Peter Weir is a prolific Australian director who has since retired from filmmaking saying that he does not have the energy required for being a director anymore. He received a lifetime achievement Honorary Oscar in 2022. His thoughtful movies cross many genres and we’ll be looking at his films from 1975 to 2010. He adapts his directing style to each particular story, and we somehow feel each is told by the same raconteur.

March 1 – Picnic at Hanging Rock (released 8/8/1975) 115 minutes. On Valentine’s Day in 1900, a group of schoolgirls set out to picnic at Hanging Rock, and some were never to return. Peter Weir’s second film was a huge critical and box office success and has been voted best Australian film of all time. Adapted from a hugely popular novel classified as historical fiction, the movie is a stylistic masterpiece, it is the film that launched his career and now, our series.

March 8 – The Mosquito Coast (released 11/26/1986) 117 minutes. Allie Fox (Harrison Ford) is a brilliant inventor who despises what the USA has become and leads his family into the remote jungles of South America to carve out a new society. After working together on the successful Witness the previous year, Weir convinced Harrison Ford to accept the lead and consequently obtain the necessary funding from Ford’s massive box office clout. Although the film was not critically and commercially well-received, Ford remembers this as his favorite role and publicly defended the film and director. For those of you who lament the fact that this film is being screened instead of the more popular film Witness, remember that Film Appreciation is a class for film lovers who want to dive deeper into the catalogue and experience the lesser-seen gems of film history.

March 15 – Dead Poets Society (released 6/2/1989) 128 minutes. In 1959, at a prestigious New England preparatory boarding school, a brand-new English teacher inspires his students through his charismatic teaching of poetry. This film was not included in our previous Robin Williams’ series because it stands out in film history as an ensemble piece. Peter Weir’s skillful and haunting direction lifts this original screenplay above its ostensibly boring subject matter. This is an emotional and controversial story that obviously struck a chord with audiences in 1989, being the fifth-highest grossing film as well as one of the most critically acclaimed. This is the joy of Film Appreciation—evaluating films like this with the benefit of life’s experience many years later.

March 29 – Fearless (released 10/15/1993) 122 minutes. A man’s personality is dramatically changed after surviving a major airline crash. In one of the best movies that no one has ever seen, Jeff Bridges plays Max Klein, a man who transforms himself into an active force of nature in his immediate surroundings. The people in his life do not recognize the man he’s become, and his fellow survivors are in awe of his strength and perseverance. Rosie Perez was nominated for an Oscar and Jeff Bridges turns in another memorable and relatable performance.

April 5 – Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (released 11/14/2003) 138 minutes. During the Napoleonic Wars, Lucky Jack (Russell Crowe) a brash British captain pushes his ship and crew to their limits in pursuit of a formidable French war vessel around South America. Based on roughly three of the novels of Patrick O’Brian, the film centers on the relationship of Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr Stephen Maturin portrayed by Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany. This is a thoughtful, meditative film well worth revisiting and although it was a modest success, it didn’t generate any sequels unlike the popular Pirates of the Caribbean movies released that same year.

April 19 – The Way Back (released 12/29/2010) 133 minutes. A young military officer leads an escape from a Soviet gulag in Siberia during World War II and walks 4000 miles to freedom. Weir’s last film is the story of an incredible trek inspired by true events, starring Colin Farrell, Ed Harris and Saoirse Ronan. This is a fitting end to a long career filled with quality films.