Australia’s epic film has a relative in Michael Collins
by Brendan Coffey
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The cast will probably be enough to ensure that while Australia is a commercial success it will be only fit for derision among the critical masses. The combination of a big time director - Baz Luhrman - two stars in the lead roles - Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman - plus the billion-pound spectacle that this film looks to have cost is surely a combination for disaster?
Alexander and Troy are recent similar projects that seemed to be universally panned but it seems that the bigger a film and the bigger the scale of its ambition, the more wuthering the reviews. It’s almost inevitable really because any film with as much action and publicity as an epic like Australia is going to incite derision.
The film is often cliched and often struggles to escape it’s cops and robbers style storyline but that’s not the point most of the time. Epics are meant to entertain, most of all they are meant to belong to a world of heroes and villains. They cannot be epics otherwise and you can’t sustain serious complexities over the course of two and a half hours in the cinema.
Australia’s Irish cousin, Michael Collins, was a similar epic, dispensing with the nuances and intricacies involved in any war for the easy to follow tale of love and courage in the face of brutality. What Collins achieved could only be understood by an Irish audience far enough removed from the consequences of Irish violence to marvel in the heroics of a man from their own land. That is why the hairs stand on end when the score boom booms with trumpets and real clips of Collins funeral.
While Australia is not the same tale nor remotely close at times, it gives a little insight into a nation and its people, in the course of the nearly three hours of over-the-top, throw in the kitchen sink epic cinema entertainment.
Michael Collins wasn’t a wonderful film but that didn’t stop it from being spectacular and inspiring. My guess is that an Australian might feel the same about Luhrman’s picture of the Outback.
Tags: Alexander, Australia, Baz Luhrman, epic, Hugh Jackman, Michael Collins, Nicole Kidman, Troy
