Poor Treatment Of A Serious Subject

When a director dedicates his career to his conscience instead of his pocketbook, he deserves praise. And so let us now praise John Boorman.

But when such a director takes a serious issue yet, for any number of reasons, never elevates his plot above the level of sloganeering, then he needs to be called on it.

And so let us call Boorman on his latest effort, the political drama “Beyond Rangoon.”

Boorman has long been a director whose work boasts visual power and the imprint of importance. In film after film, from “Deliverance” (1972) to “Excalibur” (1981), “Zardoz” (1974) to “The Emerald Forest” (1985), he consistently has splashed colors across the screen with ample skill while exploring issues that are several light years above the “Home Alone” level.

But he falters with “Beyond Rangoon.” Starring Patricia Arquette, the film tells the story of an American doctor named Laura Bowman who, in response to the senseless murder of her husband and young son, is taken on a trip through Southeast Aisa by her sister (Frances McDormand).

They arrive in Burma just as the country is about to blow apart. Demonstrators rebelling against the country’s military dictatorship are being shot down in the streets. Happening upon one such gathering, Laura is jolted - if only momentarily - from her emotional stupor to feel a kinship with the Burmese activists.

But then this is where screenwriters Alex Lasker and Bill Rubenstein begin to go wrong. During the night, Laura loses her passport. And when her fellow tourists, including her sister, are forced to leave without her, Laura is left hanging.

So while she waits for the embassy to issue her a new passport, she does what any sane person would do: She decides to go sightseeing.

In the busy streets of Rangoon, she just happens to meet a kindly tour guide (U Aung Ko) who, coincidence would have it, just happens to be a former university professor. He becomes her mentor; she becomes his physician.

Because he needs it when, after things turn particularly violent, their sightseeing becomes a flight to safety.

Their destination: the Thailand border.

As usual, Boorman is able to capture the visual splendor of his setting. The nameless Asian country in which the film was shot is as gardenlike as the Burmese army’s actions are beastly: Blood never looked so garish when spilled on green.

And there are moments of pure danger. You may cringe when Laura runs unescorted through the streets of Rangoon at night, and you may grimace with disbelief when she is taken care of by stranger after stranger. But you’ll likely wince when she is threatened by rape - and worse.

In terms of casting, Arquette seems to be an odd choice for Laura. So good in other films such as “Ethan Frome” and “True Romance,” Arquette doesn’t once come across as someone with the grit to endure medical school. Even in the scenes where she is called to be nearly catatonic, she seems somehow off - like, say, Judy Collins vainly searching mid-verse for the right key.

But she isn’t the real problem. That belongs to the storyline that Boorman follows, which simply depends too much on gimmickry.

An M-16 round, which likely would obliterate the entire shoulder of a human being, ends up causing a mere flesh wound - but, of course, it offers Laura a chance to learn how to doctor all over again during a totally fantastic riverside operation with a paring knife.

The same army officer who lectures Laura about breaking curfew just happens to be stationed outside the U.S. embassy, preventing her from gaining easy sanctuary.

The refugee camp that Laura ends up visiting is as clean, and homelike, as the restrooms at Disneyland.

And everyone, even in the hinterlands, just happens to speak perfect English.

So… enough. The massacres that occurred during the late 1980s in Burma received little publicity outside the country’s borders. They, and other crimes against humanity that occur around the globe virtually every day, deserve to be properly recognized and mourned.

Even so, they deserve better than “Beyond Rangoon.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: These 2 sidebars appeared with the story: 1. OTHER VIEWS Here’s what other critics say about “Beyond Rangoon”: Chris Hewitt/St. Paul Pioneer Press: I can’t tell you how tired I am of movies in which thousands of dark-skinned people are being slaughtered in a war-torn country, and we’re supposed to care about the one dippy white whiner who wandered in and can’t get out. “Beyond Rangoon” is the latest in this shopworn genre … Jay Boyar/Orlando Sentinel: Is it possible to make an action picture in which the violence isn’t glamorized, sensationalized or, well, cartoonized? Sure it is. … “Beyond Rangoon,” is, however, just that sort of film. Michael H. Price/Fort Worth Star-Telegram: From the backwoods horrors of “Deliverance” (1972) to the London under siege of “Hope and Glory” (1987), John Boorman has excelled at telling stories of survival against intimidating odds. But even the great directors hit a clunker now and again, and the new crisis thriller “Beyond Rangoon” is a clunker of the first order. Philip Wuntch/Dallas Morning News: Filmed in Malaysia, “Beyond Rangoon” is beautifully photographed - so striking, in fact, that the cinematography perversely draws attention to the film’s hollowness.

2. “Beyond Rangoon” ** Location: Magic Lantern and Newport Highway Cinemas Credits: Directed by John Boorman, starring Patricia Arquette, U Aung Ko, Frances McDormand and Spalding Grey. Rated: R. Running time: 1:39