Review of Australia (2008) by Chads. — 09 Dec 2008

The grass isn't singing, perhaps the Australian outback is too arid. The grass is tired. Lady Sarah Ashley(Nicole Kidman) seems at complete ease with the Aborigine people at Faraway Downs, even though there's early speculation that her husband was killed by a native named King George(David Gulpili).

Because of the times, you would suspect a British subject to be uncomfortable with Aborigines living under her roof. Lady Ashley doesn't have to be stereotypically colonist(like something out of a Doris Lessing novel), but "Australia" could have benefited from some moral complexity out of the ex-Brit.

Saints aren't interesting. "Australia" works best as a western; it should have remained in this milieu instead of genre-hopping: the war epic that follows is not nearly as successful. The Aborigines are cast in "Indian" clothing, at first, when it's believed that King George is responsible for the murder of Lady Ashley's husband.

During this interim period, the Australian emigrate seems too contemporary in accepting Nullah(Brandon Walters), a half-breed, as more than her charge. The filmmaker doesn't want to portray the Aborigine people as one-dimensional brutes, like the Indians, as seen through the lenses of Hollywood filmmakers during the studio system heyday.

But desperate times call for desperate measures, and the filmmaker neglects to capture the urgency of the Aborigine cause. Since their children are being taken away, nobody would fault them if they responded to the government provocation by vigilant means.

The filmmaker renders them impotent. When Nullah and some other Aborigine children are marooned on an island, it's Drover(Hugh Jackman) who comes to their rescue.