I remember hearing about the film during pre-production and being worried that it wasn’t based on a thoroughly tried and true story, like all of Luhrmann’s previous films – Strictly Ballroom was a play, Romeo and Juliet was Romeo and Juliet, Moulin Rogue was an opera. However, I was reassured reading that the plot would be about a toity-toity English miss who goes on a cattle drive with a tough drover type – that’s a great story. The Overlanders! Baz isn’t the first director you think to do The Overlanders, but he deserves the chance. Only one problem – it was going to end in Darwin 1942. Isn’t that going to be a defeat, a lot of Aussies being bombed? Ok… so maybe the cattle drive will end up there. No problems. Think positive.
It turns out I was half right. Australia is really two movies – the first half is The Overlanders, set in 1939, the second half set in 1941-42 is a spineless mess. If the film had stuck to one story, preferably the first bit, I think it would have been fine. Or else been tied together. I wonder why they didn’t set the whole thing in 1941-42? To make it easier for Nicole Kidman to travel out from England? To justify the ball at the end of that story? It wasn’t worth it.
I enjoyed the first half immensely. It starts a bit too Baz (wacky music, Nickers wearing funny glasses) but calms down a little and becomes engrossing. The story is a solid compendium of a heap of old Aussie melodrama and adventure films – Chauvel, Ealing, Ken G Hall. There’s a squatter’s daughter type (Nickers and the aboriginal females), the English silly ass (Nickers), the cattle drive, baddies trying to stop it, a drunken Irish type, romance on the trail. The aboriginal stuff fits in well and that kid Brandon Walters is a star (even if he doesn’t seem too upset when his mum dies). The cattle stampede on top of a cliff was genuinely thrilling and the ball looked terrific – good on Nickers pointing out the fathers of many of the half-castes were at the ball. Romance, action, melodrama, social comment all skilfully put together. Yes, it’s a bit camp (lots of Hugh Jackman torso, Hugh Jackman pretending to be a tough drover, homages to Wizard of Oz) but let’s face it most Aussie films are.
The second half is less strong. There are ten minutes or so of tap dancing where everything is fine and dandy and they get rid of Bryan Brown and you’re waiting for some story, any story… then the film becomes about Walters being whisked off to the mission. Which has a point but structurally it drags because Hugh Jackman and Nickers aren’t aware where Walters has gone for a long time. Baz seems to really like the word “creamy” to describe Walters because characters say it like ten times or something (don’t get me wrong, it’s an appropriate word, but how about varying the insults a little) – then it all becomes a mess. Brown is killed and replaced as king villain by Wenham. Essie Davis’ is given close ups and you think she’s going to be important but she isn’t really – also one minute she’s shown evacuating Darwin, then she’s back there. Jackman’s Aboriginal friend suddenly becomes important in the last ten minutes. And there is ending after ending – escape from Mission Island, Nickers and Hugh reunited, then Wenham rocks up (“don’t forget about me”!), then Walters goes on Walkabout.
I mean, it looks stunning, Nickers is ideally cast even if she’s starting to get a bit old (she looks better when she’s roughed up a bit), Jackman is no Russell Crowe or Heath Ledger but he does his best and looks handsome (it’s a shame they didn’t give him more of a dance number). I just wish they’d centered the whole thing around the cattle drive. Keep it simple to allow the other stuff to hang off.
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