Movie Review: Australia

So, Caleb and I have a tradition. We ALWAYS go to a movie during the Thanksgiving break. Every year. This year, we attended Australia. I must say, I cannot write movie reviews without spoilers. Just an ability I've never had. I'm sorry. If you don't want it spoiled, read no further.

I have seen better movies, but I have also definitely seen worse movies. I guess, It's probably a two or three out of five. It was almost three hours long (which is just too long), and there were definitely parts that easily could have been cut.

People say that it's called "Epic Drama," but I call it, "There were way to many plot lines, all good ones, but just too many." I think that there were two plots that I just loved, but they were stacked so that they were "one after the other." I would have liked it if there were instead the two interwoven with one another.

Another thing that I would have liked, (AND THIS IS BIG TIME SPOILER) I think that it would have been better if when they thought that Nicole Kidman's character, Sarah Ashley, was dead, she really was. It was very near the end, and the way that it hit Hugh Jackman's character, Drover, was absolutely gorgeous, and I think it would have been a very sweet and touching bittersweet ending. Instead, there's a "looking at the body closer, we realize that it's not Sarah Ashley, it's Cath Fletcher, and Sarah Ashley has lived, even though she's in the army headquarters during the bombing of Darwin!"

Also, Caleb was very upset that it was marketted as an action film, but the action was a bit lacking. I think an awesome face-off between Drover and David Wenham's character, Neil Fletcher, would have been a better way to handle the comuppence of the villain.

There was an agenda of half-aborigines that would have been a good message, if they didn't have the "Australia has now apologized to the Lost Generations" hadn't been present. What Australia did to half-aboriginal children was terrible. And I thought that they handled it wonderfully. They made the message sweet and strong without completely villainizing all white Australians. I think we do need to talk about this issue in history, and we need to discuss it without villainizing or candy-coating. These pasts of racism need to be approached with understanding that it was wrong, but also understanding that people weren't doing it because they were bad people, but because times were different, and people didn't have the same understandings. Also, an issue with half-race, as the half-Aboriginal child says, is that they fit in neither world completely. But I would have liked it, had they not taken it from message to agenda.

In summary, to make it better they should have:

1) Had Sarah Ashley actually die
2) Had a face-off
3) Either have chosen between the two plots or interwoven them
4) Had better editing of random parts (such as face sucking between Kidman and Jackman), and then developed the side-characters that you kill off so that you care more when they die
5) Left the typed thing at the end off

However, Hugh Jackman's still a very attractive man (read: absolutely gorgeous), the little half-white-half-Aborigine boy was very cute, and it had it's values. The acting was very good, I liked the story lines in general (though they had the aforementioned flaws), and the score was quite masterfully woven. It was a variation on "The Sheep May Safely Graze," with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" woven at various intervals, and it was quite impressive. The little boy (Nullah was his name) had amazing control over horses as well. That was quite impressive. He was a pretty cool kid.

I found some parts touching. I cried (multiple times), but Beth would claim that it was simply because I'm that way.

In general, it wasn't a terrible movie, even though Caleb says that he wants the three hours of his life back.