Australia

“A life lived in fear is a life half lived.”

Powerful and dramatic period piece set on the precipice of Australia’s entry into World War II.  This film has everything you need in an Oscar contender: epic; breath-taking; and awe-inspiring.  These are words typically used as razor-sharp barbs to tear apart modern fluff and meaningless drivel pieces by modern critics, but Australia tells the story of an amazing young man and his struggles to survive in a hostile environment with chaos surrounding him and death as his mother – it deserves these labels.

Perhaps the only negative criticism I could saddle on Australia is it is too dynamic with so many passionate characters and wonderful acting, that some critics feel the need to tear it down for its audacity to be bold. Also, it is an Australian film, directed by Baz Luhrman, with the quirkiness of Australian directing that some Hollywood elites find boorish and eccentric.  For example, scenes with people running up to a truck in the middle of nowhere and kangaroos hopping about this way and that, only to be served as dinner in the next scene will no doubt remind some viewers of ol’ Mick Dundee.  But, if you look past the odd and glib, you will find yourself transported to an amazing adventure where courage and character count above all else.  These are themes that demand introspection and cross international lines of film snobbery.

Young Nullah (Brandon Walters) is the narrator of the story, and in the first measure, his voice echoes an almost trivial resonance as he begins to tell his “story”.  You might find yourself disappointed, but the intent is to deliver the narration in a matter-of-fact fashion as a child might – a child who doesn’t understand the ways of others, who drown their stories with deceit and dishonor.

Nullah’s world is changed dramatically by foreigner Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) who arrives in pre-war Darwin, Australia with an agenda to expose her husband whom she suspects is philandering in a far-off land.  There are moments of that ever-so-subtle Australian brand of humor as she arrives in Darwin and meets her charioteer, The Drover (Hugh Jackman) who is hired to drive her to her husband’s vast Faraway Downs cattle ranch.

She quickly finds out her husband has sacrificed everything for his ranch, the vast Faraway Downs . . . while remaining the hold-out competition to ruthless cattle-baron, King Carney (Bryan Brown).  Things quickly fall apart and she has to make bold choices regardless of the consequences facing her in a hostile, foreign land.  She is determined to bring Faraway Downs back from squalor while giving King Carney a run for his money.  She grows as a woman and a patriot to a land she probably only ever held contempt for as a large island in the Pacific housing her husband’s salacious sins.

Australia will have you rooting for the little guy, quite literally, throughout the film. And the acting was spectacular by all cast members, the stand-out exceptional actor would have to be relatively unknown David Wenham as Neil Fletcher, who managed to bare his mulga fangs ever so slightly when necessary to slither his character through his “story”.

Australia is a story about a young man’s journey to discover himself and a young nation’s journey to endure a terrible war and the shame it bears for hiding the Stolen Generation of half-blood aborigine children throughout the great war in the Pacific.  It is also a film about compassion and the power of magic, where love and song are the most powerful ingredients to survive the fogs of war.

There are a great many artistic nods to Victor Fleming’s 1939 masterpiece Gone With the Wind, and the not so subtle allusion to one of his other great works, the Wizard of Oz – which also tells the story of a young character who faces enormous challenges to find her way home, as Nullah must do as he searches for his own home.

This was an exceptional film, with so many outstanding scenes, so much passion and powerful evidence of love and honor, passing this one over for an Oscar would be a tragedy of the highest degree.