Your Film Professor

This feature is the first in a series of features built around a key (film) focus:

Remakes/Reboots/Sequels That Need to Happen: Lost Horizon (1937, Frank Capra)

In the film Lost Horizon, one of Hollywood’s few stabs at depicting a “utopia,” this line above is conspicuously placed here, with a background full of art work, a key ingredient for a utopian space and sensibility.

To my mind, Lost Horizon (1937, Frank Capra) is the film that needs to be remade! We are awash in a sea of cinematic dystopias, but utopias? As far as I know, there have been very few cinematic utopias made, especially in recent years. Of course, that makes sense since utopias probably aren’t thought of as dramatic (sensationalistic) enough, and of course dystopias better reflect our dark times. One of the very few true cinematic utopias, Lost Horizon is a precious film to me, so unique in its attempt to create a pure vision of a hopeful potential way of being for humanity. Lost Horizon depicts the hidden, legendary Shangri-La, a “paradise” on Earth. In the film, we get a utopian vision where there is no slave (wage) labor, no crime (“there can be no crime where there is a sufficiency of everything”), no religion, no money/greed (“we do not buy or sell or seek personal fortunes because….well, because there is no uncertain future here for which to accumulate it”), no pollution (creating a climate that enhances health), no war or violence of any kind, no “lusts for power,” and no stress or anxiety. Instead, we get a civilization that stresses the arts and creative pursuits (“beauty and culture”), intellectual pursuits and craftsmanship, “brotherly love” and “kindness” to each other, a sustainable lifestyle, a life built on egalitarian and pastoral and altruistic principles. We see through several examples (Mr. Lovett wants to teach again and Barnard is going to create plumbing that will modernize the community) that the emphasis is not on a system that actually creates a state of alienation, as our present toxic ideologies (capitalism, consumerism, patriarchy, heteronormativity, religions, etc.) do, but one that works for the needs and (mental) health of humanity, including giving people meaning, direction, and purpose in life, the absolute keys to happiness and contentment.

Two moments in the film especially hit home the power of this utopian sensibility: As we soon discover from Chang (H.B. Warner), Shangri-La has an abundance of gold, but instead of using it for power and mercenary gain, the people of Shangri-La use it for an “exchange of ideas,” e.g., books, instruments, sculptures, music, and so on. In this way, the film radically emphasizes that gold is just a rock that we have arbitrarily given value to, and that the real value in life comes from that which gives us intellectual and emotional sustenance, “ideas,” knowledge pursuits, creativity, art appreciation. The second moment comes when Robert (Ronald Colman) tells Sondra (Jane Wyatt) that he has this inexplicable feeling that he has been to Shangri-La before, to which Sondra replies: “Perhaps because you’ve always been a part of Shangri-La without knowing it…. Just as I’m sure there’s a wish for Shangri-La in everyone’s heart. I’ve never seen the outside world but I understand there are millions and millions of people who are supposed to be mean and greedy. And I just know that secretly they are all hoping to find a garden spot where there is peace, security…where there’s beauty and comfort…where they wouldn’t have to be mean and greedy.” This sentiment by Sondra is a simple sentiment but one loaded with resonance. I believe that people do long for such a place, which we see with people’s escape to decompression destinations (some people wanting out of the “rat race” and actually withdrawing to a rural setting) and their escape into nostalgic TV shows that depict a kind of utopian sensibility, however “unrealistic” and problematic such shows are (e.g., think The Andy Griffith Show). That people don’t literally think about utopia anymore is I think a testament to just how far we are from such a magical way of being. Of course, perhaps such a way of being is indeed an impossibility but why we have given up on at least striving for such a way of being is also telling of just how cynical and pessimistic and despairing we have become.

Now, of course, Lost Horizon is dated and in this, it is highly problematic in many ways: The film does not address race issues or gender issues or LBGTQ issues and in fact suggests a white supremacist (colonialist) center — most of the key “leaders” are “white” — and promotes a Eurocentric individualist sensibility.  But, then, that is why we need to update the film, to bring in a modern progressive sensibility. And, again — I just can’t emphasize this enough — I believe that we need more utopias, as a way of giving people representations/visions of what could be, perhaps even injecting into a cynical people the possibility of thinking about utopia again. If done right – if done for the right reasons, not to simply entertain but as a political-philosophical vision – an updating of the utopian vision in a Lost Horizon remake could be a hugely important contribution to advancing our way of being towards such a vision, towards…utopia.

{My wish list for who would direct this oh-so important remake? If you are in contact with them, pass this idea on to Ken Loach and the Dardenne brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne!}