Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: AUSTRALIA (2008)

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Posted by Richard P. May (Member # 3598) on 11-24-2008, 01:07 PM:

While not LAWRENCE OF OUTBACK, or GONE WITH THE KANGAROO, I thoroughly enjoyed all 165 minutes of this picture. It has about every cliche in the book (handsome cattle drover with glamourous English aristocrat, big cattle drive, very good good guys, very bad bad guys, child in peril, war) you name it, but it really moves and held the audience's attention. Just don't get too critical, and sit back and enjoy it.
Seen at the Academy's Goldwyn Theater, with maybe 700 people.
As always in this venue, a perfect presentation.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 11-24-2008, 07:18 PM:

I cannot stand the "child in peril" synopsis. Probably because I hate kids.

Posted by Kurt Zupin (Member # 2751) on 11-26-2008, 04:34 AM:

All I can say is WOW and EPIC! I truley loved this film, Baz Lurhmann has done something that dosn't happen very often, he has made a true epic. For the entire run time I never looked at my watch, I never lost interest in the story. I was hooked from the start to the end. The only thing that worries me is that not a lot of people will go out and see it as the trailers don't really give you the right idea about this film.

Joe, give it a chance. You never know, you may like it.

5 out of 5 [thumbsup]

Posted by Phil Blake (Member # 2012) on 11-27-2008, 12:34 AM:

I can only mirror Kurt.I thought it looked good sounded good and had a good balance of emotions all the way. The story travelled well i was not at all bored at any point.

4 out of 5 stars from me

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 11-27-2008, 12:44 AM:

I walked by at one point and saw native Australian Nichole Kidman attempting to sing to a foreigner kid. I walked away feeling disgusted and came back a few minutes later. She was STILL singing the the little foreigner kid (who would later use nothing but his mind powers/telekinesis to stop a herd of cattle from rampaging off of a cliff)! 20th Century Fox should have made the Amazing Creative Genius Baz Luhrmann cut that singing part out.

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 11-27-2008, 03:15 AM:

About an hour too long... a lot of scenes felt dragged out and could have been cut out easily. Yeah, its Epic... as in long and big drawn out story with some panning shots of landscape.

Visually very nice, story was good too, but I felt like at least 5 times the film was over... oohh nope it keeps going. Several occasions where it pushes the emotion... a little too much in fact. Oh yeah, too many characters I wanted to care about die in this... ooopps spoiler... [Razz]

It's a good movie to see when you haven't had a long day of work and staying up to see it at 10:30 at night.

[The Jen]

1/2 out of 5

Posted by Stu Jamieson (Member # 4626) on 11-29-2008, 06:35 PM:

I take my Akubra off to Baz Luhrmann, we haven't seen anything on as grand a scale as Australia since the glory days of Aussie cinema when we produced such splendid films as Breaker Morant, Gallipoli and (most notably in this case) The Man From Snowy River. It's just a shame that Luhrmann's picture required American money to make, an indictment of Australia's limited capital and (to a much lesser extent) the overall health of the local film industry. But regardless, Baz is flying the flag for Aussie culture around the world and even if it is represented in slight caricature, as in all good mockery, there is a strong element of truth in it.

My main concern for Australia was how much of a Baz Movie™ it was going to be, as each of his succeeding films to date had been more garish than the previous project; from the slightly wacky but play-it-straight Strictly Ballroom to the almost obscenely lurid Moulin Rouge. Thankfully, on a scale of Bazness, Australia is much closer to the former than the latter and, sans Luhrmann's trademark gratuitous flamboyance, stands to reach the largest possible audience - an important factor if the picture is to recoup it's not inconsiderable budget.

The photography of the film is quite extraordinary. Despite the location shooting, the film has a classic studio-lit look to it, mimicking the fairy tale quality of The Wizard Of Oz which it so frequently references. Of course, it's all very stylised but it's very pretty too, being the equivalent of the outback getting a fashion-shoot makeover - wash out the dirt and dust and apply some eye-liner here, some rouge there and a little bit of lippy there - when Baz is finished with the Aussie landscape, you'll want to take it out on a date (maybe even get a bit of action in the back seat).

The film plays to the strengths of it's cast: Nicole Kidman with her stiff-upper-lip English aristocrat; David Wenham's weasily bad guy with his trademark nasally whine; and Hugh Jackman's rugged ockerism, picking up and running with the "Baton of Quintessential Aussie Bloke" dropped by Paul Hogan some years ago. Anyone who ever performed in an Aussie movie (and is still alive) is in this film with the exception of Bruce Spence. No.....wait a minute.....there's Bruce there. Strike that previous assertion, everyone is in it!

In a time of social cynicism and a black-armband view of Australian history, Baz admirably pays his respects to the Stolen Generations without being overtly moralistic. Indeed, in a time where "nationalism" has become a dirty word, he respects all aspects of black and white culture without prejudice, presenting a film which all Australians can be justly proud. I wish it every success.

8 out of 10.

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 11-30-2008, 04:27 PM:

This is a big, sprawling epic that is very entertaining. It is generally predictable, but that is very comforting in this case. It never drops to pure "soap opera", however.

The film moves along very nicely, never seeming to drag. Performances were extremely good, especially by Brandon Walters as the child Nullah.

There is some absolutely beautiful cinematography in the film.

Nice to see a good film after the awfulness of SCHENECDOCHE.

Gets an A- on our scale. Some slight red dots I believe on reel 7, but not as bad as some others lately.

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 11-30-2008, 07:34 PM:

I will agree that this film was very good, and highly entertaining. It also moved pretty quickly.

I will also agree that the trailer(s) for this movie sucked horribly. I saw the trailers several times and had no idea what to expect going into this movie except that Nichole Kidman and Aragorn were in it. In fact based solely on the trailer, I didn't even want to see this movie.

I'm glad the wife dragged me to see it anyway.

Posted by Stu Jamieson (Member # 4626) on 11-30-2008, 09:01 PM:

Not Aragorn, Wolverine! [Wink]

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 11-30-2008, 09:27 PM:

Huh?? I guess that's what I get for sitting too close! [Smile]

Posted by Kurt Zupin (Member # 2751) on 12-01-2008, 04:20 AM:

I didn't see Viggo Mortenson in Australia [Razz]

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 12-01-2008, 06:02 AM:

Yeah, I guess I didn't either.

The funny thing is that we were switching back and forth between the Lord of the Rings movies and the X-Men movies on TV for the past two evenings. Maybe that's what confused me. [Confused]

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 12-06-2008, 11:07 PM:

This is very enjoyable for sure and worthy of a "night out". Some of the digital effects were somewhat poor though and could have been a little better polished. Great story and a movie this year thats finally worthy of some big awards.

One thnig I learned from the movie... the area of Austrailia shown is more or less just like the west Utah Desert... right along with mystical powers and strange people... Only difference here is the mystical powers are the Petroglyphs left behind by the Indians and the strange people are Polygamists... and oddly enough they also raise cattle! Imagine that...

Mark

Posted by Phil Blake (Member # 2012) on 12-08-2008, 11:26 PM:

I wondered about the darwin attack CGI scenes as well , they had that "painted" look about them , i am wondering if they were purposly made that way to give that old look. alot of the film seemed to have that olden days look and feel to it.

Interesting comparision with Utah Mark , and time stands still there, not much has changed out there for decades.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 12-09-2008, 12:26 PM:

Phil,
The only difference is that we have more mountains...big ones... here in Utah but there are also flat expanses between those mountain ranges and those areas look just like whats in the movie... We still have Native Indians living in the desert as well...
RE: The digital planes in the childrens island attack scene... the dive bombers just didn't dive in correctly... too sharp of turn... the Zero definately wasn't capable of manuvers like that... not even today fighter plane with steerable jet exhaust nozzels can do that turn!!

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 03-05-2009, 02:39 PM:

I just saw AUSTRALIA not in a theatre but from a Blu Ray disc and I highly concur on all the positive things that have been said about the film. After I say this at home last night, I regret very much I had not made the effort to see this on a large theatre screen.

10/10

-Claude

Posted by Ian Parfrey (Member # 5122) on 03-06-2009, 08:25 PM:

Arrrgghhhh! Luhrmann's on the loose again.
As far as over-blown, theatrical and long/boring films go, Australia, like Romeo & Juliet and Moulin Rouge before, is so ridiculous as to be hilarious. If you were to delve into Australia's (the country, not the film) back catalogue of brilliant films, here are a few for consideration.

1. Bad Boy Bubby- dir Rolf de Heer [thumbsup]

2. Romper Stomper- dir Geoffery Wright [thumbsup]

3. Gallipoli- dir Peter Weir [thumbsup]

4. Mad Max ( The Road Warrior) dir George Miller [thumbsup]

5. 2000 weeks -dir Tim Burstall [thumbsup]

6. Man From Snowy River -dir George Miller. [thumbsup]

Absolutely amazing photography!
7. Australia -dir Baz Luhrmann [bs]

The first 6 films are ones that not only push boundaries producing bodies of work that will be referred constantly to in years to come, but are highly entertaining as well.

So, Australia gets 10/10 on the Fluff-O-Meter and 0.25/10 on the Brainfood-O-Meter.
Luhrmann's next epic? Charles Manson's life story set to 1920's Charleston soundtrack. Yum.
Isn't it good movie appreciation is a subjective thing?

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 03-07-2009, 03:13 AM:

Not to nit-pick, but Mad Max is not The Road Warrior...that's Mad Max 2 in USA.

They called it that as Mad Max had not been released too long there so they thought having a sequel so soon would just confuse people.

There are literally dozens of good Australian films not on that list...go back a little earlier and you've got a dozen right there.

Breaker Morant
Walkabout
Stone
My Brilliant Career

...just to name a few.

Posted by Stu Jamieson (Member # 4626) on 03-13-2009, 10:53 PM:

.....The Year My Voice Broke
The Interview
Lantana
Two Hands
The Proposition
Chopper
Muriel's Wedding......