I saw this film today with my family. We are all Australian and live in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. When I go to movies I try and appreciate the movie for what it is, not putting my own prejudice or expectation on the film. After all, who pays for a movie and then purposefully tries to not enjoy it?
Let me give you a quick summary of what happens at the start of Australia without giving away any major spoilers:
This movie starts out like a farce/fantasy. You have this ridiculous, over-the-top characiture of the English aristocrat and the Aussie Drover. There is a pub-brawl, some shots of the wildlife and scenery worthy of a Tourism Australia commercial, a bumbling drunk and a stereotyped bad guy.
So we chuckled away at the stupid cliché's and thought "who cares, this is just a bit of fun. No Australians are actually like this." Then Lurhman sets up the theme of the oppression of the aboriginals and introduces a mystical dream-time theme via two key characters; young Nullah and his grandfather King George. Very politically correct but by this stage we started to think, "ok, this movie is recognizing some terrible injustices that occurred at that time. Good on it." Then the movie morphs into Silverado meets The Man from Snowy River as the team of unlikely heroes attempt to drove a massive herd of cattle to Darwin in order to fulfill a crucial army contract. We all laughed when one of the characters was stampeded by a herd of raging bulls. "Someone had to die and he was the only character expendable to the story". It was so predictable and I was making a conscious effort not to predict what was going to happened next.
By this stage we're about halfway through and I could go on but my point is this: The movie keeps changing gears between Spaghetti Western/Clichéd Farce and Serious/mystical/political drama about the oppression of the aboriginal culture. It's like getting halfway through The Producers only to find as soon as you introduce the Nazi character the film turns into Schindler's List.
It's a shame. A real shame. Most bits of the sprawling plot seemed to work well by themselves but they simply don't mesh together thematically or stylistically. My mum noted in stitches as we walked back to the car, "It was good but they just needed to cut most of it out." Like most people have noted this movie covers its flaws by being so epic, sweeping and melodramatic. But therein lies the problem. It's impossible to take this film seriously because its like a schmaltzy fantasy trying so desperately to be relevant and make a statement about the exploitation of aboriginals. Coversely you could approach this film thinking you're going to see Rabbit Proof Fence only to find it descend into a silly, melodramatic farce.
It seems my theory of putting myself in the correct mindset for a film failed completely. The gear changes in this movie are so very jarring I had to approach it from a different point of view every 15-minutes. As a consequence Australia can't cover its flaws sufficiently. What you end up with is silly, melodramatic, inconsistent and one-dimensional trash.
If you're not from Australia and would like to see a film that reflects our heritage and national identity try Picnic at Hanging Rock, Breaker Morant or Gallipoli.
Let me give you a quick summary of what happens at the start of Australia without giving away any major spoilers:
This movie starts out like a farce/fantasy. You have this ridiculous, over-the-top characiture of the English aristocrat and the Aussie Drover. There is a pub-brawl, some shots of the wildlife and scenery worthy of a Tourism Australia commercial, a bumbling drunk and a stereotyped bad guy.
So we chuckled away at the stupid cliché's and thought "who cares, this is just a bit of fun. No Australians are actually like this." Then Lurhman sets up the theme of the oppression of the aboriginals and introduces a mystical dream-time theme via two key characters; young Nullah and his grandfather King George. Very politically correct but by this stage we started to think, "ok, this movie is recognizing some terrible injustices that occurred at that time. Good on it." Then the movie morphs into Silverado meets The Man from Snowy River as the team of unlikely heroes attempt to drove a massive herd of cattle to Darwin in order to fulfill a crucial army contract. We all laughed when one of the characters was stampeded by a herd of raging bulls. "Someone had to die and he was the only character expendable to the story". It was so predictable and I was making a conscious effort not to predict what was going to happened next.
By this stage we're about halfway through and I could go on but my point is this: The movie keeps changing gears between Spaghetti Western/Clichéd Farce and Serious/mystical/political drama about the oppression of the aboriginal culture. It's like getting halfway through The Producers only to find as soon as you introduce the Nazi character the film turns into Schindler's List.
It's a shame. A real shame. Most bits of the sprawling plot seemed to work well by themselves but they simply don't mesh together thematically or stylistically. My mum noted in stitches as we walked back to the car, "It was good but they just needed to cut most of it out." Like most people have noted this movie covers its flaws by being so epic, sweeping and melodramatic. But therein lies the problem. It's impossible to take this film seriously because its like a schmaltzy fantasy trying so desperately to be relevant and make a statement about the exploitation of aboriginals. Coversely you could approach this film thinking you're going to see Rabbit Proof Fence only to find it descend into a silly, melodramatic farce.
It seems my theory of putting myself in the correct mindset for a film failed completely. The gear changes in this movie are so very jarring I had to approach it from a different point of view every 15-minutes. As a consequence Australia can't cover its flaws sufficiently. What you end up with is silly, melodramatic, inconsistent and one-dimensional trash.
If you're not from Australia and would like to see a film that reflects our heritage and national identity try Picnic at Hanging Rock, Breaker Morant or Gallipoli.
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