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 The Lost City of Z 

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 The Lost City of Z 
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Post The Lost City of Z
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The Lost City of Z is a 2016 American action adventure biographical film written and directed by James Gray, based on the 2009 book of the same name by David Grann.[2] It describes real events, about British explorer Percy Fawcett who made several attempts to find an ancient lost city in the Amazon and disappeared in 1925 along with his son on an expedition.[3] It stars Charlie Hunnam as Fawcett[4] along with Robert Pattinson as his fellow explorer Henry Costin and Sienna Miller as his wife Nina Fawcett.[5]

The film had its world premiere as closing night film on October 15, 2016, at the New York Film Festival.[6] The film is scheduled to be released in the United States on April 14, 2017, by Amazon Studios and Bleecker Street.

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Wed Apr 05, 2017 10:07 am
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Post Re: The Lost City of Z
I can completely understand why someone would love this and it's going to be a "best of the year" pick for so many cinephiles. It's a gorgeous movie on a technical level with some stunning cinematography and a few excellent sequences. Unfortunately I didn't find it compelling at all and the two-and-a-half hour runtime was excessive and made the film seem endless. There are no real dramatic missteps here but the story is very predictable and by-the-books in the way that it is told and I felt a lot of the dialogue felt very unnatural. Performances were decent - Charlie Hunnam was probably the best I've seen him and Sienna Miller was also strong. I think it's a film that is a bit easier to admire than love. B-/C+



This will be David's favorite movie of the year.


Wed Apr 05, 2017 11:43 am
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Post Re: The Lost City of Z
I am in the same boat as cory.

This is a gorgeous film to look at and the camerawork is impeccable. The movie checks all boxes in terms of story, narration, stakes, drama and execution, without many loose ends. But its really long and the repetitive structure makes it feel even longer. After the second trip I just couldn't wait for this to end and while I do love the ending it needed to sweep you away with either emotion or surprise after such an exhaustive experience. Few notable loose ends (I believe would have turned out good in the book) are the real world fame for the explorers and the outer-world belief in Z, the middle act story of Murray (played wonderfully by Angus MacFadyen), plus the respect/honor relationship of Percy with the Amazonian natives. The performances are decent overall but no one really stands out here other than Angus MacFadyen in a short role.

5/10


Fri Apr 21, 2017 4:37 am
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Post Re: The Lost City of Z
I had not been aware of Percy Fawcett's story before seeing The Lost City Of Z and I expected it to be a long slow meditation à la Heart Of Darkness, so I was pleasantly surprised at just how gripping it turned out to be - the 141 minute running time flew by. I really liked Charlie Hunnam's performance in the lead role, though I found his blond hair made it difficult to convincingly portray his older appearance. The sound was often weak and inaudible, but otherwise the supporting cast and the superb art direction added to the feeling of period authenticity. I felt this one. *A-*


Wed Apr 26, 2017 3:55 am
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Post Re: The Lost City of Z
Directed by James Grey, The Lost City of Z is a tremendous film and not only in the way it ravishes the senses. It satisfies on every narrative level—as a jungle-set adventure film, as an ode to curiosity and resilience, as a tragedy of obsession, as an indictment of colonial prejudices in early-20th-century Britain—but also complicates and transcends each, allowing the audience to briefly glimpse through a veil and touch a crystalline place cinema seldom goes (in this regard, I would compare it to Lawrence of Arabia, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Picnic at Hanging Rock, and The Thin Red Line). It tells the story of Percy Fawcett, an English cartographer, explorer, and soldier who made three widely publicized trips to the Amazon in search of "Zed," an advanced city and civilization he believed existed in the jungle, untouched by white men. Its discovery, he insisted, would revolutionize academic and popular thought regarding the quote-unquote savage indigenous people of South America. He and his teenage son never returned from the third voyage, made after enduring the nightmarish trench warfare of the First World War, and their precise fate (captured by a hostile tribe? a conscious choice not to return to constrictive European society?) remains unknown despite several search parties and myriad theories. Grey's literate storytelling is, in a neat way, both highly romantic and frequently sober: he embraces the excitement and majesty of an explorer's step into the unknown while also recognizing the devastation of the daughter waving goodbye, never to see her father and elder brother again. The result is a potent blend of exhilaration and melancholy. Fawcett is portrayed by Charlie Hunnam, and the performance is intriguing in the way it is subdued: highly competent and fit without being heroic, decent without being lavishly virtuous, driven and possessed by an idea without Klaus Kinski-style theatricality. He provides the film with a calm and soulful center, and it is not hard to believe select people would follow him into immense peril.

A

I also love how Grey revisits/revises the memorably bisected final shot of The Immigrant here. It gave me chills, honestly.

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Sat Apr 29, 2017 11:31 am
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Post Re: The Lost City of Z
I saw this for the second time last night. What a pure, glorious movie.

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Sat May 20, 2017 6:35 pm
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Post 
The Lost City of Z

Not the heart-thumper I thought it might be, but it is a gripping doorway into a beloved era with a beautiful and relatable Marco Polo sense of adventure. The film has a certain poetry in its biographical design. It is a calm rendition of a the life of an explorer; the drive, the losses, the failures, and all in a time unequipped with modern science and technology, instead driven by will and duty. There are moments of suspense, but they are unfortunately short lived. Which is where the cross-years storytelling take over. Performances are superb, especially Hunnam (I should stop being surprised by this guy!) and Pattinson. Sienna Miller has now mastered the strong female anchor role.

A-

I wonder if the Chinese release was severely cut. On Wikipedia it states a run time of 140 minutes. I was in the cinema for 110 minutes max. Maybe less. I did get the sense that it was cut at times. The film did not really have much gore, which I felt it definitely could have.

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Sun Jun 04, 2017 10:23 am
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Post Re: The Lost City of Z
I'm advocating for James Gray (director of The Lost City of Z) to work together once again with David Grann (author of the book on which it was based) on the film version of Grann's new book Killers of the Flower Moon.



Sun Jun 04, 2017 11:09 am
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Post Re:
Algren wrote:
The Lost City of Z

Not the heart-thumper I thought it might be, but it is a gripping doorway into a beloved era with a beautiful and relatable Marco Polo sense of adventure. The film has a certain poetry in its biographical design. It is a calm rendition of a the life of an explorer; the drive, the losses, the failures, and all in a time unequipped with modern science and technology, instead driven by will and duty. There are moments of suspense, but they are unfortunately short lived. Which is where the cross-years storytelling take over. Performances are superb, especially Hunnam (I should stop being surprised by this guy!) and Pattinson. Sienna Miller has now mastered the strong female anchor role.

A-

I wonder if the Chinese release was severely cut. On Wikipedia it states a run time of 140 minutes. I was in the cinema for 110 minutes max. Maybe less. I did get the sense that it was cut at times. The film did not really have much gore, which I felt it definitely could have.

Glad you enjoyed it.

Per the BBFC, the film runs exactly 140m 57s. I wonder what was cut. There is not much gore; a bit of blood bubbles up after the piranha attack, and there is a slightly gory, but brief gunshot wound to the eye during the WWI scene. And there are a few shots of festering cuts and such, and a scene in which Percy and co. see a crispy human cadaver above a campfire.

I cannot imagine the Chinese being compelled to cut anything for political or moral reasons. There is no homosexuality, for instance, or nothing too overtly religious beyond a few references to the Church of England, etc., etc.

Interesting. But, again, I am very pleased to see an A- review from you. :)

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Sun Jun 04, 2017 12:17 pm
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Post Re: The Lost City of Z
Yeah, I really enjoyed it. The Chinese guy next to me (and a few others behind) was getting restless. No gags and CGI explosions to keep him entertained, I guess, but I found it thoroughly engrossing. I do wonder if the title and poster is a tad misleading for Chinese people. Perhaps giving them theidea that it's a popcorn adventure flick, Indy style, where he finds a lost city full of gold and there are jokes aplenty in his search.

But anyway, I saw the piranha attack and the eye shot at The Somme, as well as the guy hung up to cook. Was there any sex? The film started a little later than 7:10 and I was walking out before 9pm. I expected a long film, and was surprised that it was so short (not that it felt short, but just knowing it finished in under 110 minutes).

I really want to see the longer cut!

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Sun Jun 04, 2017 8:39 pm
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Post Re: The Lost City of Z
No sex other than a bit of flirtatious touching between the main character and his wife (in an early scene where they are preparing for a ball, and he is ruing his dearth of medals). I believe there a few shots of tribal nudity, however.

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Sun Jun 04, 2017 10:33 pm
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Post Re: The Lost City of Z
I think tribal nudity could be it, but I am skeptical that would make up thirty minutes of cuts. Maybe they also cut some for run-time reasons.

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Sun Jun 04, 2017 10:47 pm
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Post Re: The Lost City of Z
This was quite the wonderful experience. While very good right from the start, the story took a little while for me to get into, but once it does around the half-way mark, when they return to the Amazon for the second time, it draws on a certain affection to keep my highest interest. The film does an excellent job of story telling, with very nice shots of that time and fine performances from the whole cast. Both the parts at home in Britain as the parts in discovery are compelling, but I did find it a bit frustrating that there seemed to be a lack of real achievements, although seemingly true to life, to the expeditions. It's Percy passion for the mission that ensures the film to keep it's intrigue until the end though.
While the film is great, I also wish parts of it where more fleshed out. It spans over around a decade and a half and feel a lot more could be open to be experienced. I saw the Chinese cut, so the original version would probably fill some of this gap. Nonetheless I never felt anything was weirdly edited out and expect the longer film will do the story more justice.

A-


Fri Jun 09, 2017 2:05 am
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Post Re: The Lost City of Z
It spans twenty years. I thought it started in the early 1900s (like, 1903) and ended around 1923.

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Fri Jun 09, 2017 2:27 am
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Post Re: The Lost City of Z
Yeah, that's right. I was gauging my estimate on Percy's son being a kid and then a young adult which I thought was about 15 years.

But yeah I think there could have been so much more film of what happened in those 20 years.


Fri Jun 09, 2017 3:10 am
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Post Re: The Lost City of Z
I would have welcomed a love scene, perhaps one giving a glimpse to Miller's breasts. ;)

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Fri Jun 09, 2017 3:39 am
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Post Re: The Lost City of Z
Fawcett did, in reality, travel to the Amazon several times. The film condenses it to three voyages.

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Fri Jun 09, 2017 2:04 pm
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Post Re: The Lost City of Z
Mystery solved. It was cut by 37 minutes (!) in China to allow for more screens, to be more competitive with Wonder Woman: http://chinafilminsider.com/lost-city-z ... der-woman/

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Analysts contend that distributors are starting to feel more pressure from exhibitors who don’t like scheduling anything over two hours because it cuts into the total amount of screenings, and therefore ticket sales.


:(

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Sun Jun 18, 2017 12:07 am
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Post Re: The Lost City of Z
A fucking disgrace.

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Sun Jun 18, 2017 6:39 am
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Post Re: The Lost City of Z
37 minutes is a bit too harsh IMO. The runtime here was 141 minutes and I thought they cut a few scenes weirdly here.


Mon Jun 19, 2017 12:38 am
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Post Re: The Lost City of Z
Surprisingly it was still a very good cut.


Mon Jun 19, 2017 1:54 am
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Post Re: The Lost City of Z
It exceptionally well made and superbly acted, but I can't help but feel that something was missing in order for me to truly love this. Maybe it's because I did want more of a thrilling, pulse pounding adventure piece, and while it did have it moments they are indeed very brief. Charlie Hunnam is pretty fantastic in this though as is Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller and Angus Macfadyen. Even Tom Holland makes quite an impact in his small role.


Sat Jul 01, 2017 7:46 pm
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Post Re: The Lost City of Z
Dil, did you torrent this? It's available, so I am downloading it to see the uncut version. Might watch it tonight.

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