Australia Redux

posted by Gareth Higgins

Regular listeners will know just how surprised I was when my genial co-host went into paroxysms of joy at Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Australia’ around Thanksgiving.  I liked it a lot, too, but fell short of the adulation inspired in Jett.  So I revisited the movie last night and feel the need to post today something I wouldn’t ordinarily do: please, if you love movies, go see this before it leaves the theatres.  ‘Australia’ was handicapped, I believe, by opening on the US’ biggest holiday – nobody wants to see a three-hour movie when the turkey’s warming.  But now that winter chills have replaced family arguments and over-eating, there’s probably no more than a week or two left to catch this enormous, over-the-top, ridiculous, mad, compassionate, romantic affair.

It’s been criticised by many of our colleagues in the professional movie-watching world; and I think I understand why – ‘Australia’ was thought to be a serious epic that failed to convince, when in fact it’s a magical adventure cartoon.  It tries to have its cake and eat it – homaging romantic icons, action heroes, prim ladies who become hot warrior chicks, and even believing in a little bit of Aboriginal magic.  It’s not supposed to convince the audience of anything except the fact that cinema can transport the human mind (and the re-telling of the Stolen Generations is welcome; with David Gulpilil’s performance as King George representing an entire people, just as his screen career since ‘Walkabout’ has told most Westerners most of what they know about his community).  Sure, it has a one-dimensional villain – but that’s the point. Rhett Butler isn’t exactly a nuanced character; there’s not much more to Ilsa Lund than a pretty face and a stiff upper lip; and HAL 9000 proves that characters don’t need to be multi-variate to be interesting.

In short, and I know this may make me seem naive, ‘Australia’ is one of the most under-rated films I’ve ever seen.  It’s a delight.  You should see it in its natural habitat, the outback of your local multiplex.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 9th, 2009 at 10:08 am. It is filed under Blog, Drama, Gareth Higgins, Gareth Higgins Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.