Nikon cameras in the movies

jmeyer | News | 02/07/2012 12:30pm

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9. The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)

The book engages with the politics of Indonesia more directly, but in Peter Weir’s film, the 1965 overthrow of President Sukarno is just a backdrop to the intertwining psychodramas of an Australian journalist (Mel Gibson), a British diplomat (Sigourney Weaver) and a Chinese-Australian photographer (Linda Hunt). Opportunistic Gibson is looking for the big story, while Hunt is full of moral outrage – and only one of them is doomed.

The photographer: Linda Hunt made history by becoming the first person to win an Oscar for playing a member of the opposite sex – Australian-Chinese dwarf photographer Billy Kwan. Standing at 4’ 9”, Hunt needs to perch on Gibson’s shoulder to get the best shots with her Nikon F. This is the kind of photography advice you can only get at the movies!

Nikon at the movies: The Year of Living Dangerously

Most famous for: At the time, The Year of Living Dangerously was the most expensive Australian film ever made. Meanwhile, Weir and Gibson endured death threats from Filipino Muslims.

Worth watching? As a history lesson, as you might expect, it’s totally pants. However, it’s still worth a look, simply for the intensity of Peter Weir’s vision.

Posted on Monday, July 2nd, 2012 at 12:30 pm under News.