Hey folks, Harry here... Our buddy Withnail from the land down under has given us a look see at Philip Noyce's RABBIT PROOF FENCE, in talking about the beauty of the cinematography in this film, Withnail mentions Roeg's famous WALKABOUT. IF this movie contains an ounce of the beauty that WALKABOUT has... then this will be something beyond glorious to at least watch. From the sound of it, it looks to be a complicated film with complicated reactions to it. GOOD. It's nice to see Noyce do one from the heart as opposed to the wallet. Sounds like a film to support! Here's Withnail...
Hey, Harry,
Long-time reader of your site. I've just seen an advance screening in Sydney of Philip Noyce's RABBIT PROOF FENCE, which opens here in a couple of weeks, and I'm afraid I'm gonna have to put my reviewer's cap on. Here goes:
Australian director Philip Noyce made two great Aussie films (NEWSFRONT and DEAD CALM) before 'going Hollywood' and spending the next 15 years making star-vehicle blockbusters of varying quality (Read: studio hack jobs). After frustration over Harrison Ford dithering over SUM OF ALL FEARS, he's finally taken a far riskier leap and returned to home turf with RABBIT PROOF FENCE.
RABBIT PROOF FENCE is a true story arising from a shameful and still-raw chapter of Australian history: the so-called 'stolen generation'. In the 1930's scores of Aboriginal children were forceably taken from their homes and families and put into orphanages, boarding schools and foster homes (for their own protection, apparently), where a large percentage of them were used as slave labour and experienced horrific prolonged abuse. This era in our country's history is a wound that has never healed (should it ever?) and proves the basis for this devastating and immaculately made labour-of-love for Noyce.
The plot is simplicity itself: three young Aboriginal girls who live near a rabbit proof fence (these things can stretch for thousands of miles across barren parts of Australia) are removed from their homes in a truly harrowing scene on the orders of the Minister for Aboriginal affairs, played by the lip-less wonder himself, Kenneth Branagh. The girls are taken to a mission 2400 kms from home and, seeing their eventual fate at the hands of white foster parents, escape and decide to follow the nearby rabbit proof fence, assuming it will lead them home.
Noyce's journey in making this film has been well-documented on Australian TV, and his search for the three girls to play these roles was truly fascinating to watch. This is clearly the return of the Noyce that crafted the brilliant NEWSFRONT, finally (hopefully) leaving slop like THE SAINT and THE BONE COLLECTOR behind - a Noyce that most cinema-goers around the world probably never knew existed. But his struggles with his temperamental non-professional performers have produced, as it so often does, amazingly affecting perfomances.
Evelyn Sampi (Molly) is a natural, and it's very possible she may play Olympic Gold medalist Cathy Freeman in an upcoming movie about her, at Cathy's personal request. But her natural ability caused havoc on the set, where we saw Noyce pulling his hair out at this frustrated, confused, petulant but undeniably talented young girl. Hopefully all of this great behind the scenes footage that has been screening constantly here in Australia will make it's way onto the DVD, which it may, considering that Noyce's commentary on THE BONE COLLECTOR is vastly better than the film itself and the guy has expressed his love for the format.
Also returning to Australia after amazing success overseas is Wong Kar-Wai's genius cinematographer Christopher Doyle, and the film looks magnificent, maybe even equalling Nic Roeg's WALKABOUT as the ultimate cinematic visualisation of the unforgiving but staggeringly expansive and beautiful Australian outback. Speaking of WALKABOUT, it's great to see David Gulpilil (sp?) back on screen in FENCE as Moodoo.
This is a film that just can't be critiqued by merely what happens on screen ('this' part was cool, and 'that' part was cool, etc...), but only by what you feel, and in that it sadly isn't going to be embraced by a large worldwide audience, nor was it designed to. For Noyce his home-land is clearly his first concern, and this movie should be a big hit here, thanks in part to a recent boom in local cinema box-office and the timeliness of it's subject matter. I've no idea when it opens there in the States, Harry, but I hope that everyone on this site who has bitched about garbage like ROLLERBALL in recent times will back their anger up by supporting a film like this. Just try to ignore the fact that it was made by the guy who blessed us with Sharon Stone taking it up the clacker in SLIVER.
Though it isn't a perfect film by any means, this is a prime example of when someone in the industry uses the power they have aquired to put something personal and passionate on the screen. Spielberg tried it with A.I. last year and failed miserably, whereas Peter Jackson flourished with the sublime FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (had to mention it, fanboys). Noyce could easily coast for the next ten years without breaking a sweat, getting richer and more bitter with every film he made and end up like John McTiernan. But he hasn't, and he has reminded us of why he is where is in the first place. As I said above, I hope that Philip Noyce the master craftsman is here to stay.
And hopefully this film will go some way to eventually making our gutless, spineless, clueless little bitch of a Prime Minister FINALLY acknowledge what we did to these people and apologise.
If both of these things can happen then we'll all be richer for it in the end.
Cheers,
Marwood Withnail
