I got a chance to see the epic movie Australia in the theater recently. I saw this movie as an American along with with a few Australians. This detail is important as it was very obvious that the different nationalities got something completely different out of the movie. As I’ve noticed in the past with criticism towards anything that’s related with the country, if you’re Australian this post will most likely be viewed as an attack on your country and all it stands for. Though it’s certainly not intended to be.

The movie tries to be too many things. It’s billed as an epic and in doing so tries to cater to too many people and ideas. Besides the fact that it weighs in at just under three hours it’s almost two movies with two different stories in one. One almost gets the impression that Baz Luhrmann, the director and writer, was trying to pay homage to Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, Out of Africa, and Spaghetti Westerns.

It starts out as a fantasy with an over-the-top aristocratic English woman and the Aussie Drover. She is quickly thrown into what seems like barbaric situations to her as there are pub brawls, a bumbling drunk, a stereotyped bad guy, and a few shots of wildlife and scenery. Most of the shots of the Australian outback are beautiful and work very well on their own but simply don’t mesh together thematically or stylistically. Luhrmann quickly sets the stage for the theme of oppression of the aborginals and introduces the two vital characters to the movie: young Nullah and his grandfather the mystic King George. The movie then morphs as a team of unlikely heroes attempt to drove a large herd of cattle to Drawin in order to fulfill an army contract that is critical. It’s Silverado meets The Man from Snowy River.

At this point the movie could have ended but instead is only a fraction of the way through as it continues morph again and again between a cliched Spaghetti Western and a serious or mystical drama about the oppression of the aboriginal culture. At every point where the movie could have ended – and there were quite a few – it changes gears. Its changing point of views is jarring at times.

The characters are mainly flat and predictable. Hugh Jackman plays the character who is so flat he is coincidentally called by his occupation, “Drover.” The all-knowing and ever-present mystical aboriginal character King George plays straight out of The Lion King as he has magic fires looking down from the mountain. Nicole Kidman plays the lady opposite to Jackman who begins the movie as an English aristochrat but soon warms to the anti-social Drover and falls for him.

I would recommend seeing the movie for its representation of Australia and the aborginal community, not for its storyline. Its melodramatic, inconsistent, and – at times even ridiculous – one dimensional plot are a definite pass. It could have been better had it followed the golden rule of less is more.

Some more interesting movies on Australian heritage and culture are Picnic at Hanging Rock, Breaker Morant and Gallipolli.