Hey folks, Harry here... We've been covering RABBIT PROOF FENCE for a while now, and the reason is that I'm really wanting to see this film, but it still doesn't neck in my neck of the woods, nor yours I dare say. So take this as another reminder that this is a great little film that still isn't at a theater near you, but one to put on that ever ellusive list of films you need to see. Beware of spoilers here...
Hi Harry,
Saw this film in London yesterday. Don't know if it's out in the States yet, but if you're interested have a read. There's some spoilers in here so be careful.
The film tells the story of three young half-caste girls who were removed from their aborigini family and taken to a camp at the other end of the country to work as slaves. Unhappy in their new "home" the eldest child, Molly Craig, leads the younger two back to their original homes. This is no easy task bearing in mind the little journey is 1500 miles long.
To help guide them, they use the rabbit-proof fence of the title. The fence was erected to span the country keeping rabbits one one side to stop them wreaking havoc with farmers' crops.
Essentially, the film is a chase movie. The girls journey home, pursued by an aboriginal tracker who follows their tracks and, along with another tracker, lies in wait to intercept the girls along the way.
Considering that the film contains numerous episodic segments of the girls just walking, it actually makes for quite a thrilling experience. A feeling heightened by the fact the film is based on on truth.
The man in charge of ensuring their capture is A O Neville, played by Kenneth Branagh. Neville is an ignorant man, doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. He see half-caste people as a polluted "third race" and spearheads the operation to phase them out by separating them from their families and breeding them with whites in order to extinguish their ethnicity in future generations.
The character is the most complex of the film as he is not a one-note monster, or evil at all. He is a human man, just with the wrong perspective. Branagh plays this well, showing his embarassment at being forced to send hunters after, and being constantly outwitted by, three homesick children.
On their journey the children meet different people who aid or hinder their plight. A hunter who gives them a share of his meagre food. A kind housewife who gives them clothes. And, most gut-wrenchingly, an aborigini housemaid who was brought up in the same place where the girls have escaped from. In her one scene, the owner of the house where she works sneaks into her room late at night in order to molest her, on pulling back the sheets he sees the maid huddled up with the children and runs away. The maid pleads with the children, "don't go. If you go, he'll come back." This hammers the point home: If they go back to the slave-school, this is where they're going to end up.
Though the main antagonist is Neville, he is joined by the actual country itself, which forces sandstorms, rainstorms and sweltering heat on the children as they trek across it.
The film's final scene is happy, but not as Molly's voice-over tells us she was taken away AGAIN and make the same journey AGAIN. This time she stayed in hiding, but then her own childeren were taken away and she hasn't seen them since.
We are then given video footage of the real Molly Craig and her younger sister. The other child who was recaptured along the way is sadly dead.
The film itself has quite a basic formula: The kids are taken away from their mothers, they escape, make the journey, arrive home. This is not a problem as it seems unnecessary to overload the film with pointless plot dramatics.
Then you remember who this is all directed by... Philip Noyce. No! Not the Philip Noyce who churned out Sliver, surely? Not the Philip Noyce that gave us Patriot Games? Apparently it is. And this is his best film since Dead Calm. Up until now, I've thought of him as just another Hollywood hack churning out style-less flicks for the masses. My only memory of Sliver is Sharon Stone playing with herself in the bath while holding onto the tub with both hands (!). What did she have? A rubber ducky down there or what?
This is the kind of film that proves that even this kind of director is capable of making a film that delivers on an emotional level. Now, if Joel Schumacher can just find one, that WILL be a big turnaround.
If you haven't seen it, check it out. If you already have, hope you liked it.
All the best,
Jim Lowe
