Mao's Last Dancer

Bruce Beresford, 2009 (8.6*)
Based on the autobiography of Li Cunxin, a dancer who was plucked from his mountain village in China at age 11 by members of the cultural revolution, and trained in classical ballet from that point on. Criticized for being weak, he added extra weights to his legs and spent many hours developing strength to go with his natural agility and long-limbed grace. He is played here by actor Chi Cao.

In 1979, he is sent to the Houston Ballet in a cultural exchange with the U.S. He often struggles with his conscience, on doing what he feels is right, or acting like a good diplomat for the Communist ideal in China. Eventually he falls in love with a dancer in Texas, and this then becomes his biggest personal challenge.

This could have been a movie of the week but for the touch of veteran director Beresford, director of best picture winner Driving Miss Daisy (1989), and the military trial film Breaker Morant (1980). The dance sequences are wonderfully shot, some of the best in cinema. For me, these carry the film, though for others it may drag it down. I think for a dancer, his story can well be told through his dancing, and for me it seems natural here, not strained like in many musicals.

I was genuinely moved by this film in several places. I've read online posts by other Chinese immigrants who say it's a very accurate portrayal of someone from that part of China, Qingdao I believe. For lovers of dance films, this one's almost up there with The Red Shoes.

Winner of 6 awards and 14 nominations

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Gallipoli

Peter Weir, Australia, 1981 (7.8*)
Memorial Day War-a-thon film #17
Two sprinters from Ausralia, played by Mel Gibson and Marc Lee, are sent to the Gallipoli campaign in World War One, as battlefield runners, the speedy who carry messages between military commanders in days before radios and easier communication.

If you don't know the history of this battle, I won't spoil it here, but the battle footage is well done, fairly realistic (and without CGI). The main themes of the film will hit you like a brick wall at the film's conclusion, and they are the universal themes of all wars: on the whole, they are a futile exercise, but in some individual cases, heroes may rise from among average men and attain at least a moment of timeless glory.

Winner of 9 awards, 20 nominations, including 8 Australia Film Institute awards (Film, Director, Actor for Gibson, Supporting actor for Bill Hunter, Screenplay, Cinematography, Sound, Film Editing) - it didn't win any international awards, just Australian.Dur

Another in a line of excellent Peter Weir films, which include Fearless (my favorite), Witness, Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave, The Mosquito Coast, The Year of Living Dangerously, The Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

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Breaker Morant

Bruce Beresford, Australia, 1980 (8.8*)
Memorial Day War-athon #2
This the story of a war-time court martial, and is based on true events during the closing stages of the Second Boer War (1899-1902). The officers are members of a mostly Australian unit called the Bushveldt Carbineers, created to fight the Boer commandos by employing their own tactics against them.

The charge is that the three men involved here committed murder by executing captured Boers, and also perhaps executed a civilian non-combatant. Their defense is that they were acting in accordance with standing orders, because the operational nature of the Carbineers would be hampered by having to keep prisoners under guard. Also, anyone escaping would be able to give their location and other information. Naturally, these are verbal orders only, so it's all based on heresay.

The British command sees the incident as a chance to give morale to the Boer side, embarassing their side, so command clearly wishes to portray the three protagonists as rogue elements and sacrifice them for political expediency. Similar to Kubricks Paths of Glory, this film examines the military practice of high command often sacrificing subordinates to cover for their own failures and indiscretions, in this case violating international accords by executing prisoners of war. Through the trial, we get the see the story told as flashbacks during witness testimony.

The overall quality of this film is impeccable, as is the cast - five were nominated for Australian Film Institute (AFI, equivalent of our academy awards) awards for acting: Jack Thompson, Bryan Brown won (for lead and supporting respectively), also nominated were Edward Woodward, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, and Charles 'Bud' Tingwell.

Winner of 12 awards, including 10 AFI awards, it's only 3 AFI losses were to other actors in the same film. This is both a powerful war film and a gripping legal film with a courtroom trial.

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A Town Like Alice

David Stephens, 1980 (9.5*)
A group of British women are taken prisoner by the Japanese in Malaya during WW2, and, as it's against their honor to imprison them, they force them on an endless march to nowhere. Jean Paget, wonderfully played by Helen Morse, takes charge and provides the strength that keeps some alive, while many die as not all are fit enough for a forced march.

At one point, they meet a young Australian soldier, Joe Harman (Bryan Brown in a star-making performance), and the two become friends. He tries to help the women, and as a result they are separated by their brutal captors and the man is tortured for showing simple human compassion.

After the war, the two seek each other out to continue to explore the feelings they once had that were sparked during a time of crisis, which they were unable to explore due to the wartime situation. This time, they are separated by half the globe, as Jean is back in civilized England, and Joe is ranching in the middle of the Australian outback.

This is based on a popular best-seller by author Nevil Shute (On the Beach), and that novel was based on true events. This is a romance of epic proportions, beautifully filmed by the BBC (for Masterpiece Theater) in a five-hour mini-series in six parts, which gave the novel the proper amount of length and detail. This is much better seen in one sitting than broken up over weeks. Winner of 6 awards

For my money, this is a much better (and less soapy) romance than Gone With the Wind; this is about self-sacrifice for others, not self-centered gratification. The only other romantic epic that's even comparable is the BBC (Masterpiece Theater) miniseries Brideshead Revisited, from the Evelyn Waugh novel, ironically released the same year, winner of 11 awards, 28 nominations, seven BAFTAs. You should also enjoy the underrated epic romance Australia, from Baz Luhrmann, starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman, a film so large that it's a western and a war film.

Note: The title refers to the desert oasis of Alice Springs , the only green spot in the middle of the huge Australian desert due to a natural spring. This has a rating of 8.1 at IMDB (good enough for the all-time top 250), but only has 452 user ratings - that's unreal for one of the best films ever made, and one of the best 10 miniseries ever made for tv.

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Animal Kingdom

David Michôd, Australia, 2010 (8.8*)
Sundance, Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema
Powerful story of a crime family in Melbourne, Australia is director David Michôd's first film. The incredibly complex script with terrific dialogue was re-written several times by Michod over a six year period before filming, and it shows.

The story involves J, a teenager played by newcomer James Frecheville just out of high school, whose mom overdoses in the first scene. With no alternatives, he goes to live with grandma Jacki Weaver, who turns in a mind-blowing performance. She is basically the leader of an organized gang of her four sons that does armed robberies, all uncles of J's and unsure how much to let him know.

What follows is J's introduction to the family trade, and their running battle with the Armed Robbery Squad of the city police, which is now operating beyond the law and performing their own hits on suspects without bothering for arrests. This is a chilling story reminiscent of L.A. Confidential, but a bit more realistic, being placed in an unspecified 80's time period, a time when Machod had moved to Melbourne and "was reading lots of true crime articles" which inspired this story (in an interview on the dvd). Veteran actor Guy Pearce (Memento, The Proposition, L.A. Confidential) plays a smooth police detective building evidence against the brothers, who thinks J may give up some information if bothered enough.

Jacki Weaver has 12 nominations for either lead or supporting actress so far for her incredible performance as the mother from hell, who supports her boys' life of crime, yet who is still loving and likeable. I hope she wins the Oscar® for supporting actress, she's simply unforgettable, and has likely turned in the performance of her long career. The film has already won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance for World Cinema.
Check out all hers and the film's nominations here

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Samson and Delilah

Warwick Thornton, Australia, 2009 (8.2*)

Australian Film Institute, Best Picture
Samson & Delilah is not the biblical duo, but a couple of aborigine teenagers in the central Australian desert. Delilah (Marissa Gibson) lives in austere poverty with her Nana (Mitjili Napanangka Gibson), who takes care of the very old Nana; together they survive by making Aborigine rugs for sale at an upscale native art gallery run by upper-class whites.

The aimless petrol-sniffing Samson (Rowan McNamara) lives with older brother (Matthew Gibson) with whom he doesn't get along, being extremely fed up with the brother's one-song reggae band, which seems to play the same music incessantly on their front porch. Samson decides to move to Delilah's place, which delights Nana, who calls him Delilah's husband, but frustrates the reluctant Delilah. This is all done without dialogue in a strange courtship ritual.

Soon, both teens are forced to hit the road after Nana unexpectly dies and the village women beat Delilah, while Samson's brother chases him off after an ugly confrontation. They're now a traveling couple depending on each other to survive. They meet their future at a highway overpass in a marginally sane and homeless white man named Gonzo, played by the director's brother Scott Thornton, who was replaying his own lifestyle.

The story is a wake-up call about downtrodden native Australians, and poverty-stricken outcasts everywhere, who are considered an untouchable problem but become an exploited lower class whenever possible. Not a pleasant film, but a necessary one. Warwick Thornton used film newcomers for his lead actors, and his debut film was selected as best feature by the Australian Film Institute, where it won three awards. It won 10 awards overall

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Picnic at Hanging Rock

Peter Weir, Australia, 1975 (8.6*)
Moody and at times surreal, this is based on a true story around the turn of the last century when a group of Australian schoolgirls disappeared while on a simple country outing. Master Australian director Peter Weir made his mark with this spellbinding, small, and austere film. It's a great example of doing a lot with a little, without letting the director or process interfere with the story itself.

Weir always makes films worth seeing, such as Fearless, Witness, Dead Poet's Society, Mosquito Coast, and Master and Commander. In this small gem, many think he made his finest film. It's certainly one of his most unique.

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The Children of Huang Shi

Roger Spottiswoode, Australia, 2008 (8.8*)
Mostly in English, with some Mandarin and Japanese.
Due to high production value and exotic locations in China, director Spottiswoode has put together a modern war epic that recalls some of the biggest of the past. This is the story of British journalist George Hogg in China in 1937, who sneaks into the war zone by posing as a Red Cross worker delivering supplies. Caught by the Japanese shooting photos of their atrocities in Nanking, he is saved from beheading by a local Communist guerrila leader, an engineer educated in the U.S. named Jack Chen, played by Chow Yun-Fat. He has the film's best quote: "I'm now using my skills to blow things up; I find it somewhat more rewarding."

He is taken to a boys' orphanage for safety, where he becomes a teacher, helping a volunteer and war hardened Australian nurse, Rahda Mitchell (Finding Neverland, Miranda and Miranda) take care of the sixty boys. Michelle Yeoh is perfect as a local trader and drug dealer who also helps Hogg, providing seed for food and morphine ("You know what they say about opium - you still feel the pain but it no longer hurts"). Caught in the middle of the invasion, and with Jack's advice and help, they decide to move the boys overland to a location out of harm's way, on the edge of the Gobi desert.

This film encompasses a wide scope and scale, turning the war into a major adventure story. While I found lead actor Jonathan Rhys-Myers (The Tudors) a bit less than subtle, I was inspired enough by the story of Hogg to find this film to be among the best war biographies, ranking somewhat below Lawrence of Arabia, but above The English Patient.

This is similar to the story recounted in Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958), which was the story of nurse Gladys Aylward, who also moved some orphans due to the war. Viewers who enjoyed those films should find this one to be just as well made but not as long. Look for a visual reference to The Last Emperor as well. Filmed in China and Australia.

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A Good Year

Ridley Scott, 2006 (8.0*)
Who could have imagined Oscar® winners Russell Crowe and sensational French actress Marion Cotillard in a romantic comedy? Apparently action director Ridley Scott did, who is best known for Alien, best picture winner Gladiator, and Blackhawk Down. Even though this is just plain fluff, it's enjoyable and heartwarming enough for most fans to get over any initial trepidation. I believe it is based on Peter Mayle's novel "A Year in Provence", though no one credits that book, which was previously filmed as a British mini-series.

The film begins with Crowe's character Max as a young boy, played by Freddie Highmore (who was much better in a more demanding role in Finding Neverland in 2004), an orphan who is living with his uncle Henry, played with a gusto for wine and women by Albert Finney, at the latter's French chateau in Provence, complete with a vineyard. Henry doesn't balk at educating young Max on what it takes to enjoy life, and produce a fine wine, as well as how to taste one.

We immediately jump to a grownup Max, who is now a callous, cutthroat bond trader in London, with no time for Henry, vacations, or a relationship. When he gets the news of Henry's death, he grudgingly goes to the chateau to see what state it's in so he can quickly sell it and come back to work. However, he unexpectedly meets and falls for local restauranteur Marion Cotillard, who unabashedly bares her bottom in public [photo rt] to show him a bruise caused when he unknowingly ran her off the road on her bicycle as he fumbled with his GPS while hunting for the chateau.

What follows is an affable (and more classic film style) story with a great supporting cast, especially Didier Bourdon as Francis, his vigneron, his irascible elderly father, his terminally cheerful wife, and his hilarious Jack Russell terrier, Tati, who takes an immediate dislike to Max, first biting his leg, then peeing on it. An unknown, illegitimate cousin also shows up, surprising everyone, the cute and sexy Abbie Cornish, who also has "quite a nice bum", as all note; of course, the skeptical Max suspects a goldigger who heard of Henry's demise. Of all the characters in the story, only Max wants to sell the chateau.

Don't expect much here but entertainment, beautiful scenery, and fine wine and French food; unfortunately you can't sample the latter two unless you bring your own. Scott and Crowe surprised me with their subtle handling of comedy, which is gentle and never over the top, except perhaps an early scene when Max is trapped in the bottom of an empty swimming pool. All in all, "very easy on the eyes", and the brain.

Perhaps I'm a sucker for Marion Cotillard; I could watch her cook or just sit still and be perfectly happy. I think she is the best actress since Meryl Streep, and can certainly sing and dance a lot better, as she proved in La Vie En Rose (winning an Oscar® for actress and 18 other awards) and Nine. She also won a French César for supporting actress in A Very Long Engagement. I just did a post on her life at World's Best Films, calling her "the actress of the century". For my money, there is no finer combination of beauty, talent, and sex appeal alive today.

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Happy Feet

George Miller, 2006 (7.6*)
From the same George Miller that directed The Road Warrior and produced Babe, this animated feature won an Oscar®, a BAFTA, and a Golden Globe. A penguin couple, played by Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman, have a newborn called Mumble. While these Emperor penguins all have a song in their heart and attract mates with it, Mumble can't carry a tune but instead has Fred Astaire toe-tapping feet, which baffles the others and makes him an outcast.

The elders, led by Hugo Weaving (The Matrix, V for Vendetta), represent those who worship the "Great Wind" and leave it all up to the whims of nature, the invisible 'deity'. Mumble thinks the humanoids (called "aliens") have messed up their fisheries due to stories about them, so he sets off to find them and let them know they need to stop.

The first part of the film is almost non-stop pop and R-and-B songs, which get old fast. What saves the film is some amazing animation: the ocean, penguins underwater, long shots of thousands of them on glaciers. The story is really pro-environmental propaganda, which is ok but will likely be lost on kids, who are obviously the primary target audience for a film that is 75% pop music.

Robin Williams provides some comedy at least, as Ramon, leader of a gang of Hispanic sounding Adelie penguins, and as Lovelace (named for Linda, star of Deep Throat? now that's just bizarre..), a self-promoting guru who charges pebbles for advice and answers to questions, as these penguins use pebbles to build nests to attract females. Brittany Murphy is Gloria, who is Mumbles love interest. This would be a lot better with more dancing and less singing, but should still be quite engrossing to kids, who seem amazed that animated characters can sing and dance like people.

Happy Feet actually won 14 awards (awards page at IMDB), most for animated feature, and a sequel is due out this year.

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We of the Never Never

Igor Auzins, 1982, Australia (9.0*)

A beautifully filmed true story of the first woman in the Northern Territory of Australia, based on the memoirs of Jennifer Gunn, played with independent spunk by Angela Punch McGregor. An educated urbanite from Melbourne married Aeneas Gunn (Arthur Dignam), who managed a remote cattle station, or ranch, in the northern outback, known as "the never never". While there she faces both anti-female and anti-aborigine bigotry from the all male cowboy population. In spite of this, she grows to love both the rugged wilderness, which is green in this region due to the rainy season, and also the local inhabitants who live the same primitive lifestyle they have for millenia, and who are slow to adapt to more 'civilized' conventions.

This will remind Americans of our classic westerns, just sans gunfights, and substituting more friendly indigenous people who work for and help the white immigrants survive in a harsh land. This is a must-see for fans of classic Australian cinema, and makes the perfect complement to the film My Brilliant Career, from director Gillian Armstrong, about another strong-willed Aussie woman, but one who prized her career more than any man. This film followed that one by just three years, and displays a respectable homage to people with courage and heart

Note: nominated for six Australian Film Institute awards, including picture, actress, screenplay, and music, it only won one for cinematography, which is well-deserved as the film is beautiful to watch with innovative camera movement.

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Rabbit-Proof Fence

Philip Noyce, 2002, Australia (9.2*)

Best Picture, Australian Film Institute

Excellent adventure based on the true story of three girls from Australia's Stolen Generations of mixed-race children forcibly taken from their parents by the authorities in the interest of "aboriginal racial protection". The three sisters escape a school that is really more like an internment camp for juveniles, then head for their clan's outback home 1500 miles away by following the knee-high rabbit-proof fence that keeps rabbits on one side, farms on the other.

Kenneth Branagh has a supporting role as the Chief Protector of the Aborigines (as Mr. Neville, humorously called "Mr. Devil" by the girls). Everlyn Sampi is terrific as the oldest girl, Molly, whose savvy made her an elusive quarry for the white Aussies. This inspiring story is based on true events of 1931, and is taken from the non-fiction book by Doris Pilkington Garimara.

Rabbit-Proof won 21 awards, including Best Picture from the Australian Film Institute and the audience award at seven film festivals, and had another 24 nominations: Awards page at IMDB

If you like this film, it makes a perfect trilogy with the Australian films Walkabout and Australia, and is chronologically the centerpiece film. Aboriginine actor David Gumpilil, who starred in Walkabout, plays the tracker following the girls in Rabbit-Proof.

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Walkabout

Dir: Nicholas Roeg, 1971,
Australia (10*)

This beautiful nature story starts when a father abandons his two children (Jenny Agutter's first film?) in the Australian outback and kills himself. The children are found by an Aboriginal youth (David Gulpilil) on his rite of manhood, a walkabout, where one must survive six months alone in the wilderness. The story follows the three as they all fight for survival in the outback, while the white children learn the ancient wisdom that has allowed the aborigines to survive in this environment for at least 50 thousand years.

This adventure film, by British cinematographer Roeg (Performance), is simply beautiful and not like any other, a parable of urban man in the wilderness. The closing poem is one of the most beautiful in film history.

This beautiful film set a precedent for Aussie films to follow using Aborigines as a subject. Two more that make an excellent trilogy with this adventure are Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002), and Australia (2007), which both deal with the "Stolen Generations" of mixed-blood children taken from their parents in the interest of "racial protection" of the Aborigines.

This poem was read as an epilogue at the end of the film. It is the complete Poem 40 from A Shropshire Lad by Alfred Edward Housman.

Into my heart an air that kills
From yon far country blows:
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?
That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.

Complete text of the sixty-three poem cycle at Project Gutenberg

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Baraka

Ron Fricke, 1992 (9.5*)
This is a beautiful visual poem to the spirituality of the planet, mankind included. Director Ron Fricke has given us a film without narrative or even dialogue, yet it's the best description on film of, in his words, "man's connection to the eternal". In order to achieve his vision, Fricke created film equipment cabable of giving us time lapse sequences of both nature and urban settings.

The film primarily shows serene locales in nature (like Arches Nat Park in Utah), or of man's creation, such as temples, zen gardens, meditating monks. Fricke filmed in over 200 locations in 22 countries, many familiar sites, some not so familiar. The beauty is occasionally contrasted by images where we've interrupted the inherent serenity, such as the oil fires in Kuwait, traffic in a metropolis, a hand-rolled cigarette factory in Asia.

This film won't suit all tastes, but if you're of the meditative type, or just love the visual artistry of films, enjoy nature films like Planet Earth, which this preceded by a decade, then Baraka will strike a resonant chord in your spirit.

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Australia

Baz Luhrmann, 2008 (7.8*)
This epic adventure, romantic western war film is actually an enjoyable piece of fluff, in spite of the mixed reviews (Roger Ebert gave it 4/5*, and it's got a 3.6/5 at netflix, I'm right between). The story takes place in the northern territory of Australia, around the coastal port of Darwin; beyond that is just desert, canyons, and huge cattle ranches. The first half of this 2.5 hr epic is a western, featuring an incredible cattle drive - you'll feel like you're in a John Ford film. The second half becomes a war film, as it's 1940 and the Japanese are advancing toward Australia.

Throughout each half, it's is also a romance, between a ranch heiress from England played by Nicole Kidman, who arrives to sell the property, and a contract drover, who gets cattle to market then moves on, played by buffed-up Hugh Jackman, who really should've been less Conan and more Indy Jones. Nice to see Aussie vets with meaty character parts here: Bryan Brown, as a competing cattle baron; Jack Thompson (Breaker Morant) as her boozing accountant; Road Warrior fans will also recognize gyro captain Bruce Spence. Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil from Walkabout plays a wise old shaman in the wild, named King George, who "has the magic".

A sidebar to the main plot involves the plight of mixed-race children (called "creamies" by the white racists), those with one white and one aborigine parent, who were taken away by officials and placed in their own type of orphanages, called "locky-locks" by the kids. One such child on Lady Ashley's ranch wants to hear a story one night, and Kidman, having just seen the film, recounts the Wizard of Oz to the child, teaching him Over the Rainbow, which becomes their special song. Now the story uses Oz as inspiration, and could even have been called "Ozstralia". This also "self places" the film in that historic era of film classics, whose look it emulates pretty well, thanks to modern special effects.

There's a lot of both cinematic and aboriginal magic here, with an almost painterly look at times, and it has the grand adventure epic feel. It's perhaps not as gripping or original as modern critics expected, and the war half seems in intrusion into a nice Aussie western, but it does have the old Hollywood formula and atmosphere - we even see big maps of Australia, like those in Casablanca and Indy Jones. Seen in that perspective, it's another grand entertainment in the over-the-top style of Cecil DeMille. Australia deserves their own grand national epic, for now, this is it.

Note: fans of this should enjoy see the four-hour miniseries "A Town Like Alice", based on Nevil Shute's romance novel of WW2 and Alice Springs, Australia.

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Babe

Chris Noonan, 1995 (10*)
Babe (from an award-winning children's novel) is my favorite children's film and animal film both. It qualifies as real action, but uses animation to make the animals mouths move so they can talk, and it works superbly. Oscar®-nominated actor James Cromwell is terrific as the farmer who buys piglet Babe for a Christmas dinner but finds something special in the pig, whose voice was Christine Cavanaugh's. The film was nominated for Best Picture, losing to the inferior Titanic. This riotous comedy from Australia actually hurt pork sales nationwide after its release.
Quote: I hear that if you don't do something useful, the humans eat you! (The Duck, who wants to be a rooster)

Awards Won (17)

U.S. Oscar – Special Effects
Best Fantasy Film - Acad. Of SF – Fantasy Films
Best Film Score – Australasian Perf. Rights Assoc.
Cinematography of the Year – Australian Cinematographers Soc.
Best Comedy Film – British Comedy Awards
Best Family Film – Critics Choice Award (Broadcast Film Critics)
Best Director, Original Music – Film Critics Circle of Australia
Best Feature Film – Genesis Awards
Best Comedy/Musical Picture – Golden Globes
Golden Screen, Germany
Studio Crystal Heart Award – Heartland Film Festival
Film of the Year – London Critics Circle Film Awards
Newcomer of the Year (Chris Noonan) – London Critics
Best Sound Editing, Golden Reel – Motion Pic. Sound Editors, USA
Best Film – Nat. Society of Film Critics Awards
Best New Director (Noonan) – New York Film Critics Circle Awards

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Ned Kelly

Gregor Jordan, 2004 (7.3*)
This rampaging Australian western tells the story of Irish livestock theif Ned Kelly, well played by Heath Ledger in one of his best roles, and his gang of four, two friends, one played by Orlando Bloom. A small misunderstanding with a British policeman led to a major war between the gang and British authorities, making Ned a folk hero, while the Irish farmers refuse to help in spite of a large bounty.Naomi Watts has a small role as romantic interest for Ned. Based on a true story from the late 1800's.

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My Brilliant Career

Gillian Armstrong, 1979, Australia (8.9*)

Judy Davis (who has won a trainload of Australian awards and one U.S. Emmy) has a star-making part, and deservedly won a BAA for Best Actress, as 19th century author Sybylla Melvin, a non-conventional woman who would rather pursue "my brilliant career" than simply seek out a husband, even though society keeps telling her that's the proper place for a woman.

She eventually falls in love with another free spirit, a landowner played by Sam Neill, also in a star-making role for him. This is both a terrific romance with lots of passion, and an incisive look at the creative mind; it also avoids sentimentality and compromise. Nice music score featuring Schumann's piano music. One of the best Australian films.

Update: for the perfect complement to this film, see We of the Never Never (1982), the true story of Jennifer Gunn, the first white woman to venture into Australia's Northern Territory, when she married a cattle station manager; based on her memoirs.

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The Road Warrior

a.k.a. Mad Max 2
George Miller, 1981, Australia (9.1*)
One of the best slam-bang car (and truck, and cycle) chase films ever, made Mel Gibson a star. Throw in post-apocalypse Australian desert controlled by marauding vagabond warriors called "The Humungous", and you have all the makings for mayhem. Into a gasoline-starved world drops Mad Max (from a very inferior first film), this time known at "The warrior Max, the road warrior". The film starts with action, and only lets up to set up the next big action sequence. The drama surrounds an oil refinery manned like a fortress, and of course the Humungous descend to get the gasoline. Max decides to help the oil refiners in exchange for a tank load of gasoline. This was actually a pretty good sf plot hidden in a lot of severe road rage and violence; kudos to the costume designer, the weapons people, the mechanics, and apparently three stuntmen killed; and Emil Minty as "The Feral Kid", who has a deadly steel boomerang and just grunts and squeaks; also Bruce Spence as "The Gyro Captain", who admires and befriends Max, and flies around in an ultralight.
Quote: Never saw a man beat the snake before, gotta be pretty quick to beat the snake! (Gyro Captain)

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