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Big, Pumped, Extreme
Australia (20th Century Fox, 11.26) is extreme cinema by way of director Baz Luhrmann's massive ego. We all know Luhrmann is no fan of naturalism, but Australia's manifestation of ultramagical reality made me want to plotz. Call Luhrmann the anti-Budd Boetticher or Anthony Mann or Sam Fuller -- a sworn aesthetic enemy of any solidly workmanlike approach to muscular outdoor filmmaking and telling forthright tales. Australia is a wackazoid big-canvas thing, and God help anyone who comes to it not willing to be injected with Baz serum.
Australia director Baz Luhrmann; Wizard of Oz costar Frank Morgan
And that's fine if you can roll with it. I couldn't. It put me off. It's too spiked with mescaline. And I say this as someone "experienced."
Partly a love story, partly about Nicole Kidman's strangely immobile forehead, partly about an ambitious Red River-ish cattle drive and lastly -- you could almost say anecdotally -- about the bombing of Darwin, Australia, in early 1942, there isn't a frame or line or gesture in this whopper of a movie hasn't been hugely futzed with by way of emotional investment and/or digitally reconstitution. To me it felt just as hyper, cranked up and visually steroid as Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge, Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet , etc. It's nuts.
What is the primary focus of Australia? Baz Luhrmann's big-dick imagination, and his determination and ability to visualize every last aspect of every last drop of rock-your-world razmatazz. He achieves that. A less talented fellow wouldn't have tried, much less dreamt of such a thing.
All the rest of the elements and components -- Kidman, the scenery, the cattle, the brawny and bearded Hugh Jackman, the cute Aboriginal kid Brandon Walters, the loutish big bellies in the bars, the evil-icious cattle barons David Wenham and Bryan Brown, the man-eating alligators, the Japanese planes that attack a tiny little island with nothing on it but a chapel, a minister and a bunch of intinerant children, the bloated and relentlessly rum-swilling Jack Thompson, David Gulpill 's Aboriginal spirit figure (called "King George") and all the rest of it -- are strictly secondary.
It all comes down to The Wizard of Oz, which is frequently and blatantly referenced. The bones of the story are told by Kidman to Walters, Judy Garland clips are shown twice, "Over The Rainbow" is sung, hummed and orchestrated. The metaphor is simple, mate. This is a film set in a country commonly referred to (certainly in the pages of old-time Variety) as Oz, and Luhrmann is the wizard -- the puller of strings and levers behind the curtain, the kindly fellow pulling off a flim-flam, the rascal with the booming amplified voice, the releaser of clouds of billowing black smoke and other awesome effects.
Trust me -- that's all this movie is about. Look at me, I'm a wild man, look at what I can do, I'm so extreme I can barely stand it, welcome to my world, blah blah. It's certainly eye-filling and, okay, emotionally gripping toward the end, but it taxes the soul and sets the foot a tapping.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on November 20, 2008 at 1:09 PM
comment #1
Rich S.
says ...
From the trailer, it looks like the movie is about getting Hugh Jackman to take his shirt off and get soaking wet. But I could be wrong.
Posted by Rich S.
at November 20, 2008 2:23 PM
comment #2
Geoff
says ...
For a while I thought Luhrman would really take a chill pill and use his talents to make a classic style epic.
I should have known he'd do his usual thing.
Posted by Geoff
at November 20, 2008 2:27 PM
comment #3
teeem
says ...
yo! in Australia it's man-eating crocodiles; crocs, "salties" they call 'em. lose the "alligators". it hurts your cred.
Posted by teeem
at November 20, 2008 2:28 PM
comment #4
actionman
says ...
This is your best, most entertaining review since the one you wrote for Miami Vice (I also adored that film). It's considerably shorter than the one for Vice but the same sense of passion rings true. I love how descriptive you allow yourself to get.
Don't know what to make of this apparent mess...it sounds like it works here and there...but clocking in at almost three hours is gonna spell doom at the box office.
Posted by actionman
at November 20, 2008 2:28 PM
comment #5
otownroger
says ...
It's Wizard of Oz meets Rabbit Proof Fence meets Lawrence of Arabia by way of the 1946 Aussie classic, The Overlanders.
Got all that?
Posted by otownroger
at November 20, 2008 2:35 PM
comment #6
coxcable
says ...
This will come as no surprise to those who found Moulin Rouge excruciatingly dumb.
Is it just a coincidence that the words "Baz" and "Bay" are only one letter apart in the alphabet?
Posted by coxcable
at November 20, 2008 2:40 PM
comment #7
actionman
says ...
I get teary eyed just thinking about Rabbit Proof Fence. That's Noyce's masterpiece. That film moved me in a way that not many other films have.
Posted by actionman
at November 20, 2008 2:44 PM
comment #8
Arran
says ...
Well, you've just confirmed all my worst thoughts about this movie. As if I needed any more encouragement to avoid it like the plague. I sat through about 30 minutes of Moulin Rouge and it felt like I was being molested by a leering, drunken clown.
Like Geoff, I did have a small measure of hope that Baz would dial down his worst excesses and just make a classically epic movie, but apparently he hasn't. So no thanks.
My distaste for the film has only grown in the past couple of weeks - you see, I just moved to Australia from New Zealand and you can't open a newspaper or turn on the TV without seeing something about this fucking movie.
Posted by Arran
at November 20, 2008 2:49 PM
comment #9
ceejw
says ...
I really don't know why he didn't just stick to the whole theatrical thing. There is nothing wrong with just doing one style and doing it well.
You are certainly right about the man's ego, his wife, Catherine Martin however is incredibly talented.
Wish the bombing of Darwin had been covered by another film maker, it's a fascinating story.
Posted by ceejw
at November 20, 2008 2:49 PM
comment #10
Edward
says ...
I liked "Stricly Ballroom" and "Moulin Rouge." I really liked "Romeo and Juliet," so color me curious about this.
Posted by Edward
at November 20, 2008 2:52 PM
comment #11
Glenn Kenny
says ...
Funny you should mention Boetticher, Jeff. I just watched all the features in the Sony box set, and a big part of the pleasure of those movies derives from just watching the actors get around—or chase each other—on horseback. Randolph Scott, James Coburn, Lee Van Cleef, Pernell Roberts; they're all riding, sometimes quite expertly. The simple but inspired way Boetticher depicts the relationship between these men and their "animals" (as they're referred to in the films) is a big part of what gives the films their very special atmosphere. And while it's clear that Jackman and Kidman got to know what to do on top of a horse, none of the action in "Australia" conveys anything as plainly thrilling as what Boetticher gives you. Kind of a waste, really.
Posted by Glenn Kenny
at November 20, 2008 3:19 PM
comment #12
lipranzer
says ...
"Call Luhrmann the anti-Budd Boetticher or Anthony Mann or Sam Fuller -- a sworn aesthetic enemy of any solidly workmanlike approach to muscular outdoor filmmaking and telling forthright tales."
Well, Fuller could get pretty florid in his own way (SHOCK CORRIDOR), but I take your point. However, I think there's room in the film world for both Luhrmann's approach (I've liked all three of his films so far - yes, especially MOULIN ROUGE) and the "no-nonsense" approach you seem to prefer, if they're done right. Don't know if this will work, but I am looking forward to seeing the movie.
Posted by lipranzer
at November 20, 2008 3:35 PM
comment #13
lbeale
says ...
Jeff, I'm with you: I thought Moulin Rouge was unwatchable swill. The trailer for Australia looked interesting enough - in a big, dumb, epic picture kind of way - but your description makes me want to get out my Boetticher set and watch 'The Tall T' over and over again. THAT'S filmmaking.
Posted by lbeale
at November 20, 2008 3:51 PM
comment #14
/3rtfu11
says ...
Baz Luhrmann's big-dick imagination
No words.
Posted by /3rtfu11
at November 20, 2008 5:01 PM
comment #15
LexG
says ...
The trailer makes this look more like PEARL HARBOR than anything else.
Posted by LexG
at November 20, 2008 5:51 PM
comment #16
Jack Price
says ...
Sounds like many of the same descriptors could apply to Magnolia as well.
Posted by Jack Price
at November 20, 2008 7:36 PM
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