Monday, November 21, 2022

Movie review - "Mountains of the Moon" (1990) ***

 Bob Rafelson is best known for his Jack Nicholson starring vehicles but this piece shows another aspect of him - the travelling, individual side (he liked to traipse over the third world). It's about Burton and Speke, and I'm surprised Hollywood or Britain never tackled them in the 30s when explorer biopics were the rage. Maybe Burton was too scandalous with him translating the kama sutra.

The film made - temporarily as it turned out - Patrick Bergin into a bit of a name. Fiona Shaw goes nude. Ian Glenn is the other guy. Richard E Grant adds some old school villainy into it.

For all the modern takes (hero into sex, gay upper class Britishers), the Africans are still depicted as a savage mass.

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