Conference bookie::movies

65.0. "City of Joy" by 12035::RIVERS (may this vale be my silver lining.) Wed Mar 10 1993 21:02

    City of Joy stars Patrick Swayze as an American doctor who loses faith
    with himself and goes to India to seek spiritual enlightment.  On the
    way, he stumbles into the lives of the poverty-striken, slum-living
    people of a Calcutta free clinic ("The City of Joy") and despite his
    desires, gets pulled in.
    
    Directed by the man who brought up "The Killing Fields" (one of the
    best movies I've ever seen, FWIW), the cinematography of this film is
    fantastic.  The settings, the scenes, the people, etc all capture the
    culture of a foreign culture (caveat: I say that, not having been to
    India and seeing this for myself) and the incredibly squalid lifestyle
    people can survive in and call themselves fortunate.
    
    By and large, the Indian actors and actresses outshone Swayze, who did
    a better than to be expected job with his role as the seemingly
    distant, "I don't want to get involved" stranger in a strange land. 
    I believe an article published around the time this movie came out
    quoted Swayze as saying he'd done his action movies, and his 'manly'
    movies and this was his attempt at a higher thing.  He didn't do too
    terribly poorly, although City of Joy suffered from predictability and
    a lack of convincing motivations behind plot threads.
    
    Still, a very nice movie.  Worth watching just for the setting, even
    though some moments are not for the squeamish (not a particularly
    violent movie, however, it does have a large cast of lepers who figure
    somewhat prominently into the plot).
    
    *** out of ****
    
    kim

    
    "...the culture of foreign culture...." should have read "...the flavor
    of a foreign culture...."
    
    
    
    
    kim