MovieChat Forums > Red Hill (2010) Discussion > Excellent film but passive protagonist

Excellent film but passive protagonist

posted 13 years ago by DavidSteinhoff
8 replies | jump to latest

The Producer, Director and team behind this work can be proud but the auteur Director would have benefited by teaming up with a Writer. It's not that the Director didn't nail the genre, he did however the choice to have a largely passive protagonist with little at stake or put at risk means we do not engage emotionally.

This work is not to be underestimated. It required enormous toil. I feel sorry that it has been rewarded adequately but you can be sure the team behind it will go to to great things.

[–] z_thomas 13 years ago

I don't know if anyone can be proud of this film! What gave you that idea? Was it the Panther sub plot? But you make a good point about the protagonist. I thought that his wife at home was going to be put in danger at some point. There was the pretty standard set up with her being pregnant and fragile and alone... It's almost as if the writer tried to throw a curve ball with that storyline. But I think that would be giving him too much credit.

[–] justadog79 13 years ago

Hear, HEAR!

~ "The same thing we do every night, Pinky..." ~

[–] thetheeyecreature 13 years ago

I disagree. True, the script could be a bit tighter. But the protagonist isn't passive. He's a fish out of water, an outsider, and unlike the corrupt cops he's among, he's inhibited by decency and compassion.

His wife is at risk; there's the fear of another miscarriage. That's why Cooper takes such pains not to let her know what's going on, instead going off into the night again alone, knowing he might not see her again. Going to arrest armed, corrupt fellow officers isn't passivity.

Tommy Lewis gives a memorable performance with no lines, except the last one, which is pretty touching. (Actually, I expected a prologue with Shane and Alice naming their boy Jimmy.)

"The truth 24 times a second."

[–] mattg0376 13 years ago

Nup, you're stretching it there, 'thetheeyecreature.'

The protagonist is indeed passive. I agree with the previous post that there is nothing at stake for him. His wife is a pointless character, simply designed to create some sort of empathy for our hero. The fact she's not put at risk makes her redundant.

We shouldn't even be calling Kwanten's character a protagonist. A protagonist wants something and must do anything to get it. Hence the need for an antagonist. However, the villain is not linked to Kwanten's character, nor does the other possible antagonist, the 'Sherrif' get in Kwanten's way or directly oppose him.

People will mistake this for things such as The Reluctant Hero, or The Anti-Hero. No. There's nothing worse than a passive protagonist.

How is the vilain's performance touching? He lumbers around, like a wandering, stone-faced Michael Myers horror villain. Sticking that line in his mouth in the final scene was a desperate, shallow attempt at empathy. Pfft.

This film is a fail. It's down there with Road Train.

[–] subase 13 years ago

He wasn't passive, he just wasn't gung-ho john mclane/rambo.

This guy is a constable who would rather risk getting shot than shoot a kid with a gun.

Throughout the film he is motivated, above comfort, the love of his wife and future son, as well as even his job and alot of pain to do his DUTY as a police and uphold the law. The guy walked for hours injured and in pain, he even carries another injured person for who knows how long.

This continues on even if pretty much all the cops in the town become corrupt and he's at risk of getting shot to death.

So not passive AT ALL. I think it's actually quite realistic of what a heroic cop would do.

[–] junyab 13 years ago

The native was the protagonist...Coopers was a narrator. I thought that was pretty obvious.

[–] debrah-nava 13 years ago

Awesome comeback and your is statement point on!!

'They changed it all around - smeared it all over with blood' Gay Langland (CG) in The Misfits

[–] gnome-chomsky 13 years ago

Yes!!!

Jimmy represented indigenous Australians and showed dignity in his return to the burial site and sparing non-offenders. Rabbit-Proof Fence did a similar thing in highlighting the dignity of Aboriginal peoples.

Old Bill and his cronies had no respect for the longest continual civilisation on Earth, and Carlin's comment at the end about the 'black' man proves the underlying but endemic racism.

The Victorian High Country is the old wild west, and Bill represented Custer's last stand.