Why did they make a film of this? I'm guessing the filmmakers went "well, DH Lawrence did this novel set in Australia... I guess we better make it..." But it feels like an adaptation of a famous text, rather than something made with passion. There seems to be no theme or emotional core.
I feel two major mistakes - Colin Friels and Judy Davis are excellent actors but this would have been better with imported actors - it would have felt fish out of water. Friels and Davis bring accents. (I stress both are fine, Davis is lovely, but it just would've been better with foreigners).
Tim Burstall once criticised Australian films for passive protagonists but Friels just hangs around watching at the end when there's a riot. He doesn't do much. There's hints at couple swapping but John Walter and Judy Davis go to bed; Julie Nihill is up for it but Friels doesn't go through with it. Friels goes for a nude swim and we get some brief full frontal and he does it on the beach with a fully clothed Judy Davis. Friels has a little bit of a crush on John Walton and Hugh Keays Bryne but not seriously, not like Alan Bates and Oliver Reed did in Women in Love.
There's a riot at the end and an assassination but it seems devoid of life. Maybe it would've played better in the trashier 70s with more sex and violence.
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