Before I get to the movie itself, an experience it brought back for me was my very first novel. A Victoria Holt, read (under cover) in class six, because I was then still allowed only Enid Blytons and Nancy Drews. I think it was called 'Shadow of the Lynx', a story set in the australian outback. Hours and hours spent on the window sill.... my very first peek into a far removed world of adventure and romance of the adult kind, a world brought alive through the pages ..... and a wild and vivid imagination.
This movie took me straight back there. It's kind of a sweeping epic set in the Australian Bush.......and in its sweep is wild western, war, adventure, racism, mysticism, folklore, beauty, romance......all in full measure. A definitely big screen, larger than life movie.
It's set during the end of world war II when Hitler invaded Poland. Context for the movie was beef supply to the army from Australia. Lady Sarah (Nicole Kidman), from England goes to Australia to sell a cattle ranch she inherited and finds that the cattle from the ranch was being stolen and sold by a company that had made itself a monopoly in beef.
With the help of Drover (Hugh Jackman), a rough hewn local, the quintessential mills and boon kind of hero, through an initial hostility is the electrifying and seemingly inevitable chemistry and romance, Sarah saves the ranch and the cattle. There's then the beautiful aboriginal boy Nullah through who we hear a lot of the story, who has these mystical powers of the natives, as learnt from his grandfather. There's a draw to the folklore that's unmistakable in beauty and depth.
At the other end are the tragic racial policies, designed to take the black out of of the half white and half aboriginal. They were called the 'stolen generation', and what was really surprising was that the law was apparently repealed only as recently as 1969.
It's close to three hours long, so if you're watching I'd recommend an interval filled viewing. The reason I didn't cover the war, is because I couldn't watch that bit..... still can't get myself to sit through the senselessness and violence of war, even on screen :(
With the help of Drover (Hugh Jackman), a rough hewn local, the quintessential mills and boon kind of hero, through an initial hostility is the electrifying and seemingly inevitable chemistry and romance, Sarah saves the ranch and the cattle. There's then the beautiful aboriginal boy Nullah through who we hear a lot of the story, who has these mystical powers of the natives, as learnt from his grandfather. There's a draw to the folklore that's unmistakable in beauty and depth.
At the other end are the tragic racial policies, designed to take the black out of of the half white and half aboriginal. They were called the 'stolen generation', and what was really surprising was that the law was apparently repealed only as recently as 1969.
It's close to three hours long, so if you're watching I'd recommend an interval filled viewing. The reason I didn't cover the war, is because I couldn't watch that bit..... still can't get myself to sit through the senselessness and violence of war, even on screen :(
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