I had high hopes for this film, hearing that it was a fine Robert Mitchum performance, was based on an important Australian book, garnered multiple Oscar nominations and especially it being based in my home, Australia. I imagined it might be a film something like "Sunday Too Far Away", and could not understand why I had never seen it. American actors in Australian films are not unheard of (such as Kirk Douglas in "The Man from Snowy River"). From the opening scene, the reason I had never seen it in Australia became obvious; it just does not seem like Australia but some sort of cardboard cut-out story book version that is based on America, and for an Australian it is almost unwatchable.
The accents are just awful. People are being very generous when they praise the accents ... none of these actors could pass themselves as Australians in Australia for 5 seconds. The accents are patently inauthentic and not even close. When Australian actors like Russell Crowe or Nicole Kidman have to play an American, they have to get their accents right. When Renee Zellweger has to play English, she has to get the accent right. Apparently these standards did not apply in 1960.
Deborah Kerr sounds some sort of bad faux cockney ... which would be fine, cockneys move to Australia, she could be the drovers wife and be born in the East End of London, but her word usage and attempted nasalisation of the vowels are obviously attempting to be Australian, so you try to imagine to yourself that she might be a cockney that has been in Australia for a long time and has some sort of bizarre hybrid, but ultimately that doesn't work as she is an American doing an extremely bad job and it keeps pulling you out of the movie as you listen to her butcher the Australian accent. Robert Mitchum's American accent shines through his attempted strine with some cockney thrown in. But the worst of all is the young boys accent. I understand why they needed Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr for star power to make money at the box-office, but why could they not choose Australians for all the minor parts? At least if there were some Australians around, it would give Mitchum and Kerr someone to imitate. Although there are some Australians as minor parts in the film, many minor roles were unnecessarily given to Americans with poor training in the Australian accent, each new one as they are introduced is worse than the last.
That inauthenticity you might be able to get over if you just suspended it and let go of the gripe, and could loose yourself in the film. But then it is shot to make the Australian landscape look like a Western, complete with a swaggering Robert Mitchum in a cowboy hat and western style harmonica music to evoke Westerns, and you don't feel like this is Australia but America, and wonder how much was shot on a Hollywood lot or if they intentionally rearranged the scenes in Australia to make them evoke America. It then fetishes Australiana with shots of Australian birds like Cockatoos and Kookaburras, and then almost documentary style footage of things that must be fascinating to an American like a sheep dog working, sheep being herded and the work in a shearing shed, kangaroos jump through the middle of the shot in the middle of the heat of the day (kangaroos are nocturnal and sit around sleeping all day, being most active during dawn and dusk). It is just a bizarre experience for what is supposed to be a serious movie that got Oscar nominations. It is like a children's cartoon version of Australia.
The Australians are then treated kind of like comedy with Australians all getting into good natured fights over trivialities like simple- minded buffoons completely lacking in the cynicism and dryness that are inherent in outback pubs and these sorts of locations. It at no stage ever rings true. So you are watching these Australian locations shot to resemble American locations, with these bizarre American takes on Australian accents, and the characters reacting in ways that Australians would never react. All this constantly pulls you out of the film as you wonder how it must look to Americans, and how Australians can enjoy it in any other way than some sort of pride in "showcasing our country" like an advertisement for Tourism Australia rather than the serious piece of art it is held up as.
The accents are just awful. People are being very generous when they praise the accents ... none of these actors could pass themselves as Australians in Australia for 5 seconds. The accents are patently inauthentic and not even close. When Australian actors like Russell Crowe or Nicole Kidman have to play an American, they have to get their accents right. When Renee Zellweger has to play English, she has to get the accent right. Apparently these standards did not apply in 1960.
Deborah Kerr sounds some sort of bad faux cockney ... which would be fine, cockneys move to Australia, she could be the drovers wife and be born in the East End of London, but her word usage and attempted nasalisation of the vowels are obviously attempting to be Australian, so you try to imagine to yourself that she might be a cockney that has been in Australia for a long time and has some sort of bizarre hybrid, but ultimately that doesn't work as she is an American doing an extremely bad job and it keeps pulling you out of the movie as you listen to her butcher the Australian accent. Robert Mitchum's American accent shines through his attempted strine with some cockney thrown in. But the worst of all is the young boys accent. I understand why they needed Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr for star power to make money at the box-office, but why could they not choose Australians for all the minor parts? At least if there were some Australians around, it would give Mitchum and Kerr someone to imitate. Although there are some Australians as minor parts in the film, many minor roles were unnecessarily given to Americans with poor training in the Australian accent, each new one as they are introduced is worse than the last.
That inauthenticity you might be able to get over if you just suspended it and let go of the gripe, and could loose yourself in the film. But then it is shot to make the Australian landscape look like a Western, complete with a swaggering Robert Mitchum in a cowboy hat and western style harmonica music to evoke Westerns, and you don't feel like this is Australia but America, and wonder how much was shot on a Hollywood lot or if they intentionally rearranged the scenes in Australia to make them evoke America. It then fetishes Australiana with shots of Australian birds like Cockatoos and Kookaburras, and then almost documentary style footage of things that must be fascinating to an American like a sheep dog working, sheep being herded and the work in a shearing shed, kangaroos jump through the middle of the shot in the middle of the heat of the day (kangaroos are nocturnal and sit around sleeping all day, being most active during dawn and dusk). It is just a bizarre experience for what is supposed to be a serious movie that got Oscar nominations. It is like a children's cartoon version of Australia.
The Australians are then treated kind of like comedy with Australians all getting into good natured fights over trivialities like simple- minded buffoons completely lacking in the cynicism and dryness that are inherent in outback pubs and these sorts of locations. It at no stage ever rings true. So you are watching these Australian locations shot to resemble American locations, with these bizarre American takes on Australian accents, and the characters reacting in ways that Australians would never react. All this constantly pulls you out of the film as you wonder how it must look to Americans, and how Australians can enjoy it in any other way than some sort of pride in "showcasing our country" like an advertisement for Tourism Australia rather than the serious piece of art it is held up as.