Movie Review: "The Lost City Of Z"

"The Lost City Of Z": B.  Before oil was king there was rubber.  And just as discord over oil fields has been the root cause of many wars over the last several decades, ownership of land bearing rubber plants was a bone of contention at the beginning of the twentieth century.  In The Lost City Of Z, the South American territory referred to as "Amazonia" had abundant rubber plants, an invaluable cash crop.  But the land was claimed by both Brazil and Bolivia which were at the brink of war with each other.  In an intelligent effort to avoid bloodshed, the two neighboring countries looked to the world's most powerful government, the British Empire, to survey the contested territory and draw a boundary.

This is where Major Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) comes in.  Charged with the responsibility of fulfilling the Empire's responsibilities, the Royal Geographic Society pegs Fawcett to lead the transatlantic expedition.  Fawcett has the moxie and derring-do air which suit him for the dangerous assignment.  Furthermore, he has established himself as an expert rifleman, a skill which may come in handy in the South American jungles.  Fawcett is eager to do something extraordinary to compensate for his father, who ruined his own military career by losing his battle with the bottle.  Fawcett has been "unfortunate in his choice of ancestors" is how a RGS big wig describes the major.
 

The RGS assigns Corporal Henry Costin (Robert Pattinson) to be Fawcett's right hand man.  Fawcett is unaware of this arrangement until he senses someone is stalking him on the westbound ocean liner.  The major hides behind a door and almost kills the man abruptly.  That man turns out to be Costin.  Despite the presence of Costin in one scene after another as the men later make their way up river, one of the film's shortcomings is its failure to develop the corporal's character.
 

Ironically, very little attention is paid to the original reason for the Brits' willingness to risk life and limb in the uncharted South American jungle, viz., the establishment of a bi-national border.  We see the men with surveying equipment for only a few moments, and there does not appear to be a rubber plant in sight.  One reason for this change in focus is the legend of a lost city inhabited by an unknown civilization, where a trove of gold and other exotic treasures supposedly can be found.  This news fascinates Fawcett, whose disbelieve evaporates when he finds various artifacts in the forest.  These discoveries turn him and his men from surveyors to explorers.
 

The British team, which includes indigenous guides, encounters the expected gamut of obstacles such as oppressive heat, hostile tribes, disease and hunger.  Some of the related scenes are intense.  Unfortunately a few border on incredulity, such as an attack by spear-hurling native warriors who, for no apparent reason, stop shooting after the targeted Brits leap into the water and then climb back on to their raft a few moments later.
 

Fawcett makes more than one trip to Amazonia.  He is itching to lead a second expedition to follow up on his quest for the reputed lost city.  Desperate for financing, Fawcett agrees to take on RGS member James Murray (Angus Macfadyen), a rotund biologist whose claim to fame is his previous association with famed polar explorer Ernest Shackleton.  Without Murray on board, the RGS will not risk an investment.   The inclusion of Murray leads to life-and-death issues which make for an interesting subplot.

The talents of Sienna Miller are wasted in the roll of Fawcett's dutiful wife, Nina.  Most of her lines are predictably cliched, such as when she pleads with her husband to allow her to accompany him to South America.  When her husband is wounded in the first world war -- an unnecessary deviation which only serves to lengthen the run time -- she is at his hospital bed with a soothing washcloth. It would have been nice to see Nina stand up to her vain husband once or twice instead of conceding to his every selfish wish.  She is even complicit in sending their eldest child, a teenage boy, into the hostile jungle.

The film is based on a 2009 book bearing the same title and written by David Gann.  Film director James Gray has taken the risk of having the story become too episodic by including each of Fawcett's expeditions as separate acts, thus remaining faithful to Gann's work.  It may have been a more dramatic film had he condensed some of those trips into one or two.