An odd film. I kept wondering why they made it. The baby boomer morality of Tim Burstall ("it's their land) sits uneasily on top of the small l liberalism of the generation above, the Morris West generation.
This really should have been made in the 1950s with Dennis Price and Maureen Swanson or someone - it feels like that, with its snarling cattle baron, his hot pants wife and the hard bitten cop (the David Farrar role).
Hero duties go back and forth - you think it's going to be the alcoholic Ivor Kants character, who sticks up for the aboriginals against his racist boss Simon Chilvers and is sensitive. But as the film goes on the sympathies head more towards John Stanton as the nasty but tough grazier. Rebecca Gilling is good as always but her part could actually be cut out.
And yet... the film does commend interest. It moves. It's fast. There's always something happening. Tim Burstall was a pace-y director - pace, pace, pace. Because Stanton is flawed and Kants you don't know who is going to win. Tommy Lee is an electric screen presence. The aboriginal characters get decent screen time - Tommy has his own romantic plot (played by a non aboriginal actor which is unfortunate).
Visuals are great. The music isn't quite right. Solid support cast including John Jarrat.
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