Paradise Road (1997)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Bruce Beresford

Writers:

David Giles (story) and
Martin Meader (story) ...

Release Date:

11 April 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History | War

Plot:

Fact-based recounting of a group of women who are imprisoned on the island of Sumatra by the Japanese during World War II and used music as a relief to their misery.

Plot Keywords:

Japanese | Singapore | Prison Camp | Sumatra | Prison

Awards:

1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

Glenn Close	...	Adrienne Pargiter
Frances McDormand	...	Dr. Verstak
Pauline Collins	...	Daisy 'Margaret' Drummond
Cate Blanchett	...	Susan Macarthy
Jennifer Ehle	...	Rosemary Leighton-Jones
Julianna Margulies	...	Topsy Merritt
Wendy Hughes	...	Mrs. Dickson
Johanna ter Steege	...	Sister Wilhelminia (as Johanna Ter Steege)
Elizabeth Spriggs	...	Mrs. Roberts
Pamela Rabe	...	Mrs. Tippler
Clyde Kusatsu	...	Sergeant Tomiashi, 'The Snake'
Stan Egi	...	Captain Tanaka
David Chung	...	The Interpreter
Sab Shimono	...	Colonel Hirota
Penne Hackforth-Jones	...	Mrs. Pike

MPAA:

Rated R for prisoner of war brutality and violence.

Runtime:

122 min | 114 min (FMC Library Print)

Country:

Australia | USA

Language:

English | Japanese | Dutch | Malay

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | Iceland:12 | Canada:14+ (Ontario) | Netherlands:12 | South Korea:18 | Philippines:R-18 | Argentina:16 | Chile:18 | Germany:12 (w) | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Marrickville Town Hall, Marrickville, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Company:

Village Roadshow Pictures

Goofs:

Factual errors: An early night scene of the women swimming ashore (set in the week after 10 February 1942) shows the full moon. The moon was between last quarter and new moon that week.

Quotes:

Dr. Verstak: You want me to give up food and soap and God knows what else, so I can starve and sing?

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Chicken Run (2000)

Soundtrack:

Londonderry Air

Strong, moving testament

I love this movie because I love the characterization of the women in it. I felt powerfully with the women, felt I knew them, felt complete identification with most of them.

I actually think it's hard to specify the actions and words that will make a character both realistic and sympathetic. Showing mere suffering won't do it. But here, Mr. Beresford has been able to stir such warm feelings (particularly toward the Roberts girl, the Glenn Close and Jennifer Ehle, her Dutch friend, and the Cate Blanchett characters). The romanticism, cheer and background of the Ehle character are particularly well drawn.

This is a far superior movie to 'Platoon', by the way - and a wonderful tribute to those who went through the awful 3.5 year ordeal.

Another thing I quite liked (these days) was to see a movie that did not attempt to make the Caucasians the moral villain relative to the other race depicted.

This is not a movie concerned with p.c. appearances - the Japanese are not shown as somehow merely "different", a difference we "simply cannot understand or judge" because of our different culture. Setting a woman on fire for bargaining for medicine for a sick elderly woman is brutality in any culture - and this movie does not attempt to minimize the moral wrong.

Bravo, Mr. Beresford.