I've read dozens of audiences comments on this movie and it seems it splits people right down the middle. I am very curious, to what type of person LIKES this movie. So many reactions I've read have started off as 'I took my wife/ g/f to see this movie and we loved it.' I'd really like to know the demographic plus country of people who enjoyed it. If they loved it but had some misgivings, what were they?
shareAustralian. Sense of humour.
"...and if the bible has taught us anything (and it hasn't)..." Homer
Someone who's not biased against Nicole Kidman or hasn't any crusade or mission to destroy her.
Someone who enjoys a movie for the film itself and does not care if the combined amount of domestic+foreign earnings is triple the amount of the budget.
Someone who's enjoyed Baz Luhrman films in the past and can understand them.
Someone who loves epics, period pieces, classic films from the 1950s(Out of Africa, Giant, African Queen) and may be able to get those references or at least enjoy those features.
Someone who does not know much about Australia.
Someone who enjoys the beauty of nature, the wild, the landscapes.
Someone who does not analyze a movie with a *beep* magnifying glass and can understand that it's only a movie.
So that's who I think would enjoy this film. This film showed to be quite popular in Europe and especialy in Australia where it became second highest grossing movie of the year. It did not work that well in the US where a great deal was made of the *beep* box office and the budget. Maybe it was because it was released at the same time as Twilight and Quantum of Solace(both crappy movies BTW). I personally liked it a lot, even though I would have worked a little bit more on the story. However I heard the film had to be re-cut a few times in order to meet the release date dateline and it was all put together in a hurry without much time so maybe that has to do with it as well.
This is a movie for movie lovers. Anyone who appreciates beautiful imagery, sweeping cinematography, larger-than-life characters, and epic scope. This is a movie of style over substance. It's a caricature, for sure, but an extremely entertaining one at that. It's about themes and ideas not facts and history.
Apparently it is largely offensive to native Aussie's who feel it portrays them as racist and depicts Aborigines as helpless and unintelligent. I found it to be exactly the opposite. There are wonderful characters in this film that represent the full range of human possibility.
It's a throwback movie through the lens of Baz Luhrman's contemporary style.
I couldn't get enough of it.
im english and was 17 when i saw it. (other than my friend, everyone else in the cinema was over 50ish). before seeing it, i knew nothing about the missing generation or the effect of WWII on australia. i didn't find it to be offensive to Aborigines at all. I found the "ignorant" australians offensive, much as i view all the americans against black rights in the 1960s etc.
This is a movie for movie lovers. Anyone who appreciates beautiful imagery, sweeping cinematography, larger-than-life characters, and epic scope. This is a movie of style over substance. It's a caricature, for sure, but an extremely entertaining one at that. It's about themes and ideas not facts and history.
Apparently it is largely offensive to native Aussie's who feel it portrays them as racist and depicts Aborigines as helpless and unintelligent. I found it to be exactly the opposite. There are wonderful characters in this film that represent the full range of human possibility.
It's a throwback movie through the lens of Baz Luhrman's contemporary style.
I couldn't get enough of it.
Vaderules: I very much agree to what you say. I just do not see where one could get the impression that Aborigines would be depicted as helpless and unintelligent. They just have their own ways.
I'm not an Aussie but I lived there 10 years and my husband and children are Aussies. I love the country with all its flaws and would like to live there if I could. I did not live in the outback and hardly travelled there, but I love the nature (which actually is very varied). So to see things Australian pleases me. CGI did not really trouble me too much.
You are absolutely right, I loved the film and your list describes me :)
shareI didn't like it, because i'm on a mission to destroy Nicole Kidman! Hahahaha
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I didn't think anyone liked this movie. It basically sucked. It was merely a tourism vehicle for Qantas. Considering Qantas' relatively rubbish service it's only fitting they would be behind the promoting and marketing of such a cinematic disaster.
It seems to me and to anyone reading your post that you merely have an agenda to hate the movie because of a link to Qantas. Your foolish comment just shows you are incapable of an intelligent remark.
shareIt is a crap movie. Only aussies would defend this sludge fest. Be critical of your movies! The more biased you the more convinced I am that the movie is a roadkill to be avoided.
shareCorrection. The more biased you are. IMDB pls add an edit function? Oh I forgot about the message board being taken down lol.
shareI am American. I understood this movie and LOVED it! My husband loved it as well. I saw this movie first when i was 20/21. I still watch the movie often! I would love to move to Australia!
shareThis is a movie for movie lovers. Anyone who appreciates beautiful imagery, sweeping cinematography, larger-than-life characters, and epic scope. This is a movie of style over substance. It's a caricature, for sure, but an extremely entertaining one at that. It's about themes and ideas not facts and history.
Well I loved it and continue to love it. I look at it very frequently. LOVE the music, the scenery (although not as much as I could have if Baz had shown another area of the outback), but still, it was OK. Problem I had with the scenery was just that it wasn't in the more stunning areas of the outback and they seemed to film in the same areas in different parts of the story, like Nullah leaving to go walkabout at the end of the film. Wasn't that the same tree and scenery where Drover and Sarah had their first kiss? There were heaps of continuity issues that I noticed. You'd think they would have hired someone to look into the continuity, but they didn't. Baz apparently had styled the film with a "Lucas and Leane" approach to film making. He deliberately used painted backdrops intermixed with real location filming. He wasn't aiming for realism, but more of a dreamlike feel to the whole thing. The campy bits at the beginning were enjoyable from my perspective (maybe because I'm an Aussie and I understand Aussie humour), and I didn't get confused by the different storylines ending at different times. That seemed to throw a few people into total confusion, especially the American critics, who just didn't seem to understand that Baz was striving for different genres of film intermixed into the one film as he wanted to pay homage to the old Hollywood films he grew up loving (his dad owned and ran a country movie theatre), hence there were deliberate scenes that looked like films from the golden age of Hollywood and even more recent ones like 'Out of Africa'. I feel sorry for Nicole that her acting wasn't appreciated by some people, but I thought she did an excellent job transitioning from a prim and proper British upper class type to a more of a country style casual 'anything goes' type of a woman that she had to become in order to meet with Drover's approval. Anyway, I am just rather taken aback and saddened that some people didn't appreciate looking at the film because they went into it with too many expectations or they didn't like the old world feel to the film, which is a real pity. There aren't too many films these days that you can take every member of your family from very young to very old to and know they will all find something interesting in it. This particular film meets that criteria ... if only the viewer didn't spend their time trying to over-analyse it and just sat back and enjoyed the ride.
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