Jungle

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Greg McLean directs. Stefan Duscio behind the camera. Johnny Klimek scores. Sean Lahiff cuts. Produced in Australia, United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in English, German, Hebrew, Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Released 9 years ago.
• 2Dialogue crosses 4 languages: English, German, Hebrew, Spanish.
• 3International production across 3 countries: Australia, United Kingdom, United States of America.
• 4Directed by Greg McLean, shot by Stefan Duscio. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 5Original score by Johnny Klimek. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 6Editor Sean Lahiff shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 7Daniel Radcliffe and Alex Russell and Thomas Kretschmann carry the top of the cast.
• 8Marketing tagline: "Nature has only one law - Survival.".
• 9IMDB entry: tt3758172 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 10Classified under 18 themes, including "based on novel or book", "river", "hiking", "hallucination".
• 11Released under 13 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography

Stefan Duscio

Original score

Johnny Klimek

Editing

Sean Lahiff

Production design

Matthew Putland

Costume design

Vanessa Loh

Makeup / hair

Rick Findlater

VFX supervisor

Marty Pepper

Sound

Chris Goodes

Runtime

115 min · 1h 55m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Box office

$1,906,640

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

R

IMDB

Jungle (2017) ↗

Rotten Tomatoes

60% 🍅 Fresh

Metacritic

48/100

IMDB rating

6.7/10 · 70,092 votes

MPAA

R

Also by

Greg McLean

• 
  ICQ

  2001 · ★ 9.0
• 
  La Brea

  2021 · ★ 7.4
• 
  The Twelve

  2022 · ★ 7.2
• 
  Wolf Creek

  2016 · ★ 7.0
• 
  Scrublands

  2023 · ★ 6.9
• 
  Territory

  2024 · ★ 6.9

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

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Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Jungle - Official Trailer

  Trailer · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Gimly2018-01-05
  ★ 4/10

  Jungle is certainly not my worst film of 2017, but I think it might just be the most disappointing. I'm a massive fan of Greg McLean, and the trailer had me proper on board with Jungle. Unfortunately, the end result was something capable of capturing my interest only once, and for no longer than a couple of minutes. Final rating:★★ - Had some things that appeal to me, but a poor finished product.

  Read full review ↓
• Reno2018-02-04
  ★ 8/10

  Jungle, is not a place for humans anymore as thousands of years ago! A much better, in fact, one of the best biopic about the survival in the wilderness. It is an Australian film about a young Israeli named Yossi, who went for a trekking in the Bolivian jungle with three others, but had got lost and fought for survival. It's 1981, the rainy season is just a corner away, but the four went to find a lost Indian village. After everybody got separated, the remain story told from Yossi's perspective, how he faced the nature's challenges to keep alive and make safely to the human civilisation. The film was very good compared to what the trailer and teaser hinted out. Radcliffe is getting better with his every new film. With performance like this, surely everybody would accept him in the coming days. So we could see him in big projects, in big roles. Good writing and direction, but it was based on the biographical book of the same name. The film was entirely shot in Australia, but you can witness the real South American atmosphere. Something what bothered me was, Yossi an ex army man, so this kind of survival skills is taught in the army camps, yet he was scared and struggle like a normal person. Overall, it is a good film to go for it. 8/10

  Read full review ↓
• John Chard2019-08-17
  ★ 7/10

  The Yossi Ghinsberg Survival! Jungle is directed by Greg McLean and adapted to screenplay by Justin Monjo from the book written by Yossi Ghinsberg. It stars Daniel Radcliffe, Joel Jackson, Alex Russell and Thomas Kretschman. Music is by Johnny Klimek and cinematography by Stefan Duscio. Film is the retelling of real incidents when in 1981 Israeli adventure Yossi Ghinsberg entered deep into the Amazon Rainforest and found hell waiting for him. People keep doing it, these adventure types going into treacherous Mother Nature territory to explore and discover the untapped world - only to find misery, while some are never seen again. Greg McLean mixes adventure and horror perfectly, which when coming from the director of Wolf Creek and Rogue comes as no surprise. It's standard formula in narrative drive, man meets new friends in beautiful surrounds, it's all very jolly and daring, and off they go in search of wonderment. Of course, as is often the case, these stories can sometimes end in utter distress, Ghinsberg was a very lucky fellow to come out alive and tell his amazing story, which is in turn compelling and excellently performed by the cast. As problems begin to surface, the group dynamic begins to facture, with one particular character highly dubious in motives intent. The terrain gets steadily worse, then they got to eat of course, and as bodies begin to wane, decisions on a survival course of action take precedence. Then it's over to high peril for Ghinsberg who has to try and salvage body and mind in the hope that he might somehow escape his jungle nightmare. Once the pic turns its entire focus on Ghinsberg's solitude, things become a little repetitive and much of the chilling danger begins to ebb away. Yet we are willing him to survive, to stay hooked in as we grasp for a semblance of good news to come out of an otherwise dark tale. Clearly from Ghinsberg's perspective, the real man himself, there was a yearning to be a better man, for better or worse, but the film is a little out of focus for an in depth portrayal of Yossi, with this blend of survival horror and characterisation not quite working. That said though, this still comes as highly recommended viewing, as does further reading on the incidents featured here. For come the closing credits, as real people are shown in photos, and their actual fates written in type, you know there has been no titillation here. 7.5/10

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Screen Queensland

  AU

• 

  Screen Australia

  AU

• BA

  Babber Films

• 

  Cutting Edge Group

  US

Key crew

• First Assistant DirectorIan Kenny
• BookYossi Ghinsberg
• Prosthetic DesignerSteven Boyle
• ProducerMike Gabrawy
• EditorSean Lahiff
• ProducerDana Lustig
• Executive ProducerRandy Simon
• Set DecorationJustine Dunn
• ProducerGary Hamilton
• ProducerMark Lazarus
• Executive ProducerJeff Harrison
• Executive ProducerYing Ye
• Line ProducerYvonne Collins
• Associate ProducerJesica A. Andres
• ProducerTodd Fellman
• Executive ProducerYossi Ghinsberg
• CastingBen Parkinson
• Production DesignMatthew Putland
• ProducerGreg McLean
• Executive ProducerBerry Meyerowitz
• Art DirectionDiana Trujillo
• Sound Re-Recording MixerChris Goodes
• First Assistant EditorHayley Miro Browne
• Costume SupervisorCamila Olarte

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• based on novel or book
• river
• hiking
• hallucination
• bolivia
• forest
• amazon rainforest
• based on true story
• alone
• survival
• jungle
• raft
• drugs
• south america
• rainforest
• tense
• melodramatic
• bushmeat

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical (limited)2017-10-14R· Telluride Horror Show
• Digital2017-10-20R

Also known as

International titles

• 逃出亞馬遜TW
• Na SelvaBR
• ג'ונגלIL
• La JunglaES
• 정글KR
• JunglaAR
• DzsungelHU
• DżunglaPL
• Jungla: Taramul mortiiRO
• ДжунглиRU
• OrmanTR
• Jungle - Überleben ist allesDE
• Piégé dans la JungleCA