Spalding Gray's
SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA
A film review by Steve Upstill
Copyright 1987 Steve Upstill
SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA is an hour and a half of a man talking. Spalding Gray spent several weeks in Thailand acting a small part in the film THE KILLING FIELDS, and this film (a record of his performance before a live audience, in a perfomance gallery in New York) is a monologue about events and observations surrounding the filming, including the decimation of Cambodia, the nature of Hollywood reality, the fleshly pleasures of Bangkok, the Gulf of Siam, drugs, American foreign policy, relationships and himself, Spalding Gray. You can imagine, this is a film with scope.
It was directed by Jonathon Demme, who, after the Talking Heads concert film STOP MAKING SENSE and the Yuppie comedy SOMETHING WILD, is rapidly becoming a hero among modern directors. His presence in the film is firm but subdued, providing emphasis and enhancing mood with sound effects, camera angles, cross-cutting, editing and Laurie Anderson's understated music. The star, of course, is Gray, and he makes the time go by lickety-split. He is of that rare breed of storytellers who command the totality of your attention and imagination while speaking, and he leaves you with something when you go out.
This film is valuable for several reasons. First, as a completely successful exercise in minimalism: you're never less than interested in what he's saying, and often deeply moved. Second, as a political lesson, bringing home the real horror of the rule of Pol Pot (who now lurks behind the border of Thailand waiting to take over again with the support of the United States). Third, as grist for the intellectual mill. Gray is really talking about movie reality vs. flesh-and-blood reality, and how they get all mushed up. Fourth, he is an inspiration. Seeing the world through his eyes is a challenge, to observe and absorb in the same probing, synthetic way. Finally, this film is a document of an archetype: Gray is pounded by what he experiences, but he never loses his very '80s irony and detachment towards it.
I liked SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA a lot. It's not just good, it's good for you.
Steve Upstill
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