TLDR Version: I can't fathom all these 10 star reviews, this movie is a mess. High Ground is beautifully filmed with a cast of solid actors like Simon Baker, Aaron Pedersen & the gorgeous Caren Pistorius, and good performances from the less experienced actors, but the script & screenplay utterly fail them. They & the subject matter deserved better. This is not Sweet Country, which is an infinitely better movie set in the same time & place that also deals with colonial injustices toward Aborigines. There is really only ONE good scene in High Ground, where Gutjuk's grandfather parlays with the police commander and tells him they should be following the natives' laws since he & his Queen's laws came from across the ocean. That's it. Everything else is forgettable, cliched & often stupid.
The Long Spoiler-Heavy Version: A good Director would have completely overhauled this screenplay to be less nonsensical with more character development, especially Simon Baker's character Travis, who shoots other whitefellas with no hesitation and somehow gets away with it in the first act. Seriously, there's a bit of dialogue that amounts to "we found your rifle rounds in our guys but not in any of the abo's, heh heh, but we'll send you to apprehend this Baywara that's terrorizing settlers, prove yourself ;)". Imagine a US cavalryman at Wounded Knee getting away with shooting two of his fellow soldiers and no Lakota. He'd be dancing at the gallows, but here's Travis The Sniper walking free for 12 years. Anyway, in Act 1, WW1 veteran Travis is a sniper in a police squad that's bringing a missionary or something to convert a tribe of aborigines. I think. It's wasn't clear to me WTH they're doing & why they need a sniper for it. Travis's war buddy "spotter" Eddy walks up to a boy named Gutjuk. Gutjuk starts screaming & screaming hysterically and Eddy tries to calm him down to no avail, then Gutjuk's idiot uncle Baywara runs towards them with his spear arm cocked at Eddy (who could've killed Gutjuk ages ago if that was his goal). Eddy naturally defends himself & shoots Baywara in the face, and in the confusion a massacre begins. Gutjuk's mom takes him down into a nearby pond, shows him the old reed-snorkel trick and pushes him under some lilypads. Instead of doing the same though, she decides to run back into the fray for some reason, flails her arms wildly with no attempt to be stealthy at all & gets shot. Travis teamkills two of his own guys to stop the massacre, then walks down and pulls Gutjuk out of his underwater hiding place after his comrades have seemingly killed the whole tribe. Travis & the preacher for this outreach of christian brotherly-love take the newly orphaned boy back to the mission where Claire (Caren Pistorious) greets them. Later, Gutjuk's grandfather Dharpa comes back from walkabout & finds his whole tribe dead except for his unconscious son Baywara whose stupidity got everyone killed. Go figure.
Act 2. It's 12 years later. Baywara has a badass facial scar & is raising hell against whitey, so the provincial police chief Moran (Jack Thompson) calls Travis out of retirement & sends him and a now adult Gutjuk (who the Aborigine-sympathizing missionaries renamed Tommy for some reason) to locate Baywara and his merry band. Why, I don't know...the motivation for sending Travis & Baywara's nephew out to find them made no sense. Any tracker could've done that. Travis's war buddy Eddy is also there but he doesn't go with them for some reason, he stays behind to wait for a "half-caste" Aborigine named Walter (played by Aaron Pedersen). The shady Walter could have been an interesting lynchpin character but of course this film did nothing with him. Then for some reason Eddy & Walter go after Travis & Gutjuk, but get disarmed by them and sent back. I swear, I paid total attention to this movie but it's such an eye-glazing slog, expect me to say "for some reason" a lot. After Eddy & Walter leave, the renegade aborigines pop up & take Travis prisoner. Then Gutjuk's grandfather Dharpa takes them all back (minus Baywara) to negotiate with police chief Moran about Baywara, with Gutjuk translating. Gutjuk, who's been learning english for 12 FREAKING YEARS, translates all this very badly. The kind of bad translating that causes international incidents. Nothing is resolved, and Moran and the others just let them leave. Now, a truly shrewd colonizer with 20th century weaponry would've just taken these primitives hostage until Baywara turned himself in. But...again *for some reason* they're allowed to just leave.
Act 3. Gudjuk listens to some metaphysical mumbojumbo from his Grandfather while making spearheads (the subtitles for the aborigine scenes in this movie are badly done). The next day the provincial police raid their camp, and Baywara flies into a rage at Gutjuk for being in league with the soldiers who killed their homies. Baywara then acts like he's going to stab Gutjuk, and is shot dead by triggerhappy Travis who's watching from far away through his rifle scope. Then Travis starts teamkilling again, shooting some raiding police & shooting Walter in the head. Travis then comes down to help Gutjuk escape, but for some reason Gutjuk not only knows he's who shot Baywara but that he was involved in the massacre (though from what I recall Travis killed no one but his coworkers). Gutjuk then shoots Travis in the abdomen & runs away. Travis is taken back to the mission, bandaged up & told that he's going to hang this time for his teamkilling. Gutjuk and the surviving renegades go on the offensive & attack the police camp at the mission. Thus begins a reenactment of The OC series finale. You know, the much parodied Imogen Heap song "Hide&Seek" playing while everyone shoots everyone? Police chief Moran is about to kill Gutjuk, Travis shoots him in the head (MMMM WHATCHA SAYYY) then Eddy appears and is about to kill Travis but Claire shoots him in the back (MMM THAT YOU ONLY MEANT WELL), then Moran's nephew tries to shoot Gutjuk but Travis jumps in front of it (MMMM WHAT'D YA SAYYY) Travis dies as he says "Gutjuk" over and over (MMM THATS IT ALL FOR THE BEST OF COURSE IT IS).
Longest review I've ever done, because I'm flabbergasted at the virtue signalling 10/10's this film is getting on IMDB. I can think of several better movies that tell you how bad aborigines have had it...Sweet Country, Rabbit Proof Fence, Tracker, The Nightingale, etc.
The Long Spoiler-Heavy Version: A good Director would have completely overhauled this screenplay to be less nonsensical with more character development, especially Simon Baker's character Travis, who shoots other whitefellas with no hesitation and somehow gets away with it in the first act. Seriously, there's a bit of dialogue that amounts to "we found your rifle rounds in our guys but not in any of the abo's, heh heh, but we'll send you to apprehend this Baywara that's terrorizing settlers, prove yourself ;)". Imagine a US cavalryman at Wounded Knee getting away with shooting two of his fellow soldiers and no Lakota. He'd be dancing at the gallows, but here's Travis The Sniper walking free for 12 years. Anyway, in Act 1, WW1 veteran Travis is a sniper in a police squad that's bringing a missionary or something to convert a tribe of aborigines. I think. It's wasn't clear to me WTH they're doing & why they need a sniper for it. Travis's war buddy "spotter" Eddy walks up to a boy named Gutjuk. Gutjuk starts screaming & screaming hysterically and Eddy tries to calm him down to no avail, then Gutjuk's idiot uncle Baywara runs towards them with his spear arm cocked at Eddy (who could've killed Gutjuk ages ago if that was his goal). Eddy naturally defends himself & shoots Baywara in the face, and in the confusion a massacre begins. Gutjuk's mom takes him down into a nearby pond, shows him the old reed-snorkel trick and pushes him under some lilypads. Instead of doing the same though, she decides to run back into the fray for some reason, flails her arms wildly with no attempt to be stealthy at all & gets shot. Travis teamkills two of his own guys to stop the massacre, then walks down and pulls Gutjuk out of his underwater hiding place after his comrades have seemingly killed the whole tribe. Travis & the preacher for this outreach of christian brotherly-love take the newly orphaned boy back to the mission where Claire (Caren Pistorious) greets them. Later, Gutjuk's grandfather Dharpa comes back from walkabout & finds his whole tribe dead except for his unconscious son Baywara whose stupidity got everyone killed. Go figure.
Act 2. It's 12 years later. Baywara has a badass facial scar & is raising hell against whitey, so the provincial police chief Moran (Jack Thompson) calls Travis out of retirement & sends him and a now adult Gutjuk (who the Aborigine-sympathizing missionaries renamed Tommy for some reason) to locate Baywara and his merry band. Why, I don't know...the motivation for sending Travis & Baywara's nephew out to find them made no sense. Any tracker could've done that. Travis's war buddy Eddy is also there but he doesn't go with them for some reason, he stays behind to wait for a "half-caste" Aborigine named Walter (played by Aaron Pedersen). The shady Walter could have been an interesting lynchpin character but of course this film did nothing with him. Then for some reason Eddy & Walter go after Travis & Gutjuk, but get disarmed by them and sent back. I swear, I paid total attention to this movie but it's such an eye-glazing slog, expect me to say "for some reason" a lot. After Eddy & Walter leave, the renegade aborigines pop up & take Travis prisoner. Then Gutjuk's grandfather Dharpa takes them all back (minus Baywara) to negotiate with police chief Moran about Baywara, with Gutjuk translating. Gutjuk, who's been learning english for 12 FREAKING YEARS, translates all this very badly. The kind of bad translating that causes international incidents. Nothing is resolved, and Moran and the others just let them leave. Now, a truly shrewd colonizer with 20th century weaponry would've just taken these primitives hostage until Baywara turned himself in. But...again *for some reason* they're allowed to just leave.
Act 3. Gudjuk listens to some metaphysical mumbojumbo from his Grandfather while making spearheads (the subtitles for the aborigine scenes in this movie are badly done). The next day the provincial police raid their camp, and Baywara flies into a rage at Gutjuk for being in league with the soldiers who killed their homies. Baywara then acts like he's going to stab Gutjuk, and is shot dead by triggerhappy Travis who's watching from far away through his rifle scope. Then Travis starts teamkilling again, shooting some raiding police & shooting Walter in the head. Travis then comes down to help Gutjuk escape, but for some reason Gutjuk not only knows he's who shot Baywara but that he was involved in the massacre (though from what I recall Travis killed no one but his coworkers). Gutjuk then shoots Travis in the abdomen & runs away. Travis is taken back to the mission, bandaged up & told that he's going to hang this time for his teamkilling. Gutjuk and the surviving renegades go on the offensive & attack the police camp at the mission. Thus begins a reenactment of The OC series finale. You know, the much parodied Imogen Heap song "Hide&Seek" playing while everyone shoots everyone? Police chief Moran is about to kill Gutjuk, Travis shoots him in the head (MMMM WHATCHA SAYYY) then Eddy appears and is about to kill Travis but Claire shoots him in the back (MMM THAT YOU ONLY MEANT WELL), then Moran's nephew tries to shoot Gutjuk but Travis jumps in front of it (MMMM WHAT'D YA SAYYY) Travis dies as he says "Gutjuk" over and over (MMM THATS IT ALL FOR THE BEST OF COURSE IT IS).
Longest review I've ever done, because I'm flabbergasted at the virtue signalling 10/10's this film is getting on IMDB. I can think of several better movies that tell you how bad aborigines have had it...Sweet Country, Rabbit Proof Fence, Tracker, The Nightingale, etc.