A disaster of monumental proportions
and coming from a director who made such great and highly stylized films as "Moulin Rouge" and "Romeo + Juliet. It will truly be a surprise if Luhrmann is ever entrusted with a big budget movie again. But then again don't underestimate the stupidity of movie studio executives.
It is obvious from the closing historical captions about the fate of the Aborigines that the screenwriter conceived this script as a story to be taken seriously. However, from the start of the zippy graphics and jump cuts (a la Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet) transporting you from continent to continent, this technique gives you the feeling you're in a confused tongue-in-cheek "Indiana Jones" matinée. I doubt this was the director's intention, as this jump technique was dropped after the first 15 minutes. In "Moulin Rouge" and "Romeo + Juliet" these sudden camera jumps were effective, used throughout and complimented the film. In "Australia" it appears there may have been more but were ultimately abandoned as an idea that did not work.
Then there's the all-knowing mystical ever-present aboriginal grandpa whose character, watchful-eye and even "little magic fires looking down from the mountain" are right out of "The Lion King" playbook; the coincidence was hilarious and embarrassing. Furthermore, the characters are cartoon cutouts as if this was a live action version of some corny graphic novel dumbed-down for 10 year-olds.
And, the poor film composer stuck with copying the temp score which "must have worked so well for the focus groups." How depressing for the film composer to be demoted to mere arranger re-hashing and re-working Arvo Part's music throughout (obviously used as the temp track) among other old orchestral favorites.
However, was it entertaining? OK, I admit, in parts. When the audience was not laughing at the delivery of the dialogue and bogus direction, there were some pretty stunning scenes such as the cattle drive. But did the film need to be almost 3 hours? Well, ask the execs at Twentieth Century Fox and the box office returns.
I feel sorry for Australians who were delivered a parody of some very serious WWII era issues. What an insult to their intelligence, their history and their country.
67 out of 122 found this helpful