Well my fellow Agamtes, my partner Sue and I went and saw the much talked about $150 million dollar Baz Luhrmann film Australia on Saturday night.
The Australian outback scenery is superb, the cattle drive, the ‘rush’ and loading the ship in Darwin scenes are worth going to see.
Sue and I both agree that Nicole Kidman’s performance carries the movie.
Having said that, the movie plot is poor and predictable. It reminded me of 100’s of those truly bad American Westerns that were so popular when I was a kid in the 1970’s.
What is really offensive is the depiction of white Australians as land of colonial white racists. The movie is really Luhrmann’s take on the ’stolen generation’ and is based on urban myth rather than historical fact.
I might add that the Aboriginal actors in the movie are extremely good. David Gulpilil [pictured above] as King George is terrific. David has said in the press that this is his last movie and he can be well pleased with his performance.
In particular 11 year old Brandon Walters as the child Nulla is a star uncovered. This kid can really act. He has a bright future in the industry and i’m looking forward to seeing him in his next movie.
However I take offense at Luhrmann’s ’stolen generation’ theme throughout the movie.
I am pleased that the movie is an Epic flop in overseas cinema’s. The less overseas people that see it, the better in my book.
If Luhrmann is that passionate about the plight of the ’stolen generation’, he would have done everyone a favour by taking the $150 million spent on the movie and used it to improve the lot of Aboriginal people.
While Australia earned $1,307,853 on its first day of release, Wednesday, its distributor, Twentieth Century Fox, was unwilling to provide updated figures before today.
Anecdotally at least, the film is not filling cinemas, with several art-house cinemas reporting less than stellar business and an antipathy among younger audience members to the film’s mass-marketing and media campaign.
Is it worth seeing? It is for the cinematography, but I would not swim a swollen creek to get to it.
Have you seen it? What did you think of it?
I think that the film is great . I reckon Nulla makes the movie . I also feel that Baz’z interpretation of the relationship between Whites and balcks in the movie is very accurate. We were a terribly racist nation in this period and there is a large element that still walks among us. Lets not forget the White Australia Policy that we once had.
I think that Baz has done a great job at highlighting the amazing skills and the importance of aboriginals in the development of Australia’s outback without being patronising. Spending another $150 000 000 on the black fellers would be another huge waste of money. Believe me i have been and seen and lived among them. How long will it take white people to realise they are there own race and white solutions wont fix black problems.
Well Done Baz on a great film !!
I might go for the scenery because some of it has been filmed on “Carlton Hill” where my son has been working - so I better.