Australia (2008)

Sorry for only getting two posts in this week.  I've been terribly behind on all my shows and I'm still trying to recover from the epic week-long vacation with my cousin and partner-in-crime.  True story:  It's going to take me three months to earn enough days off just to get back to zero.  Now that's  a vacation. 

Netflix mailed this to me on the 14th and I just got around to watching it last night while I was waiting on trick-or-treaters (that never showed up, by the way).  Normally, I love nothing more than watching an entire marathon of crappy low-budget horror films on Halloween.  In past years, I have rented all of the Horrorfest films and watched them back-to-back.  Some were good, some were shit but they were all very definitely Halloween horror.

This year, for whatever reason, I just wasn't in the mood.  Hence, you get a Baz Luhrmann extravaganza instead of Drag Me to Hell. 

And extravaganza it is.  Set against the backdrop of the Japanese bombing of Darwin, North Territory and the implementation of the Stolen Generations project is a tale of an Englishwoman trying to keep her ranch profitable in the face of a smug cattle baron and his truly evil henchman with only the help of a surly drover and a bright-eyed half-Aboriginal boy. 

**SPOILER ALERT**

In true Harlequin novel fashion, the uptight English bitch and the gruff misunderstood cowhand fall in lurve but they break up because he feels smothered and she won't let the kid go on walkabout or something.  Then the kid gets shipped off to Mission Island to have the black beat out of him, Lady Sarah the boss gets blown up, and Hugh Jackman cries.  Over the Rainbow gets sung or played on the harmonica a lot.  A plucky secondary character Sacrifices Himself so the Handsome Hero can feel bad while rescuing the children from the Evil Empire.  They sail into the ruined harbor and magically find the Beautiful Heroine through the power of song.

**END SPOILERS**

The movie was really pretty, if jumpily edited at the start, which is kind of a Baz Luhrmann signature.  Also a signature is his relentless cribbing from source material.  In this case, The Wizard of Oz.  He uses the themes of a stranger in a strange land, native magic, and the power of a home against the backdrop of war and genocide, of which apparently Frank L. Baum was in favor.

This is not a new thing for Baz.  Moulin Rouge was a technicolor explosion of La Traviata, Romeo + Juliet was a technicolor explosion of Romeo and Juliet and...well, Strictly Ballroom was pretty original, I guess.

Anyway, Australia doesn't suck but it does run 2 hrs and 45 min with no intermission so be ready with that pause button about halfway through.