Movie Review: "Australia"

 

The movie Australia is a romantic adventure movie set on the verge of WWII. The film was directed by Baz Luhrmann and stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. 

The movie begins with Lady Sarah Ashley (Kidman) traveling to Australia with the hopes of selling the cattle station. Upon arriving, she soon discovers that her husband has been murdered. An Aboriginal called King George is blamed for his death. The manager Fletcher is secretly trying to get a hold of Faraway Downs and stealing cattle because he works for Carney, who is the big cattle boss in the area. Lady Sarah, Drover (Jackman), Nullah, and others drive the cattle to sell. After many speed bumps they eventually succeed. Drover and Lady Sarah fall in love, and Fletcher kills Carney and takes over the cattle empire. Nullah is taken and sent away to an island with other mixed Aboriginals. After the Japanese bomb the island and Darwin, chaos occurs. Drover thinks Lady Sarah is dead and set off to rescue Nullah and the children. Drover finds Nullah and they are reunited with Lady Sarah. A distraught Fletcher tries to kill Nullah but is killed by King George. The three return to Faraway Downs and King George takes Nullah to go live with him.

This movie was lengthy, and it almost has two parts. It seemed the movie would end after they drove the cattle into town. Maybe this film would have been better as a well thought out mini-series on HBO.

Nevertheless, the film was entertaining. Luhrmann does a wonderful job of capturing the beauty of Australia. Beautiful landscapes were shown  quite often in the film. The film did well to capture certain things about Australia such as cattle station life, race relations with the Aborigines, etc, and this is a reason why this movie has value. Of course, Jackman delivers a solid performance. It is different to see the real him as an Australian in his performance.

One interesting thing in the movie was that after someone dies, Aboriginals cannot say that person’s name. But do not avoid saying "Australia." It is a movie that has something for everyone.