The Lost City of Z

In Memory Yet Green
or
"What's a Heaven For?"

James Gray's new film, The Lost City of Z (I prefer to call it The Lost City of Zed, as it is articulated in the film), is not just "Based on a True Story (that cliche tag-line of so many movies these days), but "Based on the Incredible True Story." And it's about bloody time. Its protagonist, Col. Percival Fawcett (played quite effectively, if opaquely by Charlie Hunnam*) has been fictionalized enough times, being the inspiration for Challenger of A. Conan Doyle's "The Lost World," Quatermain of H. R. Haggard's "King Solomon's Mines," and their modern descendant of antiquities, Jones of Indiana. The original should get his due, because his story truly is incredible, filled with hardships and danger, both foreign and domestic, and proved a challenge to the complacent way of thinking about what makes a civilization among the class-conscious societies of England at the time. Fawcett was a forward thinker who became lost in the past. 

But it wasn't always so. When we first encounter Fawcett, he is long trek from legendary. A "lifer" in the British Army at the turn of the century, he has been passed over for promotion on numerous occasions—not through any dereliction of duty, not because he is untalented, he is, in fact, one of the best and boldest of his company. He overhears the reason after bagging the stag in an elk hunt held for the Archduke Ferdinand*—"He's been rather unfortunate in his choice of ancestors," as one of the stuffy dignitaries puts it. Dad was a bit of a drunk in his military career, so the sins of the father are visited upon the son. Class, and the lack of it, are married in one unfortunate summation. Geez, no wonder there's an America.

Skilled, he may be, and respectable, he certainly is, his career nevertheless is stalled, and so he accepts an assignment he's recommended for with the Royal Geographical Society (headed by former "Star Wars" Emperor Ian McDiarmid)—to map unexplored borders of the Amazon rain-forest and maybe, just maybe, find its source.

It is hazardous duty to be sure, from flora, fauna, disease, and natives, who have never advanced past the tribal stage (but, then, has anybody?) and might not take kindly to strangers. The Army offers him nothing and so he agrees, knowing full well it will be a journey of years; his wife Nina (Sienna Miller) knows the frustration of her husband and, rather reluctantly, agrees. Fawcett bids farewll to wife and child (with one on the way), taking with him Colonel Henry Costin (Robert Pattinson, unrecognizable and good enough to forgive anything he's done in the past), whose knowledge of the rain-forest proves essential, as well as a native guide Tadjui (Pedro Coello), picked up after a visit to a rubber plantation, run by the Baron De Gondoriz (Franco Nero), who warns him of the exploration parties that have not returned, but Fawcett forges ahead, determined to prove his mettle in the "uncivilized" world, a land without prejudice.

Tadjui tells him of an ancient city in the Amazonian jungle, a golden city with a large population, a city that Fawcett begins to call "Zed," and on his first mission, he finds pieces of pottery and figurines, artifacts that prove to him that, though there may not be a city of gold, there is one with a civilization that does more than hunt with spears, but is capable of art and practical tools. He finds the source of the river, but in their excitement at their find, Tadjui makes his escape.

Fawcett is welcomed back to England a hero and his accomplishments are lauded, but his theories about "the lost city of Zed" and that the natives of what he calls "Amazonia" are far more advanced than had been previously thought are controversial and met with scoffs and derision. It isn't long before he is enticed to go back to prove his contentions that the native populations have a sophistication and civilized organization that threatens the British imperialist image of savages.

There is also some controversy at home. His son Jack resents his time away, and his "equal wife" quickly realizes how far that goes when she wants to accompany him on his next trip—she has found an artifact in public records that alludes to a fabulous city somewhere in the Amazon. He tells her she is just not capable of it and steadfastly refuses to take her.

But, he does allow a renowned biologist James Murray (Angus McFadyen), late of Shackleton's Nimrod expedition and wants to reclaim his past glories on this latest endeavour that has so impressed the world. He should have taken his wife, instead, as Murray is quite ill-prepared to handle the tropics.

In a scene straight out of Apocalypse Now, the boatload of explorers sees another boat aground precariously on shore. by the time they notice a man aboard and that he's dead, the air becomes lethal with arrows and spears, too suddenly for some on the boat to avoid being killed. But Fawcett is determined to find the source of the attack and wades ashore, arms outstretched. One last arrow pierces his notebook and he stares at it in wonder, not just in that he was spared, but at the precision it took to hit and not go all the way through to kill him.

Fawcett walks up the bank. Soon, one warrior appears amidst the brush (which director Gray, like so many directors before him, treats as not merely a backdrop, but as one of the characters), then, another shows as back-up, then another. Soon, a half-dozen natives have emerged, and one goes back to report what has happened, while the others maintain eye contact. And with that, Fawcett achieves acceptance and discovers the tribe has a sophisticated defense mechanism to maintain its security. Despite his party's casualties, his trust is rewarded in kind.

A good thing, too, as the members of the tribe turns out to be cannibals, something that thoroughly repulses the biologist Murray. Fawcett and the veterans of the previous party know enough to keep quiet, lest they go from being the guests for dinner to being the main course. But, Murray, who has slowed the party down, and has been known to steal rations from others in the group. A knee wound leaves him raving and in need of medical attention, so the Fawcett thinks it best for all concerned if they send Murray packing to seek attention from the last known encampment on their journey as they go their own way. This will come back to haunt them when they return to England after they've found finished their expedition.

But, they've found no Zed—evidence of sophisticated farming and medicine, yes. But no golden city.

And, then World War I happens, even if doesn't turn out to be The War to End All Expeditions.

It is an "incredible true story." And all parties involved in The Lost City of Z do right by it. Filming in the jungle—the genuine jungle—is a logistical nightmare for a filming crew, but Gray is a fastidious director, but not so much so that he doesn't provide the telling grace note that moves the story from mere communication to the poetic. Because you cannot tell a story like Fawcett's without exploring how the quest becomes more than the goal, but about the journey itself, not only of the landscape, but also of the mind. Because the trek can have a profound effect on the traveler...as it did with T.E. Lawrence or Meriwether Lewis. What began for Fawcett as a way to gain acceptance transcended it beyond class, beyond family, beyond self...to the point where he became a man apart...unto himself. It is only appropriate...if unfortunate...that his last trip to find the lost city—one he took with his son—he never returned from...as if he disappeared into his own dream.

An incredible story, yes. A true story, as far as we have knowledge of.

But one could also say legendary, if it weren't for the mystery of the man at the center who lets life and love go by for a dream, thus making the story more..."proverbial." More cautionary. More universal. Do not lose your way. Do not lose your soul.

And in the end, the man and his goal became one. Fawcett's body was never found, nor has his lost city.

Fawcett in the jungle c. 1908

* Hunnam is much more appropriate for the role than the two who dropped out: Brad Pitt (whose Plan B Productions is behind the film) and Benedict Cumberbatch, who dropped out due to conflicts filming Dr. Strange) 

** I hear your arched eyebrows raise, history-buffs....