THE MOVIE AUSTRALIA:
Australia is a highly applauded and appreciated film revolving around an English woman’s romantic escapade in the interiors of Australia. It stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman and set against the picturesque backdrop of Darwin in Australia.
Made in 2008, the film brings to life an important episode in Australia’s colonial history. It is set in times when Australia was a colony of Great Britain and the natives were treated with much contempt and discrimination. The history of Australia as a British colony we realize though through the film that other British colonies were in much the same condition where there was racial discrimination. This movie becomes the face of the million people who faced racial discrimination.
The film highlights the aboriginal culture and makes a profound statement about the transformative power of love through the character of Lady Sarah Ashley. Australian Aboriginal culture is one of the world's longest surviving cultures, which dates back at least 50,000 years and there are many who think it could be closer to 150,000 years. It was this harmonious affinity with their surroundings that reveals to us how Australian Aborigines survived for so many millennia. Indigenous Aborigines understood and cared for their different environments and adapted to them. It is the intimate knowledge of the land, its creatures and plants that sits at the core of traditional Aboriginal culture. From this deep and intricate understanding of their environment, Aboriginal Australians have developed many plant and animal based medicines.By the gaining of knowledge, rather than material possessions, an Aborigine attains status in Aboriginal culture. Art is an expression of knowledge. Through the application of ancestrally (wangarr) inherited designs and ceremonial initiations, Aboriginal artists assert their identity, their rights and responsibilities. The paintings and the ancestral beings within them are as much the property of clans as the land itself.
Although the film is an emotionally packed film, it has its lighter moments which are conveyed through the native aboriginal practices and folk songs.
The protagonist Lady Sarah Ashley is an aristocrat English woman who embarks on an a daring adventure into a remote cattle breeding town of Darwin in search of her husband with whom she cannot establish communication. On reaching Darwin she is shocked at the discovery of her husband’s death but gathers herself together and decides to save his dream cattle station and in order to do this she very reluctantly joins hands with a rugged cattle drover. He helps Sarah to save her cattle station from the greedy cattle barons.
While in Darwin she comes across a small aboriginal child “Nulla” whose mother is a slave on Lady Sarah Ashley’s husband’s farm. For some inexplicable reason she is drawn towards the child. Therefore she takes care to see that Nulla does not become a victim of the racial discrimination. Nulla’s own natural mother is brutally murdered by the book keeper, Mr. Fletcher. It is Lady Sarah who assumes the responsibility of the aborigine kid.
Lady Sarah Ashley embarks on an epic journey, transferring the 2000 cattle to a far away land, Darwin, Braving the trials of a long and tedious journey through the desert of Australia. This journey depicts her determination and strength to achieve her goal at all costs.
The film moves on towards the outbreak of the world war two which saw Australia’s involvement by virtue of being a British colony. Sarah, Nulla and the Cattle Drover are caught in the bombing of Darwin fortunately escape unhurt. The film very sensitively closes on the union of the three, Sarah, Nulla and the cattle drover.
The geographical setting of this film, (Darwin) has cleverly been chosen to highlight the aboriginal culture of the film. The history is flawlessly delineated in the bombings and the music composed in a particular style, conveys to us the art and language of the place, Australia. Their beliefs in folk songs and certain tunes which help Nulla to think he becomes invisible clearly depicts that the era and core ideology of primitive times and tribes. Scientifically, the tunes the aborigines use to communicate is the way for self healing and makes one look in their inner conscience through which they can sense the feeling of some forth coming event. Therefore this movie has a blend of adventure, romance, history, science along with emotions.