Helicopters flying low — really low — over the rice paddies of Vietnam with a rock and roll song fighting to be heard over the noise of the copters seems to serve as the go-to image for all movies that flash back to Vietnam during the sixties. MASH, Good Morning, Vietnam. The Killing Fields. They all used it. And it never disappoints. It conjures up the protests, the angry press conferences, the messed-up men returning. But it's been a while, and Good Morning Vietnam was a zillion years ago, so the return to that tense time in The Sapphires feels new again, and you are reminded of things that have long since faded. White go-go boots comes to mind. It was a pleasure to write The Sapphires Movie Review.
The Sapphires is a story about a group of Australian Aborigines and their experience singing in Vietnam, overcoming their own country's abusive prejudices and each other (nothing like a group of family singers — just ask the Jacksons). Set amid the tragedy of Vietnam, it is a fabulous film.
The entire thing is held together, however, not by the time in which it is set, or its story about the individual lives of its characters, but by the man who was their manager, the flawed and vulnerable Dave Lovelace (played by Chris O'Dowd, who is an actor to be held close and used wisely). Lovelace is the soul of the movie, which makes sense because the movie is all about soul. O'Dowd is so comfortable on the screen, doing and being such uncomfortable things, that you just want to stand up and shout, "Thank you" at the screen. It's in his physical stature; it's in his eyes; it's in the tone and timing of his words. And in the scene where he is teaching them about adding heart to their performance, you know he has it deep inside his own soul. Dave Lovelace gives new meaning to the word intention. His intention is to be good at what he does. His intention is to make the girls the best damn soul sisters in the universe. He is not afraid to risk certain ridicule to sell his intention — and himself — to them. Let's make sure he is not forgotten at awards time next year. It's so easy for the films that get released early in the year to be forgotten. Gotta work on that.
The women. What to say about the women? The strong, lonely leader, Gale, with her expectations of each of the others. The light-skinned aborigine Kay, who was stolen from her family to be raised white, and sentenced to a life of being neither white nor black, finds her way home through the music. Julie, the fourteen-year-old single mother who will not be left behind, and who is really the one with the talent. And lastly, Cynthia, the one who struggles to feel beautiful after being cruelly left at the altar. Who could possibly ask for more mirrors of ourselves to look into? If you, as a woman, cannot find someone to relate to in The Sapphires, then you stand alone, like grapes would at the candy counter in the theater.
But most importantly, The Sapphires is a history lesson. It serves as yet another example of how differences in appearance among humans get in the way of global community. The way the aborigines were treated was as bad as American slavery, and just goes to show that we are all challenged to look at our past behavior and marvel at how unreal it seems, rather than think, "Oh, it's like what is happening in Africa now." Movies must continue to bring it home in the darkness of the theater, where it's easier to reflect upon it.
There is a girl fight on the movie. One girl hits another, and she hits back. Only one blow each. I think it's the best girl fight I have ever seen on film. Slow. Deliberate. Believable. A lifetime coming. Totally worth it. It's the end of their anger forever. It's the first time I ever saw the point in settling something with fists instead of words. Sometimes there are no words.
The Sapphires was written by the son of one of the original Sapphires. He was in his twenties when his mother happened to mention that she had sung in a group that toured Vietnam. "Huh?" said he to himself. "How come I never heard that before?" None of the Sapphires' children ever knew about that year in the lives of their mothers, an experience that anyone else would have worn like a badge of honor at every family gathering for the rest of their lives. When you see where the women are now, and what they went on to accomplish after they disbanded, you can understand that they had bigger fish to catch and fry. The movie about that year plays out like a gentle reminder of a time many of us called our youth, a time that is gone forever.
Great movie. Great message. Great history lesson. Great music. (How could I have forgotten the brilliant song choices?) A must see. I wish it were in more theaters.
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