A movie review written by: Lee Sonogan
1hr55mins(2017) Drama, thriller, biography
Karl: This is the last frontier on earth. Still alive, still wild. Not for long. We don’t like wild. We don’t like untamed. We’re obsessed with control. So, we ruin the whole planet, and pride ourselves for creating stupid national parks with stupid rangers in stupid hats to protect what’s already gone. Why? Cause we’re scared. The jungle shows us what we really are. We’re nothing. We’re a joke. God fucked up.
This movie is about a group of friends joining a guide for a trek into the Bolivian jungle, searching for an Indian village. The men soon realize that the jungle is a difficult place to be. Based on the true survival events that Yossi Ghinsberg experienced in the early 1980s. Also based on the memoir: “Jungle: A Harrowing True Story of Survival” written by Yossi Ghinsberg. This movie made $850,317 at the box office.
In order to portray this extreme form of starvation accurately on-screen, the starring actor of the movie, Daniel Radcliffe starved himself in real life too. While speaking to The Telegraph, Radcliffe revealed that he survived on a diet of one chicken breast and one protein bar per day, supplemented by copious amounts of coffee and cigarettes. It was all worth it after seeing what he looked like at the end of the movie.
These scenes were left out of the movie:
- When Ghinsberg woke up covered in leeches.
- When Ghinsberg slipped down a slope and impaled his rectum on a broken stick.
- When Ghinsberg woke up to find a swarm of termites eating patches of his skin where he’d urinated on himself.
The start of the movie goes quickly and then starts to build up when they enter the forest. Then things turn for the worse. Daniel Radcliffe’s character ends up getting lost for weeks. His commitment to the character is shown. Acting is strong when he starts to lose his mind. The ending is a bit typical and not original. I recommend this movie to people who like stories based on real life. And do not mind the lengthy time of the movie.
PS – Warning! Shots in this film will be not pleasant to look at!
6.6/10
Yossi Ghinsberg: I told my parents I’d be back in a year, but I don’t think I’m ever going back.
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