Six films worth a watch to understand what Australia is all about...
- Phar Lap (1983). Phar Lap is the film about a racehorse of the same name that won 32 of the 35 races it entered after the age of three until it died it mysterious circumstances in America in 1932. It’s a real Australian legend and goes to the sporting heart of this country. What you are not supposed to mention is that it was actually, horror-of-horrors, from New Zealand.
- Ten Canoes (2006). Set about one thousand years ago in Arnhem Land in the now Northern Territories, Ten Canoes is filmed entirely in Indigenous Australian languages. Watching it you get to understand a lot more about how mythology and storytelling was central to the regulation and continuity of Aboriginal society. It’s also quite revealing about the extent to which highly localised tribes existed alongside each other yet with some remarkable different cultures (and indeed languages).
- The Castle (1997). A comedy that follows the exploits of the Kerrigan family who are faced by eviction following the nearby airport expansion. It really shows the self-image of white working class Australia – lots of latent racism and classic Aussie lingo to boot.
- Ned Kelly (2003). Haven't seen this and heard mixed things but Ned Kelly has a real iconic status in Australia. A bushranger turned outlaw, Kelly became a figure of Irish Catholic and working class resistance to British Colonial ties. Perhaps the equivalent of Robin Hood.
- Gallipoli (1981). Great and very moving film, don’t think I need to elaborate on the plot. One can’t go very far in Australia without realising the extent to which the First World War and the sacrifices it entailed was the first defining point of this nation.
- Australia (2008). Okay a bit premature to add this to the list as it’s still a few weeks from launch. But it’s going to tell the story of the bombing of Darwin by the Japanese in 1942. Why I think this is worthy of the list is the bombings mark the period when Australia began to turn away from Britain as the mother country and towards America for protection (which did eventually come). If the First World War definied a nation, the Second determined its sovereignty.
3 comments:
David - it may not be a film about Australia, but in my humble opinion it is perhaps the greatest Australian film...
Ghosts of the Civil Dead.
If you like dark and dystopian, then this is for you... set in a super-max prison of the future, with Nick Cave playing a rather convincing psychopath.
Never seen the Bates suggestion ...but think David's are a very good selection... anyway some possible additions to the list:
My Brilliant Career -- where all those feisty Aussie sheilas come from...
Strictly Ballroom - for its ruthless sending up of Aussie middle class pretension - the people who think they are one cut above the Kerrigans...
but bizarre there are no great sports movies featuring humans-- when are they making the Shane Warne story?
You’re right, I’m sure it’ll come in due course. The seven-part series Bodyline, tagged as “the day England declared war on Australia” should make for amusing viewing – it's based on the 1932/33 test where the English team applied the ‘bodyline’ technique. Bowling directly at the batsman we managed to take out one Australian with a cracked skull and injure a few more.
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