AUSTRALIA

Director: Baz Luhrmann  

Producer:  Baz Luhrmann and

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Language: Some profanity, and vulgarity.

Movie Rating: PG-13

Actors: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Brandon Walters, and David Wenham.  

Discrimination, War, Romance, and Self-knowledge are the key elements in this 2008 War/Drama adaption called Australia. The plot and setting of story at the beginning of film takes place in the 1930’s, World War I era, on a large estate in London, England. The main character Lady Sarah Ashley, the wife of Lord Ashley, runs her and her husband’s estate, while Lord Ashley runs a cattle station in the outback called faraway downs. Sarah not seeing her husband for months, decides to leave for Australia and bring him home. Her ride to Faraway Down’s is the handsome, yet rugged Cattle Drover (Hugh Jackman), sent to take her. Sarah is repulsed by The Drover, and thinks of him as a man who throws himself at women. The Drover finds the feeling mutual her finding her selfish and uncaring. When she arrives at the station, she finds her husband dead. Mr. Fletcher, the manager, claims that an aboriginal tribal elder King George killed him. Sarah decides to stay for a while and learns that the property is losing its cattle to King Carney, a wealthy monopolistic man who lives in the town Darwin. In the middle of the night a little aboriginal boy named, Nullah, the grandson of King George, makes her aware of this “driving the cattle onto Carney’s land”. fires him for finding this out and for mistreating Nullah. She also learns that he is Nullah’s son and has been abusing Nullah’s mom, and grandmother who live on the property. She later finds out that Fletcher killed her husband, and blamed it on King George. She lost Fletcher and his men, except for the drover, who instead gets bribed by Lady Ashley for a beautiful horse.The Drover has no fellow cattle herder’s except him and his aboriginal brother-in-law Margarri, from the Drover’s late wife. So Sarah gets the little boy Nullah, Nullah’s mother, grandma, and Mr. Flynn the Station’s accountant. They get all the cattle and bring it back to the town in a period of 5 days, Sarah and the Drover start to get along and fall in love with each other. Along the way Nullah’s mother drowns in a water tank, from where her and Nullah hide from the cops, as well as Mr. Flynn who stampeded by the cattle. They end up bringing the cattle and get them on the ship. All is well the Drover, Sarah Ashley, and Nullah become a family and live in Faraway downs for 2 yrs. Carney is killed, by Fletcher, but make it look like a Crocodile came up and killed Carney. Fletcher marries Carney’s daughter, and he owns The King’s monopoly. Sarah wants send Nullah to school to get an education, but Nullah must go on a, “walk about” first, after fighting about this with the Drover, he leaves Sarah, with her telling him to leave because she thinks of herself as mother, but he doesn’t think he is a father. Later on the World War I hit Australia, the drover is devasted thinking that Sarah is dead but she is alive and he goes to save Nullah, along with Margarri, on a nearby island. They save him and learn that Sarah is alive and they live happily ever after. The movie had bold acting done by the lovely Nicole Kidman, and the gorgeous hunk Hugh Jackman.The little boy Brandon Walters did a wonderful job playing the free-spirited Nullah. The things I didn’t like about the movie, how the war could have been explained a little more.

If I were to rate this film I would give it a:

Chad Michael Murray = 6.5/10