Lost in Epic Australia
An epic movie is bound to breed epic blog posts, so I apologise in advance for the lengthy ramble. The entire first paragraph is about me, so feel free to skip it if you’re only interested in hearing about the movie itself.
There are two reasons it took me so long to get around to watching this movie. The first being that I have always had a deeply buried desire to be an actress but it was never an option for me to pursue that dream. Growing up, we lived all over Australia, but never any where near capital cities, their acting schools & the opportunities they offer for aspiring actors. Meaning that my parents would have struggled to find any way to even try to assist or support me in realising this dream, so I never even bothered to tell them. My father was also very strong in his opinion that getting a good education & a ‘real’ job was the most important thing in life, and that fanciful dreams were a waste of time. So together with the knowledge that so many people try & fail to become actors, and that I had no exceptional qualities to make stand out in any way – I was not ‘movie star’ material, I convinced myself that it was something that I would fail at regardless so why bother trying? By the time I was old enough to leave home, I had accepted my lot in life & made the best of what I had, burying my desire for acting and concentrated on my ‘real life’. So when I heard that some of this movie was being filmed in Bowen, just 3 hours drive from me, and I discovered that they were holding auditions for extras the day after they took place, I was devastated. I took it as a personal affront, totally irrational of course, but to have been so close, to have just been able to try, just once, was all I wanted. So I held on to my grudge & refused to watch.
Once I stopped holding Mr Luhrmann, his cast & the crew personally responsible for my quashed dreams, I was never really in the mood to watch it – my second reason. I had assumed this was just another love story, another courageous woman doing it tough in the Aussie outback, another rough as guts Aussie bloke morally bound to help her and their inevitable romance, just this time with added Luhrmann flair. Well, I was right, but it was more than that. I had no idea that racial intollerance & the ‘Stolen Generation’ was a primary topic, intermingled with love, adventure & tyranny. It certainly made it much more enjoyable for me, as romance has always been low in my genre preferences.
It’s unmistakeably ‘Baz Luhrmann’, so if you’re not a fan of his style then this probably isn’t a movie for you. If you are, then you’re going to love Australia. The scenery is amazing, Australia in all it’s glory, and the cinematography is simply stunning, creating Luhrmann’s signature surreal world. The acting was impecable, with a special mention to David Wenham for his excellent portrayal of the villan Fletcher, however, while Brandon Walters did an amazing job as Nullah, the character itself was not as endearing as it should have been. As so many people have already mentioned, the movie is a long one, but I didn’t find it at all dragging so never noticed while watching it.
