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Australia (2008 film)

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 76.95.33.253 (talk) at 21:17, 25 July 2011 (→Box office and DVD sales: films have to earn 2.5 times their cost (incl marketing) just to break even. It's complete conjecture that $211M got it there). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For the 1989 Belgian film, see Australia (1989 film).
Australia
Australian promotional poster
Directed byBaz Luhrmann
Screenplay byBaz Luhrmann
Ronald Harwood
Stuart Beattie
Richard Flanagan
Story byBaz Luhrmann
Produced byBaz Luhrmann
Catherine Knapman
G. Mac Brown
StarringNicole Kidman
Hugh Jackman
David Wenham
CinematographyMandy Walker
Edited byDody Dorn
Music byDavid Hirschfelder
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
26 November 2008
Running time
165 minutes
CountryTemplate:Film Australia
LanguageEnglish
Budget$130 million
($78 million after Australian tax rebates)[1][2]
Box office$211,342,221
(worldwide)[3][4]

Australia is a 2008 epic historical romance film directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. It is the second-highest grossing Australian film of all time, behind Crocodile Dundee. 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 during World War II. Production took place in Sydney, Darwin, Kununurra, and Bowen. The movie was released in both Australia and the United States on 26 November 2008,[5] with subsequent worldwide release dates throughout late December 2008 and January and February 2009.

Plot

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

Lady Sarah's husband is murdered shortly before she arrives, and the authorities tell her that the killer is an Aboriginal elder, "King George" (David Gulpilil). Meanwhile, cattle station manager Neil Fletcher (David Wenham) is trying to gain control of Faraway Downs, so that Lesley 'King' Carney (Bryan Brown) will have a complete cattle monopoly, giving him negotiating leverage with an Australian army officer, Captain Dutton (Ben Mendelsohn).

The childless Lady Sarah is captivated by the boy Nullah (Brandon Walters), who has an Aboriginal mother and a 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, so Lady Sarah fires Fletcher and decides to try and run the cattle station herself. When Nullah and his mother hide from the authorities in 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 the Wizard, he too is a "magic man".

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

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. They encounter various obstacles along the way, including a fire set by Carney's men that scares the cattle, resulting in the death of Flynn when the group tries to stop the cattle from stampeding over a cliff. Lady Sarah and Drover fall in love, and she gains a new appreciation for the Australian territory. The team drive the cattle through the dangerous Never Never desert. Then, when at last delivering the cattle in Darwin, the group has to race them onto the ship before Carney's cattle are loaded.

Afterwards, Lady Sarah, Nullah, and Drover live together happily at Faraway Downs for two years. Meanwhile, Fletcher kills Carney, marries his daughter Cath Carney, takes over Carney's cattle empire, and continues to menace Lady Sarah. It is established that Fletcher was the actual murderer of Lady Sarah's husband, and is also Nullah's father.

Nullah is drawn to perform a walkabout with his grandfather "King George", but is instead taken by the authorities and sent to live on Mission Island with the other half-Aboriginal children (dubbed the "Stolen Generations"). Lady Sarah, who has come to regard Nullah as her adopted son, vows to rescue him. Meanwhile, she 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 has been killed.

Drover, who had quarrelled with Lady Sarah and left, returns to Darwin and hears (mistakenly) that she has been killed in the bombing. Drover learns of Nullah's abduction to Mission Island, and goes with Magarri and a young priest to rescue him and the other children. Meanwhile, Lady Sarah is about to evacuate, but when Drover and the children sail back into port at Darwin, and Nullah plays "Over the Rainbow" on his harmonica, Lady Sarah hears the music and the three are reunited.

Fletcher, distraught at the ruination of his plans, 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. There, King George calls for Nullah, who returns to the Outback with his grandfather.

Soundtrack

Recurring motifs

A recurring motif in the film is the Harold Arlen/E.Y. Harburg song "Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz (1939 film). The song bonds Lady Sarah and Nullah, and relates to the Aboriginal concepts of Rainbow Serpent, songlines, Dreamtime, and "magic men" like Nullah's grandfather and Nullah himself. In a scene set in October 1939, Nullah is seen raptly watching Oz in a Darwin cinema.

Bach's aria "Schafe können sicher weiden ("Sheep may safely graze")" from the Hunting Cantata BWV 208 is another recurring motif in the film.

Although the Wizard Of Oz was not released in Australia until 18 April 1940, in the movie it said they were watching it in 1939.

Additional music

David Hirschfelder composed the score to Australia. Interpolated musical numbers include the jazz standards "Begin the Beguine," "Tuxedo Junction," "Sing Sing Sing (With a Swing)," and "Brazil." Edward Elgar's "Nimrod" from "Enigma" Variations is heard in the final scene of the film.[6] Luhrmann hired singer Rolf Harris to record his wobble board for the opening credits,[7] and Elton John composed and performed a song called "The Drover's Ballad," to lyrics by Luhrmann, for the end credits. Also used in the end credits is "By the Boab Tree," a song nominated for a 2008 Satellite Award,[8] again with Luhrmann lyrics, performed by Sydney singer Angela Little. Little's rendition of "Waltzing Matilda" completes the end credits in some versions of the film. The jazz sound track to "Australia" was performed by the Ralph Pyle big band with clarinet solos by Andy Firth.[9]

Cast

  • Nicole Kidman as Lady Sarah Ashley, an English aristocrat who inherits the cattle station Faraway Downs in Australia.
  • Hugh Jackman as Drover, a drover who helps Lady Sarah Ashley move the cattle across the property.
  • David Wenham as Neil Fletcher, a station manager who plans to take Faraway Downs from Lady Sarah Ashley.
  • Bryan Brown as Lesley 'King' Carney, a cattle baron who owns much of the land in northern Australia.
  • Jack Thompson as Kipling Flynn, an alcoholic accountant who enjoys a luxurious lifestyle.
  • David Gulpilil as King George, a magic tribal elder, grandfather of Nullah.
  • Brandon Walters as Nullah, a young Aboriginal boy whom Lady Sarah Ashley finds at Faraway Downs.
  • Ray Barrett as Ramsden, an old friendly fellow.
  • David Ngoombujarra as Magarri, the Drover's colleague and friend.[10]
  • Ben Mendelsohn as Captain Emmett Dutton, a Darwin-based Australian Army officer in charge of beef supply.
  • Sandy Gore as Gloria Carney, King Carney's wife, and Catherine's mother.
  • Essie Davis as Catherine 'Cath' Carney Fletcher, wife of Neil Fletcher and daughter of King Carney.
  • Barry Otto as Administrator Allsop, the Australian government's representative [11] in the Northern Territory.
  • Ursula Yovich as Daisy, the mother of Nullah.
  • Yuen Wah as Sing Song, a Cantonese chef at Faraway Downs.
  • Jacek Koman as Ivan, the saloonkeeper and innkeeper in Darwin.
  • Tony Barry as Sergeant Callahan, the head of the Northern Territory police.

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]

The visual effects were done by the Animal Logic films and The LaB Sydney.[citation needed]

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 stockmen 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] The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design.

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-hour 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 hoped that Luhrmann's film would 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 follow 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 worked 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]

Critical reception

Early reviews in the Australian press were mixed with the general consensus that Australia was a good but not great film.[38] Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that as of 4 October 2010, 55% of critics gave the film a positive write-up, based upon a sample of 199, with an average score of 5.9/10. 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."[39] 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."[40]

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.[41] 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."[42]

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".[43] 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."[44]

Anne Barrowclough of The Times (United Kingdom) 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".[45]

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".[46]

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".[47]

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".[48]

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".[49]

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".[50]

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".[51]

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?"[52]

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".[53]

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".[54]

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".[55]

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".[56]

Box office and DVD sales

The film had better box office success in overseas markets and a disappointing gross in the U.S. — a pattern similar to Luhrmann's three previous films. As of November 2009, the film has grossed $211,342,221 in its worldwide releases.[3][4]

In Australia, the film grossed A$6.37 million in its opening weekend, 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.[57]

Australia performed less well in the U.S., where it surprised box office analysts by opening only at #5, behind Quantum of Solace, Twilight, Bolt, and Four Christmases, and grossed $20 million opening weekend.[57] However, Fox officials were reportedly happy with the numbers, as they said they were expecting only an $18 million opening gross for the movie.[1][2] They further pointed out that Baz Luhrmann's other films, like Moulin Rouge!, Strictly Ballroom, and Romeo + Juliet, started slowly and then built momentum.[58] Australia eventually grossed $49,554,002 in the U.S., 23.4% of its total worldwide gross.[3]

Australia's ticket sales outside of the U.S. are $161,788,219 from 51 countries.[3] It opened at No. 1 in Spain, France, Australia, and Germany, and at No. 3 in Britain.[57] Australia grossed $87,555,757 at the box office in Australia.[59]

The DVD was released in the U.S. on 3 March 2009, opening at #2, and sold 728,000 units in the opening weekend, translating to revenue of $12.3 million.[60] Australia sold almost two million DVDs in one month, 80% of what the studio predicted it would sell altogether. As of 15 November 2009, Australia has sold 1,739,700 units in the U.S., for a revenue of $27.9 million.[60] Since being released in Australia, the DVD has sold double what the studio expected.[61]

Awards and nominations

Awards
Award Category Recipient(s) Outcome
Satellite Awards
Satellite Award for Best Art Direction and Production Design Catherine Martin Won
Satellite Award for Best Cinematography Mandy Walker Won
Satellite Award for Best Visual Effects Chris Godfrey Won
Satellite Award for Best Original Screenplay Baz Luhrmann Nominated
Satellite Award for Best Original Score David Hirschfelder Nominated
Satellite Award for Best Original Song 'By the Boab Tree' Nominated
Satellite Award for Best Editing Dody Dorn Nominated
Satellite Award for Best Sound Wayne Pushley Nominated
Satellite Award for Best Costume Design Catherine Martin Nominated
81st Academy Awards Academy Award for Best Costume Design Catherine Martin Nominated
Film Critics Circle of Australia Best Cinematography Mandy Walker Won
Best Supporting Actor Brandon Walters Won
Best Film Australia Nominated
Best Music Score David Hirschfelder Nominated
Young Artist Award Best Performance in an International Feature Film – Leading Young Performers – Brandon Walters Won
Critics' Choice Awards
Best Young Performer Brandon Walters Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Best Cinematography Mandy Walker Nominated
Most Promising Performer Brandon Walters Won

See also

References

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  59. ^ Film Victoria - Australian Films at the Australian Box Office
  60. ^ a b The-numbers.com
  61. ^ Natasha Robinson (4 April 2009). "Baz Luhrmann's Australia's takings are still growing steadily". The Australian. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
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