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IGN IGN IGN
{{Infobox Film
| name = Australia
| image = Australia ver4.jpg
| caption = [[film poster|Australian promotional poster]]
| director = [[Baz Luhrmann]]
| producer = Baz Luhrmann<br />[[Catherine Knapman]]<br />[[G. Mac Brown]]
| producer = Baz Luhrmann<br />[[Catherine Knapman]]<br />[[G. Mac Brown]]
| writer = '''Story'''<br />Baz Luhrmann<br />'''Screenplay'''<br />Baz Luhrmann<br />[[Ronald Harwood]]<br />[[Stuart Beattie]]<br />[[Richard Flanagan]]
| writer = '''Story'''<br />Baz Luhrmann<br />'''Screenplay'''<br />Baz Luhrmann<br />[[Ronald Harwood]]<br />[[Stuart Beattie]]<br />[[Richard Flanagan]]

Revision as of 05:49, 5 January 2009

IGN IGN IGN | producer = Baz Luhrmann
Catherine Knapman
G. Mac Brown | writer = Story
Baz Luhrmann
Screenplay
Baz Luhrmann
Ronald Harwood
Stuart Beattie
Richard Flanagan | starring = Hugh Jackman
Nicole Kidman
Brandon Walters | music = David Hirschfelder | cinematography = Mandy Walker | editing = Dody Dorn | distributor = 20th Century Fox | released = 26 November 2008 (Australia, U.S.) | budget = $130,000,000
($78,000,000 after Australian tax rebates)[1][2] | gross = $90,551,000
(worldwide)[3][4] | country = Australia | language = English | runtime = 166 minutes }} Australia is a 2008 Australian epic romance film directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. The screenplay was written by Luhrmann and screenwriter Stuart Beattie, with Ronald Harwood. The film is a character story, set between 1939 and 1942 against a dramatised backdrop of events across Northern Australia at the time, such as the bombing of Darwin in Australia during World War II. Production took place in Sydney, Darwin, Kununurra, and Bowen. The movie was to be released on 13 November 2008 in Australia[5] and 16 November 2008 in the United States;[6] however, Fox announced that it had pushed back the release dates in both Australia and the United States to 26 November 2008,[7] with subsequent worldwide release dates throughout late December 2008 and January and February 2009.

Plot

The film is narrated by the young half-caste Aboriginal boy, Nullah (Brandon Walters).

From England to Australia

In 1939, Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) travels from England to northern Australia to force her philandering husband to sell his faltering Australian cattle station, Faraway Downs. Her husband sends an independent cattle drover (Hugh Jackman), called simply "Drover", to Darwin to transport her to Faraway Downs.

Lady Sarah's husband is murdered shortly before she arrives. Meanwhile, cattle station manager Neil Fletcher (David Wenham) is trying to gain control of Faraway Downs, so that Lesley 'King' Carney (Bryan Brown) can have a complete cattle monopoly in the Northern Territory, which will give him negotiating leverage with the Australian army. Fletcher also claims to Lady Sarah that the murderer of her husband is an Aboriginal elder with magical powers, "King George" (David Gulpilil).

The childless Lady Sarah is captivated by the young boy Nullah, who was born to an Aboriginal mother and an unknown white father. Nullah tells her that he has seen her cattle being driven onto Carney's land — in other words, stolen from her. Because of this, Fletcher mistreats Nullah and threatens him and his mother, after which Lady Sarah fires Fletcher and decides to try and run the cattle station herself. When Nullah and his mother hide from the white authorities by entering a water tower, his mother drowns. Lady Sarah comforts Nullah by singing the song "Over the Rainbow" from the film The Wizard of Oz. Nullah tells her that "King George" is his grandfather, and that like "King George" he too is a "magic man".

The cattle drove

Lady Sarah persuades Drover to take the cattle to Darwin for sale. Drover, a white man, is friendly with the Aborigines, and therefore shunned by many of the other whites in the territory. It is revealed that he had married an Aboriginal woman, but she had died after being refused medical treatment in a local hospital because of her race.

Drover leads a team of six other riders, including Lady Sarah, Drover's Aboriginal brother-in-law Magarri (David Ngoombujarra), Nullah, and the station's accountant Kipling Flynn (Jack Thompson), to drive the 1,500 cattle to Darwin. Carney's men set large fires to make the cattle stampede, and Flynn is killed. However, at the last minute, Nullah stops the cattle from stampeding over a cliff, by using magic learned from his grandfather.

Lady Sarah and Drover develop a romance, and she gains a new appreciation for the Australian territory. But Carney's men poison all the water sources along the cattle-drive route, so the group risks driving the cattle through the dangerous Never Never desert, which they accomplish with the help of "King George". Then, when at last delivering the cattle in Darwin, the group has to race them onto the ship before Carney's cattle are loaded.

After the cattle drove

Lady Sarah, Nullah, and Drover live together happily at Faraway Downs for two years. However, Fletcher kills Carney and frames it as a tragic accident, marries his daughter Cath Carney, takes over Carney's cattle empire, and then continues to menace Lady Sarah. It is determined that Fletcher was the actual murderer of Lady Sarah's husband, and that Fletcher is also almost certainly the father of Nullah.

Nullah is drawn to perform a ceremonial coming-of-age walkabout with his grandfather "King George", but is instead captured by the authorities and sent to live on Mission Island with the rest of the half-Aboriginal children (dubbed the "Stolen Generations"). Lady Sarah vows to find him again somehow, but first works as a radio operator in Darwin during the escalation of World War II. When the Japanese attack the island and Darwin in 1942, Lady Sarah fears that Nullah was killed.

Drover, who had quarrelled with Lady Sarah and had gone droving apparently never to return, hears (mistakenly) that she has been killed in the bombing of Darwin. Drover finds out about Nullah's abduction to Mission Island, and rescues him and the other children from the island using a sailboat (At this point in the movie, Luhrmann attempts to rewrite history (his mythologised Australia) by suggesting that Japanese soldiers set foot on Australian soil during the bombing of Darwin. This did not occur. For a more factual account of the bombing refer to Bombing of Darwin ). Meanwhile, Lady Sarah has sold Faraway Downs to Fletcher, and is leaving the Northern Territory that morning, since she believes there is nothing more to hold her there. But when Drover and the children sail back into port at Darwin, Nullah plays his harmonica with the tune of "Over the Rainbow". Lady Sarah hears the music, abandons her trip, and the three are reunited.

Fletcher, who knows Nullah is the one link to his disreputable past that can ruin him, attempts to shoot Nullah, but is speared by King George and falls dead. Lady Sarah, Drover, and Nullah return to the safety of remote Faraway Downs. On the way back to Faraway Downs, King George calls for Nullah, his grandson, who returns to the outback with his grandfather.

Soundtrack

"Over the Rainbow"

Harold Arlen's song "Over the Rainbow", from The Wizard of Oz (1939), becomes a recurring motif in the film, bonding Lady Sarah and Nullah, and connecting also to the Aboriginal concepts of Rainbow Serpent, Songs Lines, The Dreaming, and "magic men" like Nullah's grandfather and Nullah himself.

Additional music

Luhrmann hired singer Rolf Harris to record his wobble board for the opening credits of the film,[8] and Elton John composed and performed a song called "The Drover's Ballad", with lyrics written by Luhrmann, for the end credits of the movie. The end credits also feature a song called "By The Boab Tree", nominated for a 2008 Satellite Award,[9] which Luhrmann also contributed lyrics to, performed by Sydney singer Angela Little. Little's rendition of "Waltzing Matilda" is also in the end credits of some versions of the film.[10]

David Hirschfelder composed the score for the film. Musical numbers within the film include the jazz standards "Begin the Beguine", "Tuxedo Junction", "Sing Sing Sing (With a Swing)", and "Brazil". The soundtrack also incorporates quotations from the Bach cantata aria "Sheep May Safely Graze", and the final scene of the film is accompanied by "Nimrod" from Edward Elgar's "Enigma" Variations.[11]

Main cast

  • Nicole Kidman – Lady Sarah Ashley, an English aristocrat who inherits the cattle station Faraway Downs in Australia
  • Hugh Jackman – an (unnamed) Australian drover who helps Lady Sarah Ashley move the cattle across the property
  • David Wenham – Neil Fletcher, a station manager who plans to take Faraway Downs from Lady Sarah Ashley
  • Jack Thompson – Kipling Flynn, an alcoholic accountant who enjoys a luxurious lifestyle
  • Bryan Brown – Lesley 'King' Carney, a cattle baron who owns much of the land in northern Australia
  • Brandon Walters – Nullah, a young half-caste Aboriginal boy whom Lady Sarah Ashley finds at Faraway Downs
  • David Gulpilil – King George, a magic tribal elder, grandfather of Nullah
  • Essie Davis – Catherine 'Cath' Carney Fletcher, wife of Neil Fletcher and daughter of King Carney
  • Ben Mendelsohn – Captain Emmett Dutton
  • Barry Otto – Administrator Allsop, the King's representative in the Northern Territory
  • David Ngoombujarra – Magarri, the Drover's colleague and friend
  • Jacek Koman – Ivan, the saloonkeeper and innkeeper in Darwin

Production

Originally, Baz Luhrmann was planning to make a film about Alexander the Great starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicole Kidman, with a screenplay by David Hare.[12] The director had built a studio in the northern Sahara but a rival film made by Oliver Stone was released first and after several years in development, Luhrmann abandoned the project to make a film closer to home.[12]

Luhrmann spent six months researching general Australian history.[12] At one point he considered setting his film during the First Fleet, 11 ships that sailed from Britain in 1787 and set up the first colony in New South Wales. The director wanted to explore Australia's relationship with England and with its indigenous population.[12] He decided to set the film between World Wars I and II in order to merge a historical romance with the Stolen Generations, where thousands of mixed-race Aboriginal children were forcibly removed from their families by the state and integrated into white society. Luhrmann has said that his film depicts "a mythologised Australia".[12]

Casting

Australia sign board

In May 2005, Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman entered negotiations to star in an untitled 20th Century Fox project written by director Baz Luhrmann and screenwriter Stuart Beattie, with Luhrmann directing the film.[13] For her role, Kidman learned to round up cattle.[14] In May 2006, due to Crowe's demanding personal script approval before signing onto the project, Luhrmann sought to replace the actor with Heath Ledger.[15] Crowe said he didn't want to work in an environment that was influenced by budgetary needs.[16] About this casting issue, Luhrmann said, "it was hard pinning [Crowe] down. Every time I was ready, Russell was in something else, and every time he was ready, I would be having another turmoil".[12] The following June, Luhrmann replaced Crowe with actor Hugh Jackman.[17]

In January 2007, actors Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson, and David Wenham were cast into Australia.[18] In November 2006, Luhrmann began searching for an actor to play an Aboriginal boy of 8–10 years old and by April 2007, 11-year-old Brandon Walters was cast into the role.[19]

Pre-production

Filming of Australia at Stokes Hill Wharf

The untitled project was scheduled to begin production in September 2006, but scheduling conflicts and budget issues postponed the start of production to February 2007.[16] In November 2006, Luhrmann explored The Kimberley to determine the amount of production to be shot there. In December 2006, Bowen was chosen as a filming location for a third of the production, portraying the look of Darwin.[20] Bowen was chosen as a prospect due to the financing of $500,000 by the Queensland government.[21] In April, Kununurra was chosen as another location for Australia, this time to serve as Faraway Downs, the homestead owned by Kidman's character.[22] Entire sets were built from scratch, including a stand-alone set in the Queensland town of Bowen, the re-creation of war scenes near Darwin Harbour, and the construction of an outback homestead in Western Australia.[23]

Costumes

Academy Award winning costume designer Catherine Martin did extensive research for the film's outfits, studying archival images and newspapers from the 1930s and 1940s Australia. She also interviewed descendants of the original Darwin ranchers in order to find out if they "wore socks with his boots when he rode a horse, that’s something you either get through a snapshot, or something you have to go talk to the people who lived there about".[24] The Asian-inspired costumes of the film were intended to evoke the romanticism of the era, and one of the centrepieces of the film's costuming is a red chrysanthemum printed Chinese cheongsam or qipao that was made for Nicole Kidman's character.[25]

Principal photography

The director planned to begin filming in March 2007.[26] However, principal photography began on 30 April 2007 in Sydney,[27] and Kidman found out that she was pregnant. She instantly withdrew from her next film, The Reader.[28] Afterwards, the production moved to Bowen on 14 May.[22]

Filming in Kununurra was a gruelling experience for the cast and crew with temperatures soaring to 43 °C (109 °F) which, one day, caused Kidman to faint while on a horse.[28] In addition, she worked 14 and 15-hours days while dealing with morning sickness.[28] While shooting in a remote region of Western Australia, the shoot had to be rescheduled when the Faraway Downs set, the homestead central to the film's story, was reduced to mud from torrential rain – the first in 50 years.[29] The cast and crew went back to Sydney to shoot interior scenes until the expensive set dried out.[23] In addition, at one point, the entire country's horses were in lock down over equine flu.[12]

Filming lasted five months, wrapping up at Fox Studios, Sydney, on 19 December 2007.[30] In late April, Luhrmann titled his project Australia. Two other titles that he considered for the film had been Great Southern Land and Faraway Downs.[31] On 11 August 2008, eight months after filming wrapped, several members of the cast and crew were back at Fox Studios, Sydney, to film pick up shots.[32]

Post-production

Two weeks before the film's premiere, the Daily Telegraph erroneously reported that Luhrmann gave in to studio pressure after "intense" talks with executives and re-wrote and then re-shot the ending of Australia for a happier conclusion after "disastrous reviews" from test screenings.[33] To counter these negative reports, the studio had Jackman and Kidman promoting Australia on The Oprah Winfrey Show, which dedicated an entire episode of the program to the film,[34] and Fox Co-Chairman Tom Rothman spoke to the Los Angeles Times where he described the Telegraph article as "patently nonsensical. It's all too typical of the way the world works today that everybody picked up an unsourced, anonymous quote-filled story in a tabloid from Sydney and nobody ever bothered to check to see if it was accurate".[33] Rothman also said that Luhrmann had final cut on his film. The director admitted that he wrote six endings in the drafts he authored, and shot three of them.[35]

Tourism tie-in

Tourism Western Australia spent $1 million on a campaign linked with the release of Australia in the United States, Canada, Japan, Europe and South Korea that ties in with an international Tourism Australia plan.[36] Concerned about the recession and fluctuating international fuel prices, the tourism industry hopes that Luhrmann's film will deliver visitors from all over the world in the same kind of numbers that came to the country following the 1986 release of Crocodile Dundee and the significant increase in visitors to New Zealand since 2001, after the release of the Lord of the Rings films. Federal Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson said, "This movie will potentially be seen by tens of millions of people, and it will bring life to little-known aspects of Australia's extraordinary natural environment, history and indigenous culture".[36] Tourism Australia is working with Luhrmann and 20th Century Fox on a publicity campaign titled, "See the Movie, See the Country", based on movie maps and location guides to transform the film into "a real-life travel adventure".[36] In addition, the director made a $50 million series of commercials promoting the country.[29][37]

Release

Box Office

The film grossed $AU6.37 million in its opening weekend in Australia, setting the record for the highest grossing opening weekend for an Australian film and bumping the latest James Bond movie Quantum of Solace to second place.[38] Australia ticket sales overseas is about $66 million from 51 countries, with the top market, Australia with $23.1 million after five weekends. It opened at No. 1 in Spain, France and Germany but at No. 3 in Britain. [38]

Surprising box office analysts, the film opened #5 in the U.S. behind Quantum of Solace, Twilight, Bolt, and Four Christmases, respectively, with $20 million.[38] However, Fox officials are happy with the numbers, as they said they were expecting only an $18 million opening gross for the movie.[39][40] They further pointed out that Baz Luhrmann's other films, like Moulin Rouge!, Strictly Ballroom, and Romeo + Juliet, started slowly and then built momentum.[41]

As of 28 December 2008, the film had grossed $90,483,588 in its partial worldwide releases.[42][43]

Reaction

Summary

Early reviews in the Australian press were mixed to positive with the general consensus that Australia was a good but not great film.[44] Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that as of 29 November 2008, 52% of critics gave the film a positive write-up, based upon a sample of 126, with an average score of 5.8/10. The site reported that the consensus was that while the film features "lavish vistas" and "impeccable production", it suffers due to its "lack of originality" and "thinly-drawn characters."[45] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 53, based on 31 reviews, denoting "mixed or average reviews".[46]

Positive

Chris tookey, in his review for the Daily Mail wrote, "Kidman and Jackman have great sexual chemistry, as well as the glamour of Forties cinema idols." He also rated the film the maximum five stars.[47] The News of the World followed suit by rating the film with five stars, the reviewer Robie Collin praised the casting and camerawork; "The jaw-dropping, picture postcard camerawork, that will have your eyes scouring each scene for every last delicious detail.The uproarious comic interludes (Nicole’s rendition of Somewhere Over The Rainbow, and the build-up to it, is one of the best-played comic set pieces of the year)..The magnetic and irksomely handsome Hugh Jackman, the undisputed star of the show."[48]

Claire Sutherland, in her review for the Herald Sun wrote, "A love letter to the Australian landscape and our history, Australia has international blockbuster written all over it".[49] In his review for The Australian, David Stratton wrote, "It's not the masterpiece that we were hoping for, but I think you could say that it's a very good film in many ways. While it will be very popular with many people I think there's a slight air of disappointment after it all. Despite its flaws — and it certainly has flaws — I think Australia is an impressive and important film."[50]

Anne Barrowclough of The Times of London gave the film four out of five stars, and states the film defies expectation and "in what turns out to be a multi-layered story it describes an Australia of the 1940s that is at once compellingly beautiful and breathtakingly cruel".[51]

Megan Lehmann, writing in The Hollywood Reporter, said that the film "defies all but the most cynical not to get carried away by the force of its grandiose imagery and storytelling", and it is "much less earnest than the trailer suggests, layered with a thin veneer of camp and a nod and a wink to accompany the requisite Aussie clichés", and the bottom line is "In epic style, Baz Luhrmann weaves his wizardry on Oz".[52]

Roger Ebert gave the film 3 stars out of 4, noting "Baz Luhrmann dreamed of making the Australian Gone With the Wind, and so he has, with much of that film's lush epic beauty and some of the same awkwardness with a national legacy of racism".[53]

David Ansen, in his review for Newsweek, wrote, "Kidman seems to blossom under Luhrmann's direction: she's funny, warm and charming, and the erotic charge between her and the gruff, hunky Jackman is delicious. In a solemn season, Australia's bold, kitschy, unapologetic artifice is a welcome respite".[54]

Ann Hornaday, in her review for the Washington Post, wrote, "A wildly ambitious, luridly indulgent spectacle of romance, action, melodrama and revisionism, Australia is windy, overblown, utterly preposterous and insanely entertaining".[55]

Neutral

Writing for The Age, Jim Schembri had problems with the length of the film: "The film is fine, and never boring but, boy, is it overlong. At a mammoth 165 minutes it feels too much like a work-in-progress. There is a lot of narrative flab and longueurs in the first two hours and the film often has the pace of a steamroller with engine trouble".[56] In her review for the New York Times. Manohla Dargis wrote, "this creation story about modern Australia is a testament to movie love at its most devout, cinematic spectacle at its most extreme, and kitsch as an act of aesthetic communion".[57]

Andrew Sarris, in his review for the New York Observer, wrote, "Australia is clearly a labor of love, and a matter of national pride. It is also a bit of a mess. I must confess that I might have been harder on Mr Luhrmann's film if I had not remained entranced by Ms Kidman ever since I first saw her in Phillip Noyce's Dead Calm in 1989; in my opinion, she has lost none of her luster in the 20 years since".[58]

In his review for Time, Richard Schickel wrote, "Have you seen everything Australia has on offer a dozen times before? Sure you have. It's a movie less created by director and co-writer Baz Luhrmann than assembled, Dr Frankenstein-style, from the leftover body parts of earlier movies. Which leaves us asking this question: How come it is so damnably entertaining?"[59]

Negative

Mark Naglazas of The West Australian accused positive reviews from News Ltd press outlets of being manipulated by 20th Century Fox, calling Australia a film of "unrelenting awfulness" that "lurches drunkenly from crazy comedy to Mills and Boonish melodrama in the space of a couple of scenes".[60]

Bonnie Malkin of The Daily Telegraph stated: "Local critics had worried that the much-anticipated film Australia would present to the world a series of time-honoured Antipodean clichés. Their fears were well founded".[61]

In her review for Salon.com, Stephanie Zacharek wrote, "The second half of Australia, Luhrmann's attempt to pull off a wartime weeper, is so aggressively sentimental that it begins to feel more like punishment than pleasure. I left Australia feeling drained and weakened, as if I'd suffered a gradual poisoning at the hands of a mad scientist".[62]

Awards and nominations

Awards

Satellite Awards wins:[63]

  • Auteur Award – Baz Lurhmann
  • Outstanding New Talent – Brandon Walters
  • Cinematography – Mandy Walker
  • Visual Effects – Chris Godfrey, et al.
  • Art Direction & Production Design – Catherine Martin, Karen Murphy, et al.

St. Louis Film Critics Awards win:

  • Cinematography – Mandy Walker

Nominations

Satellite Awards nominations:

  • Original Screenplay – Baz Luhrmann, et al.
  • Original Score – David Hirschfelder
  • Original Song – "By the Boab Tree" (Angela Little, Baz Lurhmann, et al.)
  • Film Editing – Donny Dorn, Michael McCusker
  • Sound Mixing & Editing – Wayne Pushley, et al.
  • Costume Design – Catherine Martin

Critics' Choice Awards nomination:

  • Young Actor/Actress (Under 21) – Brandon Walters

Chicago Film Critics nominations:

  • Cinematography – Mandy Walker
  • Most Promising Performer – Brandon Walters

References

  1. ^ "Hollywood Studios Turn Hopeful Eye Toward Holiday." Reuters, 25 November 2008
  2. ^ "Hollywood Stuffs Thanksgiving Slate." Variety, 24 November 2008
  3. ^ BoxOfficeMojo.com
  4. ^ Australia release dates
  5. ^ Val Morgan Cinema Network - : Details view
  6. ^ Pamela McClintock (31 March 2008). "2008 awards season shaping up". Variety. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
  7. ^ Michaela Boland (28 August 2008). "Nicole Kidman's 'Australia' Pushed Back". Variety. Retrieved 2008-08-29.
  8. ^ Richard Luscombe (10 November 2008). "Kidman's outback adventure gets happy ending after studio pressure". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
  9. ^ Awards Daily - Satellite Awards Nominees, Retrieved 22 December 2008.
  10. ^ Australia - The Soundtrack, Retrieved 22 December 2008.
  11. ^ Reel Soundtrack Australia
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Killian Fox (2 November 2008). "How we made the epic of Oz". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
  13. ^ Michael Fleming (4 May 2005). "Inside Move: All the Aussies gathering together". Variety. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
  14. ^ Baz Bamigboye (2 March 2007). "Kidman follows the herd". Daily Mail. Retrieved 2007-04-29.
  15. ^ "Crowe Dumped for Ledger". San Francisco Chronicle. 30 May 2006. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
  16. ^ a b "Crowe: 'I Don't Do Charity Work for Studios'". San Francisco Chronicle. 26 September 2006. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
  17. ^ "Jackman taking over for Crowe". CNN. 9 June 2006. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
  18. ^ "An epic showcase". Sydney Confidential. 25 January 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-29.
  19. ^ Katie Hampson (18 April 2007). "Broome boy rides high in Aussie blockbuster". The West Australian. Retrieved 2007-04-29.
  20. ^ "Luhrmann epic to be shot in Bowen". The West Australian. 12 December 2006. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
  21. ^ Des Partridge (13 December 2006). "Grant lures Baz". The Courier-Mail. Retrieved 2007-04-29. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  22. ^ a b Rachel Browne (16 April 2007). "Other Tom gives Nic saddle tips". The Age. Retrieved 2007-04-29.
  23. ^ a b Christine Sams (1 July 2007). "Muddy hell as Kidman homestead set flooded". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
  24. ^ Eric Wilson (31 October 2008). "Socks to Blouses, a Film Finds Its Look". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
  25. ^ "The Look of 'Australia'". The New York Times. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  26. ^ "Luhrmann epic to start filming in March". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 1 November 2006. Retrieved 2007-04-29.
  27. ^ Johnathon Moran (29 April 2007). "Nicole and Hugh film Australia". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2007-04-29.
  28. ^ a b c John Powers (1 July 2008). "Days of Heaven". Vogue. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
  29. ^ a b Jeff Dawson (14 September 2008). "Nicole Kidman returns to Australia for Baz Luhrmann". Sunday Times. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
  30. ^ australiamovie.net (16 April 2007). "That's a Wrap, People!". Retrieved 2007-12-19.
  31. ^ Garry Maddox (23 November 2006). "Luhrmann to parade Australia's epic scale". The Age. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
  32. ^ australiamovie.net (11 August 2008). "Pick Ups Commence At Fox Studios". Retrieved 2008-08-16.
  33. ^ a b Patrick Goldstein (11 November 2008). "Fox says it hasn't tampered with Australia". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-11-13.
  34. ^ Richard Jinman (11 November 2008). "Battling Baz wobbles into home stretch". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
  35. ^ Scott Feinberg (11 November 2008). "Baz Luhrmann addresses big questions about Australia—and remains confident in his film". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-11-13.
  36. ^ a b c Elizabeth Gosch (16 June 2008). "See the film, then come visit". The Australian. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
  37. ^ Kathy Marks (18 September 2008). "Down under - the movie". The Independent. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
  38. ^ a b c "Australia heads Aussie box office, dies in US". Courier Mail. 1 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-02. Cite error: The named reference "AP" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  39. ^ "Hollywood Studios Turn Hopeful Eye Toward Holiday." Reuters, 25 November 2008
  40. ^ "Hollywood Stuffs Thanksgiving Slate." Variety, 24 November 2008
  41. ^ Ronald D. White (1 December 2008). "Four Christmases adds up to No. 1 at the box office". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-12-02.
  42. ^ BoxOfficeMojo.com
  43. ^ Australia release dates
  44. ^ Tom O'Neil (18 November 2008). "First Aussie reviews of 'Australia': 'Good, but no classic'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
  45. ^ "Australia Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. IGN Entertainment, Inc. Retrieved 2008-11-26.
  46. ^ "Australia(2008): Reviews". Metacritic. CNET Networks, Inc. Retrieved 2008-11-26.
  47. ^ Australia: Barmy Baz is the Wizard of Oz - unique, magical and endearingly bonkers Daily Mail. 25 December 2008
  48. ^ Australia (12A)News of the World. 21 December 2008
  49. ^ Claire Sutherland (18 November 2008). "Baz Luhrmann's movie Australia is a winner for Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman". Herald Sun. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
  50. ^ David Stratton (18 November 2008). "Baz Luhrmann's Australia is good, but not a masterpiece". The Australian. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
  51. ^ Anne Barrowclough (18 November 2008). "Review: Australia, the movie". The Times. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
  52. ^ Megan Lehmann (18 November 2008). "Film Review: Australia". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
  53. ^ Roger Ebert (25 November 2008). "Australia". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2008-11-27.
  54. ^ David Ansen (28 November 2008). "It's Epic". Newsweek. Retrieved 2008-12-08.
  55. ^ Ann Hornaday (26 November 2008). "An Aussome Spectacle". Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-11-27.
  56. ^ Jim Schembri (18 November 2008). "Good, but no classic, and way, way too long". The Age. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
  57. ^ Manohla Dargis (26 November 2008). "Oh Give Me a Home Where the Cowboys and Kangaroos Roam". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-11-27.
  58. ^ Andrew Sarris (25 November 2008). "Luminous Kidman Finds Home on the Range With Dirty, Sexy Jackman". New York Observer. Retrieved 2008-11-27.
  59. ^ Richard Schickel (25 November 2008). "Australia: Epic Romance Down Under". Time. Retrieved 2008-11-27.
  60. ^ Mark Naglazas (19 November 2008). "Luhrmann's red dirt epic will leave a nation red-faced". The West Australian. Retrieved 2008-11-19.
  61. ^ Bonnie Malkin (18 November 2008). "First review of Australia the movie". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
  62. ^ Stephanie Zacharek (26 November 2008). "'Australia". Salon.com. Retrieved 2008-11-27.
  63. ^ Satellite Awards

External links

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