The movies of Peter Weir (12 titles)

The Cars That Ate Paris

Weir's first feature film is a bizarre macabre film and unlike anything he has made since, although there are hints of his now trademark style just underneath the surface! Part black comedy, part horror, it's a tale about a small town community who prey on passers by causing them to crash their cars so that they can salvage the wrecks. The film is full of weird and wonderful characters and the climax is suitably crazy and violent.

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• The Cars That Ate Paris on DVD (1974)
  Starring: John Meillon,  Terry Camilleri,  Kevin Miles
  Director: Peter Weir
  Certificate:
  Paris townsfolk are determined to make a killing in the spare auto parts business, even if it means forcing unsuspecting travellers off a deadly cliff. Most drivers are dying to help them out, and those who don't wind up as living guinea pigs in grisly brain experiments.
  
  Rate this: 51% from 363 members

Picnic At Hanging Rock

This beautiful and haunting film leaves you genuinely stirred by its mystery. It was the film that introduced me to Weir, it had such an impact on me when I first saw it many years ago and it still has the power to move and fascinate me! Based on the novel by Joan Lindsay Weir imbues the film with a surreal almost dream-like quality, with a haunting music score and spectacular cinematography, it features several spine-tingling moments. Hanging Rock itself has a malevolent presence in the film, particularly the opening credit sequence where it is slowly revealed through mist like an evil ancient force of nature. The film is more ambiguous than Lindsay's novel about what really happened to the girls on the rock and it's better for it, refusing to provide the audience with an explanation, leaving it completely open to interpretation.

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• Picnic At Hanging Rock on DVD (1975)
  Starring: Rachel Roberts,  Dominic Guard,  Helen Morse
  Director: Peter Weir
  Certificate:
  Situated somewhere between supernatural horror and lush Victorian melodrama, director Peter Weir's lyrical, enigmatic masterpiece is an imaginative tease. The setting is a proper turn-of-the century Australian boarding school for girls, a suffocating institution built on strict moral codes, ..read more »
  
  Rate this: 65% from 2,497 members

The Last Wave

NOTE - this is not Peter Weir's film of the same name, which unfortunately isn't available on Region 2 DVD. The Last Wave is a genuinely eerie apocalyptic thriller imbued with Aboriginal spiritualism and symbolism and is probably Weir's darkest film to date. Chamberlain gives one of his better performances portraying a very pragmatic lawyer called to defend a group of Aborigines charged with a tribal killing. During his involvement with the case he begins to have unusual and portentous dreams signifying that there is much more going on than he realised. This takes place against a backdrop of extreme weather events such as black rain, torrential downpours and golf-ball sized hail. Weir creates an extremely foreboding ominous atmosphere which builds to almost unbearable levels during the final scenes. Like all of Weir's films the music score is of particular note, this time featuring lots of eerie low rumbling didgeridoos.

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• The Last Wave
  Certificate:
  A rare glimpse into the world of Long-Boarding with demos and stunt lines from the waves of Malibu.
  
  Rate this: 43% from 6 members

Gallipoli

Weir's World War I masterpiece tells the story of the loss of innocence and the futility of war against the backdrop of the battle at Gallipoli in Turkey where thousands of Australian soldiers lost their lives. Weir faithfully portrays Australian life in the 1910s and follows two central characters played by Mel Gibson and Mark Lee as they become mates and join the war together under the belief that it will be a grand exciting adventure fighting for their country. However they soon experience the true realities of war when they are posted to Gallipoli. Weir focuses more on the characters rather than the warfare allowing the audience to become much more involved with them so that when they are eventually caught up in the conflict it is much more affecting. And as he has done so before and many times since Weir ends the film unconventionally at a point where you don't really expect it which makes it stick in your mind long after the credits have rolled.

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• Gallipoli on DVD (1982)
  Starring: Mel Gibson,  Mark Lee,  Bill Hunter
  Director: Peter Weir
  Certificate:
  A profound study of the friendship of two young Australian men caught up in the murderous First World War. Set on the Turkish front in 1915, this film effectively combines history and drama.
  
  Rate this: 68% from 3,442 members

The Year Of Living Dangerously

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• The Year Of Living Dangerously
  Starring: Linda Hunt,  Mel Gibson
  Director: Peter Weir
  Certificate:
  
  
  Rate this: 66% from 105 members

Witness

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• Witness on DVD (1985)
  Starring: Harrison Ford,  Kelly McGillis,  Danny Glover
  Director: Peter Weir
  Certificate:
  Watch now: £2.49
  After an Amish boy witnesses police corruption in a Philadelphia train station, a hardened cop takes him and his widowed mother back to their quiet Amish community. There, hiding from his crooked superiors, he is witness to a simpler and seductively innocent world. Academy Award Nominations: 8, ..read more »
  
  Rate this: 71% from 7,183 members

The Mosquito Coast

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• The Mosquito Coast on DVD (1986)
  Starring: Helen Mirren,  Conrad Roberts,  Andre Gregory
  Director: Peter Weir
  Certificate:
  Based on the novel by Paul Theroux, an inventor disillusioned by the growing bureaucracy of America uproots his family to build a utopia in the jungle of Central America. There he finds new threats to his freedom and peace of mind, with tragic results.
  
  Rate this: 64% from 1,603 member

Dead Poets Society

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• Dead Poets Society on DVD (1989)
  Starring: Robin Williams,  Ethan Hawke,  Robert Sean Leonard
  Director: Peter Weir
  Certificate:
  John Keating (Robin Williams) is an eccentric teacher who returns to teach in his childhood school. The message he gives to his students is to experience life for themselves. Consequently, several pupils reintroduce 'Dead Poets Society' of which Keating had been a past member. Secret, late night ..read more »
  
  Rate this: 72% from 13,060 members

Green Card

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• Green Card on DVD (1990)
  Starring: Gerard Depardieu,  Andie MacDowell,  Robert Prosky
  Director: Peter Weir
  Certificate:
  When two strangers agree to a marriage of convenience, they think it's going to be hassle-free. But before they know it, the two opposites are faced with more difficulties than most married couples could ever imagine. And worst yet, they may just be falling in love. Academy Award Nominations: Best (..read more »
  
  Rate this: 59% from 7,292 members

Fearless

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• Fearless (1993)
  Starring: Jeff Bridges,  Isabella Rossellini
  Director: Peter Weir
  Certificate:
  A man's personality is dramatically changed after surviving a major airline crash
  
  Rate this: 67% from 225 members

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