Before she became well-known for her role on the TV series Medium, Patricia Arquette
starred in director John Boorman’s Beyond Rangoon. Taking place in 1988, Arquette
appears here as recently widowed Laura Bowman, a doctor who lost both her husband
and young son in a savage home invasion. Her sister Andie (Frances McDormand, of Fargo fame) takes Laura on a trip to the far east, with one of their stops being Burma, to see if exposure to the Buddhist way of life helps to ease Laura’s pain. But when she loses her passport Laura is forced to remain behind in Burma while her tour group, along with Andie, are forced to go on without her.
While she waits for her passport to be finished at the American embassy, Laura decides to go sightseeing off the beaten track with a local guide, an amiable older gentleman well-played by Aung Ho. But Laura soon gets more excitement than she bargains for when the Burmese military government abruptly cracks down on the growing demonstrations calling for democracy. Boorman sets Laura’s story against the backdrop of the real-life period of political unrest within Burma that exploded in 1988. But thanks to the repressive Burmese regime’s ban on all foreign journalists, this was a brutal crackdown against dissidents that largely went unreported.
Beyond Rangoon is a superb action/adventure film that’s basically one long chase that breathlessly shows Laura’s frantic efforts to stay one step ahead of the pursuing Burmese troops. Boorman has created an enthralling ride, here. And Arquette is extremely sympathetic from the get-go. You’re rooting for her, as well as the fleeing dissidents, to succeed in their quest to simply leave the country, nothing more. By using a fictional story set against the Burmese 1988 crackdown, Boorman also gives his film a strong moral core that seeks to bring this heroic story to light.
And the Burmese government became a force to be reckoned with in real life, as well. The ‘making of’ documentary on the DVD tells of how the Burmese government, upon hearing about this film, had tried to put pressure on the Malaysian government to kick Boorman and his cast and crew out of the country. Thankfully, Beyond Rangoon went on to film in Malaysia regardless. And we wound up with one of the best films directed by Boorman, a high point in Arquette’s career, and an enthralling adventure story that also serves as an eye-opening experience for the viewer that shows the harsh struggle and valiant bravery that went on in Burma back in August of 1988.
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