Review of The Spiral Road

Here is a very impressive movie from the time of Rock Hudson's supremacy. Set in the 1930s in the Dutch East Indies during the twilight of colonialism,it tells of a young,arrogant,ambitious doctor(Mr Hudson) going up country to write - up the work of a Schweitzer - like figure who has dedicated his life to the welfare of the natives (if I may such a term).He is played by the redoubtable Mr Burl Ives. This Conradian plot may be the basis of the film,but "The Spiral Road",like "Heart of darkness",is about a man's journey to find himself. Mr Hudson,too often regarded as a pretty boy lightweight steps up to the plate and boldly delivers a considerable performance that should have made his detractors eat their words but,sadly,they were not able to see a career for him beyond his light romantic lead work with Miss Doris Day. This is not an easy movie for 21st century sensibilities to whom it might seem at worst racist or at best terribly patronising,but the appalling attitudes were correct for the time when the writ of the white Europeans extended over nations far,far away.It is perhaps hard to see now,but up to and beyond the second world war before Europe self - destructed,its natives considered that they were in fact improving the lot of the peoples they colonised and had some sort of paternal responsibility for them.The Dutch and in particular the Belgians were robust to say the least in their attempts to maintain the status quo. So much so that any good work done by their humanitarians has been balanced against the bad and found to be very much wanting. By 1962 the times were changing and Robert Mulligan's movie is hardly adulatory towards the settlers,who are regarded with a jaundiced eye,rather as a species whose time is numbered.Macmillan's "Winds of Change" were coming even to the Dutch East Indies.