Australia
2008 · Directed by Baz Luhrmann
Original language: English
- adventure
- romance
- drama
The story
Set in northern Australia before World War II, an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch reluctantly pacts with a stock-man in order to protect her new property from a takeover plot. As the pair drive 2,000 head of cattle over unforgiving landscape, they experience the bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces firsthand.
What it’s like
Saturated, big-screen colour throughout: ochre dust, emerald billabongs, sunsets burning orange over endless red earth, and Baz Luhrmann's trademark sweep of crane shots, rapid cuts and swelling studio camera moves that turn the outback into a painted epic. Its light is mostly golden hour and harsh midday glare, its sound a lush orchestral score by David Hirschfelder with the swell of Indigenous song and bush ambience layered in. The vibe is sweeping, warm and old-fashioned, a romance-adventure with a stubborn streak of melodrama, best suited to a weekend afternoon or a comfort rewatch when you want to be swept up rather than quietly absorbed. Pacing is brisk and the register earnest, following a prickly English woman and a rough-edged drover slowly softening toward each other amid a cattle drive that becomes a fight for survival. Intensity is moderate: some fistfights and rough-riding peril, a few tense standoffs, and a sudden, shocking air raid on Darwin that lands hard and briefly. There is sensuality and kissing but no explicit sex. Racial prejudice and colonial attitudes run through the story and are part of its texture. It suits viewers who love grand, romantic widescreen spectacle and don't mind a sprawling, unapologetically old-Hollywood tone.
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