Australia

Well so I saw Australia The Movie yesterday. My impressions were: sets great, costumes gorgeous, acting good, dialogue corny at times, music horrible, scenery and cinematography fabulous, plot engaging but at times confusing. Before I saw the movie I had assumed that it distorted historical time so as to fit the bombing of Darwin into the story. I mean I knew that Nicole Kidman's character arrived at the outbreak of war, so surely it didn't take her three years to drove the cattle to Darwin so she arrived just in time for the Japanese attack? I didn't realise that there were 2 story arcs , one about "the drove", and the other about the war.

The strange thing about the film is that it is called "Australia" but the only really sympathetic Australian characters are the Aboriginal characters such as Nullah and his mother, the alcoholic accountant, and Hugh Jackman. The rest are mostly snobbish or racist or criminal, although some redeem themselves towards the end.

The first scenes in the movie were for me some of the most powerful and show what a great director could do with some of the stories of Australia that haven't been told.