Australia: Blu-Ray DVD Review – Now In Stores!

So, let’s say you have this brilliant idea to create the next epic classic.  What exactly would you need? Well, looking back at previous epics, you can choose from any of the following: westerns, romances, war movies, social commentaries, and musical renditions of classic childhood novels. Now say you want to make it the best freaking epic that’s ever been made…easy! Make a movie that combines all of them in one! That’s what Baz Luhrmann’s “Australia” attempts, but doesn’t necessary complete.

                           The Gorgeous Australian Outback

    The story takes place in 1940’s Australia on a cattle ranch smack in the middle of the gorgeous Australian outback. Narrated by an aboriginal boy, Nullah (Brandon Walters), Australia tells of a rich aristocrat, Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) who teams up with a wildcard drover (Hugh “My Abs Create Heat” Jackman) to save her late husband’s ranching business by driving 1,500 cattle across the outback before the duplicitous Fletcher (David Wenham) can destroy her family’s fortune. If the movie had ended there, you would have had a perfectly good Western. But the movie doesn’t stop there; it continues on for a whopping 165 minutes. Now, for the rest of the movie you have a tumultuous love story between Jackman and Kidman, a Japanese attack on the city of Darwin, racial commentary, and a constant homage to Wizard of Oz (the music to “Over the Rainbow” appears in one form or another throughout the duration of the film).

                 Hugh Jackman’s Gorgeous Australian Outback

       Hugh Jackman’s Gorgeous Australian Outfront…in Blu-Ray!

Now, don’t get me wrong. The movie was cinematically gorgeous and is surprisingly faithful to the noisy and frenetic atmosphere that permeates all of Luhrmann’s work. The love story, however, is no Moulin Rouge. Sarah and the Drover do have chemistry, but a lot of that is Hugh Jackman’s raw sexual appeal (for visual confirmation, please see the bathing scene above) and less of it is Nicole Kidman’s acting.

                    Nicole Kidman Mourning the Current Scene

After all, Nicole Kidman flits around like a melodramatic porcelain caricature of previously played characters. It appears that she tries to add depth to the character by constantly looking like she’s on the verge of tears, a la Kristen Kreuk. Drover, on the other hand, has mountains of promise for dramatic development, only to fall regrettably short of any type of explanation or character development whatsoever. Hugh Jackman did a wonderful job for a part that seems stunted by design.
    The most powerful and interesting characters are Nullah and his mysterious Aboriginal grandfather, King George. Perhaps, I find them most interesting because they represent the most intriguing part of the film. They represent the underlying theme of the cultural differentiation and disparity that exists in Australia; the clash between the Aboriginal culture and the English Caucasian culture. Historically, this clash manifested itself in the form of the Stolen Generations: generations of aboriginal children who were stolen from their mothers and sequestered in White homes to assimilate them. This government funded program lasted from the early 1900s to 1973, with no formal apology until late 2008.  For me, this storyline was appealing because it was a part of history that, as an American, I had been relatively blind to. The idea of clashing cultures is not only universal, but is particularly poignant in the film when Nullah must go on his “walkabout” in order to become a man in the eyes of his people.

    Overall, the movie epically fails to do what Luhrmann obviously set out to do: it’s no epic anything (besides epic length). The love story is existent but not nearly as powerful as in his previous films, the Western aspects are there and exciting, but not classic status by any means, and the War flies by (yes, pun intended, see the movie and you’ll get it). All of that isn’t to say it’s not a good movie, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was visually gorgeous and laden with kitsch and whimsical moments. Also, Hugh Jackman is mouth-watering throughout. All in all, it was thoroughly Luhrmann (for me, that’s a great thing), and I appreciate his effort to take on something so ambitious, even if he does not quite accomplish it.

           This Child Was Forced to Sit Through This Entire Film

Australia is now out on DVD and Blu-Ray at a store near you! I recommend Blu-Ray for this film’s saving grace: Jackman-Skin