Throughout the movie they make mention to aborigine "magic" and mention that Quigley is known to them as "The Spirit Warrior," indicating that they believe in a form of magic and, since this a movie, perhaps utilize a bit of it in saving their savior. Now, that being said, Australia is such a weird continent that it is also entirely possible that they just hid in the brush and popped up when they were needed then disappeared into the dust storm that followed. I was more surprised by the fact that the british soldiers, with horses and guns, were worried about a bunch of aborigines with sticks. I am glad Quigley lived, but I still think it would have been more plausible for them to kill Quigley and then exterminate the aborigines and ride home - at least, that's britain's M.O.
reply
share
smokehill retrievers
9 years ago
The sheer numbers of the aborigines would have overwhelmed the Brits, especially armed as they were with single-shot carbines, fired by cavalrymen whose marksmanship skills were neither encouraged or drilled very often.
No question that there might be a lot of dead aborigines after a full-blown attack, but I have no doubt of the result. It's not even likely that the standard ammunition issue to cavalrymen would be enough to repel such an attack.
Firepower and discipline are important, but as the Brits found out more than once, if you have greatly inferior numbers, such as in some of their African adventures, even an disciplined army is likely to be crushed by an overwhelming number of "primitive" warriors.
reply
share