Thread: Australia

I saw the movie this last weekend. I have been a fan of Baz Luhrman since I saw "Romeo and Juliet": the rhythm, the music, the photography. He's one of the cutting edge directors of this new century. That doesn't mean I agree with him on everything, but still... However, I must admit I can understand why this movie didn't do that great in theaters.
The beginning of the movie has Luhrman's pace written all over it: the fast-forwarding sequences, the overperformances, etc. After a while, the movie slowly slides into a more normal pace and ends up being a quest for the epic story every great director should tell. Of course, it is certainly a breath of fresh air seeing a movie that doesn't glorify the United States or bases on its morality. This time the subject matter is Australia and its mixed nature, and it remains the main subject during the entire piece, a subject impersonated in the little halfbreed: the confrontation of the wild and the civilized, the brain and the instinct. In many ways, Sarah's journey opposes Dover's. She comes from civilization, from Europe, to breath in the spirit of a land with no morality. (The issue of morality is raised several times at the beginning of the movie). Dover is an beast, the Australian man, a bird of prey that needs to spend some time in the wild to remember who he actually is. And their marriage represents the combination of what, according to the director, depicts Australia perfectly. (The issue is taken to the extreme when the World War is treated: look where rationality has taken us. Are rationality and irrationality really that far away from each other?). Sarah's journey finished with her acceptance of Nullah's departure for the "walkabout". Dover's finishes with his return home (the leading music theme during the entire movie... a repetition that could make the music a little boring perhaps?).
Now, given that, is it really that necessary to be that radical when it comes to the "bad guy"? That is something that has always been present in Luhrman's movies but has never been as strong as in this movie. The bad guy is reaaaally baaaad! After loosing everything, after having failed completely, he keeps on trying to be mean. That could cause the audience to loose some touch when it comes to the identification with the story.
Anyways, the great Luhrman's finalies were taken to a greater scale this time and ended the movie in a tone that translates his rhythms to another field. All in all, I think the movie is interesting, but I don't know for how long it'll be remembered.