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RABBIT PROOF FENCE
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Instantly we can see the Aboriginals living happy peaceful lives among their villages as they hunt; the first ten minutes of the film feature nothing but sub-titles as we watch the villagers talk among each other in their native language and from then on the film become English language, almost as if the Australian government's influence subconsciously affects the tone of the film. What make this movie so heart-wrenching is the fact that these three children are willing to walk more than a thousand miles just to get back to their family. The writer tends to let the audience become comfortable with the situation often watching this serene life, then they take us completely off-guard; the mother and grandmother can see the government issued cars coming down the road and instantly they begin fleeing, yet we have no idea what's really happening until the terrible events unfold before our eyes. What tugs on the viewer's hearts are the brutal scenes in which we watch the Australian government literally snatch the children from their parents and their villages as the mothers bang and scream on their cars frantically to grab their children as the government drive off; it surely put a tear in my eye. Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury, and Laura Monaghan are powerful and very believable as the three young girls who trek for miles on end on foot to get back to their home. Most of all, Everlyn Sampi gives a powerful and believable performance as Molly Craig managing to display striking realism and courage among her character; it's hard to believe a young girl like that ever existed. Director Phillip Noyce manages to construct such a wrenching and desperate setting as we can feel the young children's desperation and sheer relentlessness on getting home to their loved ones. It becomes almost exhausting watching the young girls walking among the sand and wastelands in the scorching heat of the Australian outback but you root for them nonetheless willing to stay with them and watch to see if they make it home after all. Kenneth Branagh gives a commanding and underplayed role as A.O. Neville known by the camp's girls as "Mr. Devil" or Neville the Devil. He supposedly wants the girls to reform them into the English ways training them to speak English, practice his religion and sing old English folk songs. Though they claim the camp is for the children's own good, you can instantly tell this is no different than The Holocaust was. Often times the people act as if it's a Utopian society, but we hear a young girl getting lashed repeatedly after she attempts to escape to be with her boyfriend. The illusion is peaceful, but all it is is domesticating a culture against their own free will. They take what's called "half breeds" and slowly extract the Aboriginal culture and lifestyle almost as if they want to deplete them of their culture to inject their own form of what they consider the right culture and way of living, and it becomes increasingly grim as we watch that they're futures aren't as bright often ending up as either servants to farmers or workers at the concentration camp. Their best tracker Moodoo (David Gulpilil) who is also an Aboriginal is desperate to get back to his village and practically begs Neville to let him leave, yet he continues to stall him by giving excuses to keep him in the camp. They deprive these poor people of their culture and there's really nothing they can do about it because of the power of the Australian government over them; It's sad and often pretty terrible. What's heartbreaking about this film is when we see the real life surviving two sisters as old women talking among each other as we hear in a heart-breaking narrative ending about what happened after Molly Craig and her sister escaped the Australian government. Writer Doris Pilkington, daughter of Molly creates a courageous and truly admirable dedication to her mother and aunts, and all other oppressed Aboriginals who were deprived of their lifestyles and culture in the early 1900's who never had their story heard.
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| What did you think? Discuss this film at the Cinema Crazed Forum |
Based on the book "Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence" written by Doris
Pilkington, this historical drama follows the early nineteen hundreds
when the government would take Aboriginal children from their villages
and families supposedly for their own good where they would be placed in
a concentration camp to be educated and trained to be civil. Three young
girls are taken from their mother to be taken to the camp; after a
while, the oldest daughter Molly decides to escape the camp with her
sisters and trek over one-thousand miles to get back home to their
mother and must dodge a skilled tracker who must take them back to the
camp. Who knew something like this ever happened? I often read up on
history in High school, but I never heard of such a travesty that took
place in this time of history.
Though this is probably one of the best in years, there's not as much
emphases on the concentration camp as I wanted. I would have preferred
to see a lot more of their experience within the concentration camp and
their conditions, but it cut particularly short, depriving the audience
of feeling deprived as the young girls do. Kenneth Branagh isn't in the
movie enough to gain a truly intimidating presence among the people in
this camp; though he is a driving force to capture the young girls, it
becomes evident that his role is basically thankless and he is grossly
underused being such an immensely talented actor.
This is probably one of the most heart-wrenching best films to come
around in years truly portraying cultural oppression in it's saddest and
exposing true human nature and experience in its depth.
