Gie
Official submission of Indonesia the 'Best Foreign Language Film' category of the 78th Academy Awards in 2006.,Soe Hok Gie: [voice-over] The history of the world is one of oppression. The question is, can there be history without oppression or without sadness and betrayal? It's like, when studying history, the only thing we find is betrayal. It is there, in each and every part of our life, and yet we can do nothing about it. How very tragic this is. But "life is suffering," so says the Buddha, and people cannot escape from it.,Featured in The Year of Living Vicariously (2005),Don't get me wrong,Riri Riza's 2005 biopic, Gie, is well done for what it is.

The movie encompasses the teenage and early adulthood years of Soe Hok Gie, and does so competently enough.

The trouble with Gie is that it's just about two and a half hours long and plods its way through Gie's thoughts and experiences, based on his journal, in a rather uninteresting way.

After having read a few other reviews from other users about the film, it appears Riza also took various liberties with fictionalizing his life, but not in a way that really made the film more interesting (save for adding the character Han to the picture).

What we get is a movie that solemnly trots through Gie's experiences during upheaval and political unrest taking shape in Indonesia during a battle of Democracy versus "guided" Democracy (i.e,. Communism).

The actual upheaval is rarely depicted and the effects of the political change are mostly glossed over in the film itself. We only get Gie's interpretations of these events rather than a cinematic macrocosm of their effects.

In short, despite the film being rather lengthy and covering various events, it doesn't quite elaborate on the societal toll quite like other similar films in the sub-genre, such as The Year of Living Dangerously or The Motorcycle Diaries, both of which managed to capture more of the cinematic idealism of the story's portrayals rather than maintaining a one-note depiction of events.

Even still, Nicholas Saputra's portrayal of Gie is wonderfully refrained. A lot of his inner turmoil and angst are withheld from any outbursts or external shouting matches. Instead Saputra was directed to emote through facial expressions and the matching inner dialogue that the audience experiences through the journal's narration.

I feel like in the hands of a more audacious filmmaker Gie could have been much better than what it is. Even still, if you're unfamiliar with Indonesia or its political history, this is a fascinating film that gives you a small slice of what one of the more turbulent and unpredictable moments in Indonesia's recent political history was like.,