This was billed as an Australian western, and I suppose that is descriptive of the white settler - Aboriginal frontier setting in the Northern Territory in the 1920s. Hamilton Morris plays Aboriginal station hand Sam, who knows he is in deep trouble when he shoots and kills a white neighbour who threatens his and his wife's lives, in a drunken, psychopathic rage.
The frontier law is on trial here, and overall it doesn't scrub up as well as you might hope. Sam Neil is the neighbourly Fred, a devout Christian chap who precipitates the events by going to town for a week or two. The philosophical clash between Sgt Fletcher (Bryan Brown) who rounds up a posse of assistants to locate Sam, and Matt Day's Judge Taylor who tried to uphold the law without fear or favour despite the location and situation, was a highlight for me. Tremayne Doolan, as the teenager Philomac was a standout among a very strong cast.
An engrossing, deeply disturbing film showing again that Australia has a lot to be ashamed about in the way our white ancestors treated the original inhabitants. It appears likely that the story is an amalgam of many similar incidents all over the country, rather than being closely based on any one incident. The characterisations of Sam, Sgt Fletcher and Judge Taylor told a well known story to be told more pointedly than other attempts.
The title is an ironic twist on the harshness of the desert and scrub depicted. The landscape is a real star, shot in outback South Australia and made all the more evocative by the absence of a music soundtrack - the silence says heaps. For me, the overall pace of the film contributed to that sense of outback - but if you've never been in that sort of country, it might seem slow or too subtle.
The frontier law is on trial here, and overall it doesn't scrub up as well as you might hope. Sam Neil is the neighbourly Fred, a devout Christian chap who precipitates the events by going to town for a week or two. The philosophical clash between Sgt Fletcher (Bryan Brown) who rounds up a posse of assistants to locate Sam, and Matt Day's Judge Taylor who tried to uphold the law without fear or favour despite the location and situation, was a highlight for me. Tremayne Doolan, as the teenager Philomac was a standout among a very strong cast.
An engrossing, deeply disturbing film showing again that Australia has a lot to be ashamed about in the way our white ancestors treated the original inhabitants. It appears likely that the story is an amalgam of many similar incidents all over the country, rather than being closely based on any one incident. The characterisations of Sam, Sgt Fletcher and Judge Taylor told a well known story to be told more pointedly than other attempts.
The title is an ironic twist on the harshness of the desert and scrub depicted. The landscape is a real star, shot in outback South Australia and made all the more evocative by the absence of a music soundtrack - the silence says heaps. For me, the overall pace of the film contributed to that sense of outback - but if you've never been in that sort of country, it might seem slow or too subtle.