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PAGE 12, DECEMBER 8, 2008, THE ISLANDER
“Goin* to
the Show...”
with...
Roland
Willis
AUSTRALIA
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Bryan Brown,
Brandon Walters & David Wenham
Directed by Baz Luhrmann
Written by Stuart Beattie, Baz Luhrmann, Ronald Harwood
& Richard Flanagan
Based on a story by Baz Luhrmann
Running Time: 2 hour, 55 minutes
Rated PG-13 - Violence and profanity
This new movie, Australia, writ
ten and directed by the accomplished
Australian, Baz Luhrmann (Moulin
Rouge, Strictly Ballroom, Romeo +
Juliet), and featuring an Australian
cast, is, as its name suggests, clearly
meant to be an epic defining Austra
lia in much the same way as Giant
defined Texas.
Certainly at almost three hours it
has epic proportions but since it is
set around the northwestern town of
Darwin it hardly covers the country
and the time frame around the start
of WWII doesn’t allow for an historic
perspective.
Instead it is a pretty standard
American-style western involving a
helpless female rancher defending
her property against a land-grabbing
big rancher and his evil gang.
Of course, being in Australia, it
is all rather civilized with fist fights
replacing gunfights.
The movie starts in England
where we find Lady Sarah Ashley
(Nicole Kidman) at her manor house
bemoaning the decline in her wealth.
Her husband is off at their huge cat
tle ranch in the Australian outback.
Surely they could sell the cattle or
the ranch and finance her English
life style.
So, off she goes to prod the old
dear into action.
She arrives at Darwin with a boat
load of luggage and goes charging
around this frontier town, complete
with parasol, to find the drover (Hugh
Jackman) that her husband has sent
to escort her out to the ranch.
Of course, to our complete sur
prise, the drover is in the middle of
a barroom brawl. What better way to
introduce some color into their first
meeting.
He is everything she expected of a
vulgar colonial and we might think
Movie Night
at the Casino
mons Library League
Nowhere in Africa
Wednesday,
December 17
7 p.m.
Casino Theater
"Nowhere in Africa." Germany, 2001,
directed by Caroline Link. Winner of the Academy
Award's Best Foreign Film in2002, thisisthestory
of a Jewish family in Germany who emigrate
short before WWII. They move to Kenya to start
running a farm, but not all members of the
family come to an accommodation with their
new life. Shortly after their departure, things are
changing in Germany very quickly, and a turning
back seems impossible. So everyone has to adjust
to a new life in a new continent. In German with
Fnglish subtitles; 141 minutes; Rated R.
Movies are free, but contributions are appreciated.
so too if we could understand his
Australian drawl.
A truck is loaded with her trunks
and off they go into the boondocks to
find the ranch, accompanied by his
faithful aborigine pal.
Arriving at the ranch she finds
that her poor husband has just been
killed. Her foreman, Neil Fletcher
(David Wenham) tells her that her
husband was killed by a spear thrown
by an aborigine witch doctor called
King George who wields his magic
from a nearby mesa.
Sarah then befriends an aborigine
boy, Nullah (Brandon Walters), King
George’s grandson, who informs her
that Fletcher has been stealing her
cattle.
Fletcher is actually working for
the cattle baron King Carney (Bryan
Brown) who wants her land and
cattle. The war is just starting and
Carney could make a fortune if he
could acquire the exclusive contract
to supply the Australian army with
beef.
Only Sarah stands in her way.
She fires Fletcher and discovers
Carney’s plan from her drunken
accountant. Now she is determined to
stand up to Carney, get her remain
ing cattle to Darwin and destroy
Carney’s plan.
The problem is that Fletcher has
taken all his men with him and she
has to turn to the drover and assort
ed aborigines to drive her cattle to
market.
Now the movie turns into a classic
cattle-drive film as in Red River and
Lonesome Dove.
Nullah rides well and completes
the team.
King George leads the way across
the barren featureless landscape
using the song-guide passed down to
him from his ancestors.
Of course, Fletcher and his bunch
do all they can to disrupt the drive.
Nullah, as an aborigine boy, is on
the run from the authorities as he
doesn’t want to become one of the
Stolen Generation.
In a disgraceful part of Australian
history, the Aborigines’ Protection
Board from 1869 to 1969 separated
aborigine children from their par
ents and shipped them across the
continent to be raised and civilized
by good Christian ministers in their
prison schools.
These children became known as
the Stolen Generation. The Board
was finally dismantled in 1973 and
the Australian government has now
formally apologized for this shameful
policy.
There is a wonderful 2002 movie
called Rabbit-Proof Fence which is
based upon the book, Follow the
Rabbit-Proof Fence' by Doris Pilking-
ton Garimara about two aborigine
girls who break out of a resettlement
camp and walk 1500 miles across
Australia to get back to their family.
This policy and Nullah’s predica
ment are the only elements that
make Australia interesting.
The performance of the charis
matic mixed-race Australian actor
Brandon Walters, who plays Nullah,
brightens this long, mediocre saga.
My rating is C. □
The authorized documentary about the life of legendary
UGA football coach and athletic director Vince Dooley.
Available at www.VinceDooleyDVD.com