Swimming to Cambodia (1987)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Jonathan Demme

Writer:

Spalding Gray (writer)

Release Date:

April 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Spalding Gray tells about his participation in the film, "The Killing Fields" & the background story about the troubles of Cambodia.

Plot Keywords:

Cambodia | One Man Show | Vietnam War | Reference To Rousseau | Semi Autobiographical

Awards:

5 nominations

Cast

Spalding Gray	...	Himself
Sam Waterston	...	Additional cast from 'The Killing Fields' (archive footage)
Ira Wheeler	...	Additional cast from 'The Killing Fields' (archive footage)

Also Known As:

Cambodia (Australia)
Spalding Gray's Swimming to Cambodia (USA) (complete title)
Declarações de Spalding Gray (Brazil) [pt]

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (TVC)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | USA:R

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

The Swimming Company

Quotes:

Spalding Gray: Then out comes the banana! And she takes a few lame shots like the Russian rockets that are going to sputter and pop and land in our cornfields. And for the finally she aims her vagina down the main isle like a great cannon, loads it with a very ripe banana and thoomp fires it! Almost hits me in the eye, almost hits an Australian housewife in the head, hits the back wall and sticks! And slowly it inches its way down until it, pomp, lands... and is devoured instantly by an army of giant roaches.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Will & Grace: Swimming from Cambodia (#6.8)" (2003)

The best monologue ever captured on film

Spalding Gray calls his version of performance art a "talking cure." The facts, opinions, insights, fears and hopes drawn from the epiphany he received from his experiences in the Asian Rim shooting "The Killing Fields" and his education of the plight of the Cambodian people circa early to mid seventies is overwhelming. This is a story of the human condition as told by a master. He is Dr. Frankenstein creating the monster that is ourselves through a tapestry of wordplay that never seems overwrought or cumbersome in the slightest. This movie is one man reading from a standard notebook, behind a plain table accented with a glass of water and shadowed by a ceiling fan and selection of maps. Demme's use of lighting and Laurie Anderson's soundtrack provide all the dramatic power needed to sustain Gray as he literally helps us all better understand life, humanity and our responsibilities to each other while we spend time on this planet. Intense, funny, heartbreaking and invigorating; this movie inspires and changes all who watch it.