The Story of Power and the Relationship between Land and Capital - Essay Example

Australia’s Stylistic and Generic Features “Stylistically, Australia is a blend of Lurhmann’s trademark pantomime theatricality withvarious cinematic epics and genres. This approach, and the wild fluctuations in tone that accompany it, ensures that nothing is explored.” (Phillips) How successfully Australia explores national history and identity, paying particular attention to the film’s self-conscious stylistic and generic features. Introduction The film ‘Australia’ was set in North-Western Australia and the northern territory in a time when the 2nd world war was just taking root. It has a length of 165 minutes and revolves around romance. The main characters in the movie are Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. The self-conscious stylistic and generic features have employed by Lurhmann in ‘Australia’ in various approaches in order to explore the national history and identity. They have been used in the cleverest ways that require critical analysis to evaluate and explain. In the film, Nicole Kidman acts solely as Lady Ashley who is a rich noble lady and owning Faraway Downs which is a cattle station in Australia. Also, there is Brandon Walters who has been featured as Nullah, a boy of mixed-race who is orphaned during the start of the movie and very handsome but poor cattle herder who is Hugh Jackman starring as the Drover. In the movie, Nullah is living a life of uncertainty due to the government policy of all taking all Aboriginal children of mixed race and giving them to the whites to stay there. Nullah finds refuge with Lady Ashley and the Drover, who are now lovers. Nullah is separated from his de facto parents during the Darwin Japanese bombing of February 1942. They are later reunited. (http://inside.org.au/luhrmann-us-and-them/) Through the film, Luhrmann has created a sensation of thriller, disturbance, touch, laughter and heartbreak. ‘Australia’ produces a Manichean allegory due to the blending of various styles, tones and genres. Fletcher and Lady Ashley play the battle between good and evil. The body of Nullah is the battlefield and they want to win the soul of Australia. Fletcher is obsessed with evil and kills Lord Ashley and King Carney, exploits sexually aboriginal women, and beats up Nullah. He attempts to kill and also lives where the Japanese will bomb. Fletcher is therefore portrayed evil (Hogan, 2010). There is the element of music in the film. It is eclectic including Elton John, the Glenn Miller Orchestra among many others. Luhrmann has come up with original songs for the movie from sampling of various songs. It is a pastiche that has been arranged from diverse classes of genre, wide variety of melodic forms, allusions from the film and others. Luhrmann’s use of these devices puts ‘Australia’ in the class of postmodern parody. The Drover is a generic title. It is built upon the white masculinity myth whereby, The Drover refers to a stereotype in the history of Australia by which this myth is strengthened by the landscapes of Australia infusing the national identity of Australia. Luhrmann might have disrupted the mythology by the film if really the drover died in the jungle as was intended by Luhrmann (Mills, 2010). An alternative voice is provided by Nullah. He is the one who introduces the film and again provides the voice-over. With this, we are made aware that the story is being told from the eyes of a child. The writer has employed storytelling from his characters. The stories are such like ‘Gone With The Wind’, ‘The Wizard Oz’, ‘Red River’ among other stories. Storytelling is repeatedly done by the characters as way of escaping. The story has self-referential parody text as a stylistic device. Works containing parody in most instances challenge the informally created nature of leading methods of seeing. It exaggerates the normal position of reading. It can reveal both the codes in the text and also lights up the social and social norms legitimize the appealing forms. Parody is centered on the excess element. It exposes the textual and generic codes or historical moments. In this film therefore, Luhrmann has employed the use of excess as his directorial style throughout the film ‘Australia’. It is composed of illusions within the text. It also comprises complimentary mythological posing which end up targeting excess (Greer, 2008). The stories ‘Gone With The Wind’, ‘Pearl Harbor’ and ‘Red River’ are in most cases analyzed as closest relatives in the movie. This is due to their narrative-similar nature, thus making Australia to be a self-referential movie. The writer’s urge to highlight the nature of history and mythology of Australia is realized when he reassembles the history from past filmic texts. The works collected here include the dog riding with the Drover that is derived from ‘Mad Max’, the execution of Magarri which is taken from ‘Gallipoli’ and the crossing of the Never Never believed to have come from ‘We of the Never Never’ among many other varying works. The writer has tried to intertwine the story of Nullah with the story ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’. In ‘Australia’, Nullah runs from Fletcher and in ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’, three young girls run from the constable who has been ordered to arrest them and send them to a mission school. A similarity in both is that the children are being chased by the mother but grandmother is the one who is trying to protect them (Starrs, 2012). The film emphasizes on stories and allusions, thus helping address its intention of parody and helps highpoint the state of historical fiction. For instance, Nullah talks of an account with the British history although restricting it to only one version. Also the Drover lays emphasis on the notion that history is a collection of stories tied together. The movie has unevenly mixed genre, tones of cinema and style. The film is comedic all the way till the demise of Daisy. When Drover is driving Lady Ashley back to Faraway Downs, one of the earliest scenes, Lady Ashley is excited at her first sight of a kangaroo. However, her naivety is shattered when a shot is fired towards the kangaroo. It hangs on the roof of a truck which was with Magarri’s nephew dripping blood down the windshield. Lady Ashley’s response sparks a sense of humor. The death of Flynn signals the film’s stylistic turning point. This movie has engaged three areas in the history of Australia, which mainly underlines national building. The first one is the inequality in status against egalitarianism, then the shameless greed of the individual versus the good of the nation, Australia and the exploitation and mistreatment of the Aboriginal people versus the respect and recognition of the Aboriginal rights, tradition, and way of life. This is like a form of racism whereby until recently in 2008, Australia didn’t have the avenues and framework through which such minority groups could air their thoughts and concerns (Mills, 2010). The conflict existing between an individual and the nation in the film ‘Australia’ is depicted through various instances. To begin, there is tension created around the need and yearning for egalitarianism. The issue of racism is core here. It is expressed in various forms such as public policy, use of insulting language, and others. Nullah is conducting a fearful life due to the fact that he might be taken away from his mother and the Faraway Downs. Fletcher is undoubtedly a racist. This is due to his exploitative nature to Aboriginal women sexually. He also connects King George with the death of Lord Ashley. The Drover also tells the story of his wife’s death that was connected with her being denied medical access. (://sensesofcinema.com/2010/feature-articles/mapping-australia-cinematic-cartographies-of-dislocation/) Secondly, there is a likelihood of conflict between Nullah and Lady Ashley over the idea of Nullah’s wish to have a walkabout with King George. Lady Ashley is depicted by Nullah as his mother who is supposed to care for him and not brush shoulders with each other. Lady Ashley needs to decide in favor of Nullah so that she can drive the thought of loneliness and uncaring nature away. In addition, the writer has employed a simple soundtrack that is meant to sooth Nullah after the demise of his mother. This is a device used by most acclaimed writers in order to neutralize the mood when one is high and thoughtful. It fosters a sense of belonging and gives people a new hope and meaning in life. It has therefore made Lady Ashley’s work easier. She will not be involved in a lot of comforting towards Nullah. (Cook, 2010) On the other hand, Luhrmann has employed the use of maps in his film ‘Australia’. The maps are used to play various functions that are of the same tale or are consistent. The cinematic maps take the audiences to journey places which are far way beyond the limits of the narrative and the film frame. On instance of cinematic map is the map showing the Carney land. It shows the property that is under the ownership of King Carney in the Kimberly in north of Australia. It shows the extent of the land which is very large. It is also used to tell the story of power and conflicts, the relationship between land, cattle and capital. The Carney Cattle Company is indicated in bold with CCC thus showing the totalitarian rule of King Carney in Australia. The next two maps show the journey from Australia to England and then back. They can also be considered as a single map due to their centering on the trip from Australia to England and back. The purpose of this map is to bring Lady Ashley from England to Australia for her to participate in the narrative. This is due to her role as a leading lady in the narrative (Ashenden, 2008). There is a different kind of map, mapping the Never Never. It is a song lines for Aboriginal that is chanted by King George, the man who was accused falsely by Carney of executing Lord Ashley and the grandfather to Nullah. There is also the use of Newsreel map in the film. There is a shot clip of the newsreel screening in which shows soldiers marching towards Australia. There are many other maps in the film that are significant both to the audience and the actors. This is the best stylistic device that has been employed in this movie so far. (Cook, 2010) As outlined earlier, a story has been used extensively in the movie to give us a clear concept of the piece. Almost the entire film has been brought out in story telling so as to enable the history of Australia be brought out clearly and the audiences be in a position to relate the themes in the movie with the real world. Also, it enables the movie to start out clearly giving the author a unique appreciation. Conclusion To this end, various forms of self-conscious stylistic and generic features have been employed in the entire movie. They have described how successfully Australia explores national history and identity and thus answering questions which might need critical analysis. References Ashenden, Dean (2008), ‘Lurmann, us, and them,’ Inside Story, available online at: http://inside.org.au/luhrmann-us-and-them/ Cook, Pam (2010) ‘Transnational Utopias: Baz Luhrmann and Australian Cinema,’ Transnational Cinemas, 1.1, 23-36. Greer, Germanine (2008), ‘Strictly Fanciful,’ The Age, available online at: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/strictly-fanciful-20081216-6zs0.html Hogan, Jackie (2010) ‘Gendered and Racialised Dismodules of National Identity in Baz Luhrmann’s Australia,’ Journal of Australian Studies, 34.1, 63-77. Mills, Jane (2010), ‘Mapping Australia: Cinematic Cartographies of (Dis) location,’ Senses of Cinema 55, available online at: http://sensesofcinema.com/2010/feature-articles/mapping-australia-cinematic-cartographies-of-dislocation/ Starrs, D. Bruno (2012) ‘The Aboriginal voice in Baz Luhrmann’s left-leaning Australia (2008),’ Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, Vol. 26 no. 4 (August), pp. 625-36. Read More