This book critically examines how movies that feature real or imagined explorers and expeditions creatively feature the geography of Latin America. It focuses on how locales are scripted into film plots and artistically depicted, and demonstrates that place is as important as any character in a film, especially in this genre.
Nineteen key films are analyzed. Some, like Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo, The Other Conquest, Embrace of the Serpent, and The Lost City of Z are based on the exploits of real explorers. Others are fictional, including Apocalypto, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Dora and the Lost City of Gold. The author also discusses the evolution of exploration-discovery films, including trends that will likely be found in forthcoming movies.
Table of Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments: A Personal Journey into Film
Introduction: A Geographers View of Latin America and Observations about
Filmmaking
One. Apocalypto: Exploration Before European Contact
Two. The Other Conquest: An Indigenous View of the Encounter
Three. Cabeza de Vaca: Exploration at the Margins of Empire
Four. Aguirre, the Wrath of God: Missteps in Sixteenth-Century Colonial
Exploration
Five. The Mission: Religious Expeditions in Eighteenth-Century South America
Six. Zama: Colonial Expansion and Its Discontents
Seven. Aire Libre: The Humanization of Scientific Exploration and Discovery
Eight. Walker: Adventurism and Anachronism in Central America
Nine. Fitzcarraldo: The Foreign Entrepreneurial Capitalist as Explorer
Ten. Green Mansions: Exploring the Geographical Dimensions of Fantasy
Eleven. The Lost City of Z: Obsession and Exploration
Twelve. Secret of the Incas: Romanticizing the American
Explorer-Archaeologist
Thirteen. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Orellanas
Revenge
Fourteen. Embrace of the Serpent: Explorations into Deeper Meaning
Fifteen. Anaconda: Cinematic Exploration of River-Spawned Horrors
Sixteen. Green Fire: The Prospector as Explorer-Discoverer
Seventeen. The Motorcycle Diaries: Exploration in Search of Reform
Eighteen. Nostalgia for the Light: The Filmmaker as Explorer of Memory
Nineteen. Dora and the Lost City of Gold: In Search of New Cultural
Frontiers
Conclusion: Reflections on the Changing Significance of Exploration-Discovery
Films
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
Over the last fifty years, geographer Richard Francaviglia (professor emeritus, University of Texas at Arlington and associated scholar, Willamette University) has studied varied places and published fourteen books about them. He lives in Salem, Oregon.
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