Well, live-blogging the movie Australia was a good plan, what, FOUR HOURS AGO when I started watching it.
I had to go get the laptop just a few minutes in, because after the Interpol warning prohibiting international piracy, then the boring old FBI warning, there is this warning:
Warning: ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER VIEWERS SHOULD EXERCISE CAUTION WHEN WATCHING THIS PROGRAM AS IT MAY CONTAIN IMAGES OF DECEASED PERSONS
I'm sorry, what? That's a new one for me. This sounds like a job for ... Wikipedia! (The recording of motion and sounds traps part of the soul inside the media, so that person can't have a peaceful repose after death.) I don't remember seeing that warning on Moulin Rouge, though. This can't be the only movie Baz L. made that was shown in Australia.
This movie starts off a bit broad. During the scene in which Nicole Kidman's lingerie is tossed about, Gary said it reminded him of The Flintstones. The cartoon version. Then it got better, until I was quite on edge when the cattle stopped dead at the edge of the cliff. Those CGI cattle, they always do what they are told.
What made me cringe was the unrelenting sun. I would shrivel and die under those huge skies full of light. There's a spot when Nicole K. is shielding her eyes from the sun and I was thinking God, woman, get indoors. Too much sun! It will sap your strength.
Then, the next thing that got me on Wikipedia was the Aborigine references - I wondered how much spearing and such was going on in the 40's. I remembered the Tasaday tribe- National Geographic found some natives in the Philippines untouched by modern life. Then, after Marcos left, the scientists came back and found (as they suspected) the "stone-age natives" had been smoking cigarettes at the Dairy Queen when National Geographic wasn't around. So, since then i've been suspicious.
I was a little surprised the movie didn't end with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman having a miracle baby. It had some giant cliches. But, it certainly kept my interest once they got an hour into it. And, more important, why hasn't there been a movie about the Tasadays yet? That's a good story.
"Giant cliches" is being kind. And you didn't mention the 3 endings. And chilly Nicole not being able to run properly. And how predictable it was - didn't you just know that the friendly cowboy was going to be a goner in the stampede?
But the scenery was fabulous, didn't you think? (Though better on the big screen.) That sun's not just bright, it's bloody hot, too - when I was there last year, it was over 42 C - that's 108 F.
Oh, and the Aboriginal thing, it only applies to them. (They're not bothered about white people's souls.) It's nice to see some sensitivity there, for once. They were quite busy with their spears in the early days before they got totally trodden underfoot. Not convinced they did quite that much standing on one leg, though.
Posted by: Big Dot | July 31, 2009 at 02:18 AM
Cliches, smiches. I loved that movie. I didn't care that it had three different endings, either, because what it had was HUGH JACKMAN. REALLY BIG HUGH JACKMAN. I saw him at the stage door of "The Boy From Oz" and although he's six feet tall, he was slender and willowy and ethereally beautiful (and he spoke Japanese to all the Japanese faithful gathered at the stage door). How he got so HUGE, I don't know. But I like it.
Posted by: Becs | July 31, 2009 at 04:58 AM
Have you seen the movie Krippendorf's Tribe?
Posted by: Caroline | July 31, 2009 at 08:48 PM
Big Dot - 3 endings? I know that Gary put on his shoes to return it when he heard the kid singing "Under the Rainbow" and it was not returned for quite a while after that. Or do you mean how test audiences didn't want Hugh to die?
Becs - I had to laugh at the first few shots of him in which a perfectly well-lit bar changed so there was only a racoon mask of light across his eyes.
Caroline - yes! Except that didn't have the Marcos family running things.
Posted by: TheQueen | August 02, 2009 at 01:18 PM