"The Lost City of Z" British Col Fawcett's Fascinating with Finding a Lost Civilization in the Amazon Jungle

The lush & captivating film "The Lost City of Z" is based on the Non-F book by David Grann (2009.) Col Fawcett ( Charlie Hunman, a handsome & winning actor) is a military surveyor given the assignment for mapping territories along the Amazon.  The inferred goal by the British Geoglogical Soc at the turn of the 20thC was to define the borders between Bolivia & Brazil.  Regardless, the ultimate goal was to advance headway with British Imperialism.  The 1st excursion launched in 1906 was a lush & languorous journey down the Amazon.  The crew included Robert Pattinson in a refined role as Henry Costin.  The explorers were meet with various perils; spear throwing attacks by indigenous natives, limited rations & diseases.  Still, the film is not explicitly an exploration film fraught with dangers.  It's strengths came from the unflagging quest to uncover the mysteries of hidden ancient civilizations in unchartered jungles.  Fawcett's challenges also came from his many sceptics in Britain.  The pompous British aristocracy couldn't conceive of a civilized society in the jungle that predated their history.  Sienna Miller plays Fawcett's wife; a woman ahead of her time.  She argued to accompany her husband on his lengthy & arduous explorations but was forbidden.  They had an unmitigated love for each other.  Miller was self-sacrificing & supportive but deflated by the refusal to be included for her own safety & to care for the children.  This ambitious film traveled through uncharted territories, showing the natural beauty of the land, the river, the indigenous people and the numerous hazardous plights of the crew on their makeshift rafts.   Upon Fawcett's 1st return he & his companions were called to serve in WWI.  The unflailing courage of Col Fawcett & his troops on the battlefields was admirable amidst the barbarity of warfare.  The "civilized" scenes within the British Geological Soc (BGS) show the British gentlemen to be contemptuous.  James Murray, a member of the (BGS) & former explorer of the antarctic coerced Fawcett to include him on his 2nd venture.  Murray's selfishness almost derailed the rest of the crew.  He was disbanded for his safety & that of the crew but  sought vengeance upon Fawcett's return.  The 3rd attempt, Fawcett brought along his grown son.  The storyline of the resentful son for leaving his family who then becomes a devout ally of his father was the only cliched contrivance in a very enrapturing film.   It's at its most magnificient on the plodding sojourn down the Amazon & traipsing through the jungle.  The movie directed by James Gray "The Immigrant" ('13) is an engrossing geographical film & anthropological scrutiny of cultivated & tribal societies.  The cinematography is exceptional.  This cerebral film questions the unavoidable  destruction resulting from "discovery."