett’s first trip to an unknown part of Bolivia and Peru is on behalf of king and country. His mission is to map the area where rubber trees, a source of enormous wealth, grow abundantly. Fawcett recruits Cpl. Henry Costin (Robert Pattinson, amused behind a bush-sized beard), a fellow explorer and one with some experience and contacts in the area, to accompany him. After arriving by boat and train, Fawcett and Costin decide to follow the Verde River to its source through dense rainforest, where “savage” tribes armed with spears and arrows reside. Fawcett
and Costin undergo harsh trials on their journey, resembling some of the content in Martin Scorsese's recent “Silence.” But in one magical scene, they hear music through the trees and come upon a small Portuguese town, complete with damsels in high fashion and an orchestra. Upon returning, Fawcett tells members of the Royal Geographical Society that the legendary Lost City of Z exists and he can prove the existence of a prehistoric civilization in South America. He is met with outrage, ridicule and disbelief. After experiencing the heart of darkness (or as Costin puts it, “the jungle is hell, but one sort of likes it”), an epiphany Gray announces with a magical swell of Ravel, Fawcett is hooked.
He returns over and over, finally taking his adult son (Tom Holland) with him. That is Franco Nero as a rubber baron, Angus Macfadyen as evil fellow explorer Murray, and Emperor Palpatine himself Ian McDiarmid as the minister who sends Fawcett on his first trip. “The Lost City of Z” is not perfect. But I can't wait to see it, again.
(“The Lost City of Z” contains violence and scenes of human suffering.)