Best Australian Film - Stop reading - go see it

for a wall map of aboriginal language groups try www.aiatsis.gov.au/aboriginal_studies_press

Prayer said by Gabriel Byrne when placing St Bridget's cross above doorway seemed to be a Gaelic repeat of what he had already said in English - for more about the cross, surf the net but be aware the name bridget can be spelt umpteen different ways [as it too has been translated into English]

This movie involves a murder but it is not a who-dunnit, it's a why-dunnit. Why did Caylin-Calandria sacrifice a hamster? Why did the men stay fishing? Why did Claire leave her son for 18 months?... why is her mother in law such a cow, and a whole heap more of whys including why on earth would anyone name a daughter Caylin-Calandria?

Now for the stuff about race. Lots of individual people's frameworks for viewing the world are laid out in this movie for us to see. To me, this is the point of the movie. We all have our own ideas of what respect for life means.

Cut to a shot of a captured trout left needlessly gasping for air rather than put out of it's misery, or cut to Jude's "so what?" attitude about a dead rodent... even if her 7 year old granddaughter did sacrifice it. All of this makes the reaction of Claire and of Billy to the men's decision to keep fishing seems relatively extreme [which is weird in itself].

At just what point does the indifference of the cast to life, death or suffering in its various forms end? Even some retaliation by a few of Sussan's mob doesn't seem enough to shake the white protagonists out of their complacency. Are we white australians really racist, or just too bloody lazy to even be that?

Derekrulz66 says the aboriginals were portrayed as animals. Does this mean animals as in the director thought they were subhuman, or animals as in their behaviour in the story was uncivilised? To hate the aboriginal characters in this story, it seems you would at least have to be on the "I would keep fishing" team. [Which is not to say all those who kept fishing hate aboriginals.]

Sure a couple of aboriginal people broke one window and painted another. Well, can't we allow some of Sussan's family to have feelings? Are all aboroginal people responsible for the retaliation of a few? Was Claire to blame for what her husband did? If not, should all whites be lumped together and judged by the actions of a few? What about the reverse as a stereotype?

There was nothing animalistic about the aboriginal response to what happened, but there did seem to be a generation difference... the young ones more inclined to judge white actions from a white point of view, compared with the elders saying they should let Claire be, and let her stay for the ceremony.

More importantly, what does that final smoking ceremony say about the way aboriginal people — especially the elders — traditionally process stuff? Personally, I have been taught that learning is a process of one person handing fixed information and experiences to others — but there IS room in this country for people who still sit back and wait for others to learn in their own way and in their own good time. Shifting ideas about what is wrong and what is forgivable are the substance of this movie, and the aboriginal characters have as much right as any others to make up their own minds and grow over time.
[Though the idea "if it's not charity, what are you trying to buy?" was pretty close to one of my top ten sfavourite nappy responses of all time]


Was Claire supposed to be American or not? It has been said the American accent began as an Irish accent distorted by the melting pot, so at first I was unsure, which was distracting. Then I simply decided it didn't make any difference to the story where her accent came from. Claire was wearing a Claddagh ring, and joined in the prayer when the cross was renewed, so I accepted that she had a common history and cultural foundation with Stuart and his mother. Anyway, I have listened to Meryl Streep strangle her vowels in Evil Angels and survived, so I reckon my ears can cope with just about anything.

Why so much Irishness in Jindabyne? Ironically enough, the aboriginal girl who is murdered at the beginning of the story has an Irish surname... quite to be expected in the context of Australian history. [The parallels between Irish and Aboriginal 200 years ago are legion].

But in this movie the question arises "where does religion end and superstition begin?" Here is an Irish mechanic who prays before he eats but ignores his religion's major rules about burying the dead [one of the 7 corporal works of mercy]. Well, it's a sort of Roman Catholic totally adapted to pagan Irish tradition... where isthe line between religion and cultural overlay?]

As with the gasping trout, Stuart just doesn't grasp the idea that life is a whole sequence. It ain't over just cos it's dead, or cos hope has died. Death is not complete without acknowledgement and then a sendoff [and don't the Irish do this BIG for their own...] and it is during the send off at the end of the movie that all of those little sub plots starts to make sense... the aborigines let go, Cailyn-Calandria lets go, Jude let's go... and the whole is nicely finished.

Our human relationships with each other are so tenuous... someone is murdered and we question the motives of the fishermen, not on just one level, but by questioning their attitude to colour, gender, and whether the victim was a stranger or not. We can be endlessly creative when it comes to finding "reasons" to hate, or even while searching for reasons to forgive others for what they have done or failed to do.


The most stunning and rewarding and impressive part of this whole movie, for me, was the sheer magnitude of Claire's capacity to live by her own values, including a conviction that when a wrong is done, we are obliged to do a right.

As for the "who-dunnit and will-he-get-away-with-it" part of the story, who cares if Parky the sparky has an anaphylactic reaction to the wasp sting at the end of the movie? The murder is just a device to allow people to be seen being themselves and processing lifes random tests.
[and may Chris Hayward keep bobbing up in Australian movies for years to come... if he's in the cast, the movie is never a dud.]