From the moment I saw an image of a family on bed of trees a poorly edited cross dissolved shot - i knew this was not going to be good. A bad decision by the editor and or director. Then came the instant disjointed shots jumping from current to fantasy flashbacks so quick - it puts you off and irritates you instantly. Then you get some text on screen explaining the characters and their history and traits. So we are already off to a bad start.
Its a shame that with all the great Aussie landscapes here that this film falls flat on its back. Cast were very good as well as the cinematography, locations and costume design but thats it. The story is weak and the characters have NO layers and no emotion other than hatred or revenge. The Aboriginal flashbacks and fantasy / spiritual aspects are just plain artistic arty farty rubbish that is an obvious attempt to try and be artistic. These moments makes the film disjointed and the female revenge plot feels very tarantino and very feminism politically. These moments add nothing to move the story forward and there are way too many characters to follow. If you have NO emotion, you have no film, a bunch of sensless killing and repeated rape scenes made me feel nothing. When the lady was being raped, as a director you need to show us the pain of what this poor woman is going through instead you chose the wrong shot size and angle. When the daughter is shot dead, you cut so quick to the next scene you didn't even give me a chance to feel the death, so important for the audience. I feel there this may be a bunch of white folk trying to tell an indigenous story to pat themselves on the back for feeling of white guilt. On the contrary i do applaud them for the effort overall. The score could have been much more cinematic with these landscapes so there is another missed opportunity. People say this was a good film, but in fact it was hard to watch and was boring even with all those action scenes. Would not recommend at all.
Its an obvious attempt at recreating a Tarantino style film. The pop music really made this even worse as the film fails at sticking to a theme. Is this experimental?
To finish it all off were the cheesy closing credits, with The Bag Guys, etc this felt unnatural in a film that should have focused more on the indigenous story and not all the cheesyness and excessive amount of kills.
Overall good acting, landscapes and cinematography. Bad story, directing and editing and music.
Its a shame that with all the great Aussie landscapes here that this film falls flat on its back. Cast were very good as well as the cinematography, locations and costume design but thats it. The story is weak and the characters have NO layers and no emotion other than hatred or revenge. The Aboriginal flashbacks and fantasy / spiritual aspects are just plain artistic arty farty rubbish that is an obvious attempt to try and be artistic. These moments makes the film disjointed and the female revenge plot feels very tarantino and very feminism politically. These moments add nothing to move the story forward and there are way too many characters to follow. If you have NO emotion, you have no film, a bunch of sensless killing and repeated rape scenes made me feel nothing. When the lady was being raped, as a director you need to show us the pain of what this poor woman is going through instead you chose the wrong shot size and angle. When the daughter is shot dead, you cut so quick to the next scene you didn't even give me a chance to feel the death, so important for the audience. I feel there this may be a bunch of white folk trying to tell an indigenous story to pat themselves on the back for feeling of white guilt. On the contrary i do applaud them for the effort overall. The score could have been much more cinematic with these landscapes so there is another missed opportunity. People say this was a good film, but in fact it was hard to watch and was boring even with all those action scenes. Would not recommend at all.
Its an obvious attempt at recreating a Tarantino style film. The pop music really made this even worse as the film fails at sticking to a theme. Is this experimental?
To finish it all off were the cheesy closing credits, with The Bag Guys, etc this felt unnatural in a film that should have focused more on the indigenous story and not all the cheesyness and excessive amount of kills.
Overall good acting, landscapes and cinematography. Bad story, directing and editing and music.