Australia

Baz Luhrmann, 2008

Quite simply, Baz Luhrmann’s Australia is the sort of movie they just don’t make anymore and not exactly the film I expected from Luhrmann. Whereas Moulin Rouge, Luhrmann’s previous picture and a personal favorite, was a postmodern masterpiece of the likes of which we hadn’t seen before, Australia is, in many way, precisely and specifically something we’ve seen before. That is not to say the film isn’t good or, indeed, not postmodern. In truth, it’s both of those, but it is also a very different movie from Moulin Rouge. Audiences who were shocked or confused by the frantic energy of Moulin Rouge will enjoy the slower pace and familiar plot of Australia.

Australia, you see, is a cattle drive epic that has much more in common with sprawling American westerns than anything else. Nicole Kidman is Lady Sarah Ashley, a member of the British upper crust who has journeyed to 1940s Australia to assist her husband in selling a failing cattle ranch set up amidst Australia’s Outback. When she arrives, however, she finds her husband already dead, murdered by a nefarious cattle hand who has been rustling Nicole’s cattle to a rival ranch. Of course, Nicole decides to take on a cross country cattle drive herself, recruiting a ragtag team that includes an Aboriginal woman, a young, half-caste Aboriginal boy, a drunk bookkeeper, and the Drover. The Drover is the ruggedly handsome, rough around the edges loner played by Hugh Jackman. A sort of freelance cattle driver, the Drover is the sort of character that’s right at home in American westerns (to be fair, there’s more than a little of the Australian ocker character – Crocodile Dundee is a popular if a bit imperfect example – to the Drover as well and the two concepts are not mutually exclusive, but I’ve hardly the time to get into that here and now). Of course, he and Nicole hate each other at first, but soon find themselves in each other’s arms. The film follows the cattle drive through the gorgeous scenery of the Outback before segueing into a second act that’s more about Hugh and Nicole’s romance and a third act set amidst a Japanese attack on Australia in the weeks following Pearl Harbor.

The familiar ground of the plot does not hinder the film, though. Indeed, it is, in many ways, an asset. For one the familiar plot, gives the viewer ample time to admire the gorgeous scenery (which, of course, includes the always ravishing Ms. Kidman). It isn’t a worn out plot, either, meaning that there are still plenty of thrilling and heartbreaking moments, like in the stampede about a third of the way into the film. Further, while familiar, this really is the sort of thing we just don’t see on the screen anymore, which, ironically, makes the film stand out as something unique amongst the other new releases. It is a step back in time, not just in the setting, but in the filmmaking as well.

One last thing: it is easy to think of Australia as a picturesque movie that casts it’s world as a sort of paradise and, indeed, the film does do that in part, but that doesn’t mean that it shies away from the darker aspects of the time. In the 1940s, Australia was engaged in a practice that led to what has become known as “the stolen generation.” The stolen generation is a regular subject in such Australian films as Rabbit-Proof Fence but which remains relatively unknown to Americans. At that time in Australia, it was common practice for the government to forcibly remove half-white/half-black Aboriginal children from their mothers, many of whom were the victims of rape. These children were then sent to a mission island off the Australian coast where they were raised by the church with the express purpose of “breeding the black out of them,” by denying them any link to their rich Aboriginal heritage. The stolen generation, then, is just that: an entire generation of children stolen by the government from their parents and their culture. This tragedy is examined through the character of Nullah, the half-caste boy who lives on Nicole’s ranch and whom she eventually comes to think of as her own child. This sets up for some nice drama in the third act as the film’s villain (the cattle rustler from earlier) threatens to send Nullah, in truth his own bastard son, to the mission island. Of course, Nicole is horrified both by the prospect of losing the boy and of the general practice, even though she herself has tried to keep Nullah from indulging in his heritage by going on walkabout with his Aboriginal grandfather (played by the seemingly ever-present Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil of Crocodile Dundee, Rabbit-Proof Fence, and The Last Wave fame).

Ultimately, while not as stunningly original as Moulin Rouge, Australia is a really solid, entertaining picture that really stands out from the regular box office fare of today. It’s a trip back to a different time that’s well worth taking, particularly if you long for the cattle driving epics of yesteryear. Three stars.