Australia and the London Dirthole Company

by Parsley on Fri, 2009/01/30 - 1:10am Post to Twitter

PARSLEY’S COMMLOCK

Film Review : Australia
Went to see this ‘epic’ new film with my Mum. First thing to say is that despite bracing myself for its two-and-a-half hour length, at no point did it feel boring or overlong, unlike, for instance, the otherwise excellent last Batman film. Second thing to say is that if you fancy Hugh Jackman you are going to love this film, as it features almost soft porn amounts of his rippling flesh.

Thirdly, good on Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman for finally getting to do a film with an overt reference to their native country, even though Kidman plays a noble English woman. Actually better than that, Australian actor Ray Barrett - famous to the likes of me for his fantastic voices in Thunderbirds - gets to play her butler!

Being fed up with her husband’s absence on his Australian farm, Lady Sarah Ashley a.k.a. ‘Mrs Boss’ (Kidman) decides to travel to it and see what’s going on. On arrival she is supposed to be met off the boat by her husband’s trusted man Mr. Drover (Jackman).

There was some discussion of the film being an opportunity to encourage tourism to Australia. Much is made of the adventurous nature of the place, with Drover involved in a brawl when he’s supposed to be meeting Lady Ashley. The irony of this for me is that one of my favourite aspects of Australia from my 2 visits there is the feeling of complete safety.

Drover and Lady Ashley are drawn together in opposing King Carney (Bryan Brown) the all-powerful landowner, who via his henchman Jackson (David Wenham) is dominating life in Northern Australia. However, a large parallel haunting plot is given to a half-caste boy called Nullah (Brandon Walters) who represents the group of children of aborigine/settler liaisons who the authorities kidnapped to serve the country in war.

This is one horrible example of the way the incoming culture decimated that of the indigenous aborigines. The Australian Prime Minister last year issued a statement of apology for the country’s national shame for the policy of ‘assimilation’. I’m not sure how many of the original inhabitants descendants there are left to apologise to. Anyway, it feels like the film is a more eloquent apology and exposition of the issues, highlighting the honour and bravery of the aborigine characters against the scheming evil of some of the white Australians.

I can’t say if the fairly strong references to mysticism and traditional ways of thinking (‘I’ll sing you to me’ says the small boy, when saying goodbye to Mrs Boss) are faithful portrayals or romanticising. However, they certainly seem far more attractive than the brutal methods of Jackson, using deceit and violence to get his way.

Lady Ashley/Drover set off with a large herd of cattle to sell to the British army. The epic nature of their endeavour is dealt with at very varying speeds. You had just braced yourself for ‘Bridge Over The River Quai’-style endurance sequences when the next major labour would be viewed retrospectively. This made the film much lighter than it could have been.

The landscapes were stunning. Sometimes it was so regularly stunning that it was almost Disney. You felt that some of the views must have been computer enhanced because it simply wasn’t possible to get such amazing vistas to order.

Some major moments appear in flashback over characters talking, and the audience is left to fill in the gaps. This was well done and kept the action moving. There was a slight bit of ‘cataclysmic moment just missed or almost missed’ as contracts were signed/agreements made just before or almost just before something major changed. This left you mentally telling people to ‘please just make it in time’ as if you could actually affect the outcome.

For me the least satisfactory element of the film was the rather unnecessary love-making sequence, which whilst being a standard item in films these days, could have been much better being subtly implied.

As to the wider film, I couldn’t say that I felt Australia was summed up by it, and it certainly didn’t match my personal experiences of this exciting and irreverent country, but it was a very enjoyable and moving adventure.
Overall Review: Thumbs firmly up. Moving, exciting & fun, but try to make sure you see it on a big screen rather than on DVD.

Concert tip: Dirthole, Dirty Water Club 06/02/09 If you like your bands to be a frenetic wave of sights and sounds then you really should be at the Dirty Water on Friday 6th Feb, as the London Dirthole Company launch their new album, recorded in the room over the club. It’s also the birthday of founder member Ashley. The company takes it name from the ‘dirthole’ that Saddam Hussain was said to have been found in. They are beautiful team chaos & its good to see so many great people belting their way through multi-instrumental cacophony.

parsley@gardenrecords.com [www.gardenrecords.com]