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Reviews
Against the Wind (1978)
Australian Colonial History
Fine acting, excellent cinematography, good music and a grand vision of Australian history make this a very enjoyable historical "epic" on the small scale.
Told from the point of view of a small group of English and Irish transportees sent abroad on a "one way ticket" to what was then called "Van Diemmens Land" (Tasmania), most transportees ended up at Botany Bay sweating out their terms of indentured labour, serving a corrupt and arrogant military junta of British serving officers. The common belief that "There's no real need for guards here--there's nowhere a whiteman could run to, and the "savages" will eat you alive..." left the transportee's virtually without hope, and left the junta with defacto "absolute power"
Over the course of the series of episodes, the story unfolds of how, after great suffering and revolt, the colonists eventually get their situation fairly reviewed by British senior military command, and the seeds of civilian administrative government solidly germinated.
At times gritty, at times romantic, the early history of Australian colonization by Europeans is laid bare for all to see. The natural scenery of southern Australia is used to great effect to visually frame the story.>
This series has been completely unavailable on VCR or DVD, and greatly deserves to be re-issued, as it is a fine example of the "Australian Film rennaissance" of the 1970's and early 1980's
Wo hu cang long (2000)
Archtypically Chinese Drama
The movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is a beautifully lyrical tale set in some unspecified ancient period of Chinese history. It details the unsuccessful struggle of a master swordsman to foreswear his profession, and to bring to fruition his personal relationship with the lady security consultant who is the object of his emotional desire.
They work together to try to recover his quasi-magical emerald engraved sword, which he has given in trust to his old weapons-training master, but which has been mysteriously stolen by a night-thief...The true identity and historical reasons for this theft provide much of the tension in the second half of the movie.
The fanciful aspects of the story where the martial-artists seem to gain an increasing mastery over gravity---sailing from one rooftop to another, cannot be reconciled with Western "literalness", but are more fitted to classical arabian or oriental fairy-tales, or even of the Greco-Roman "deux-ex-machina" direct-interference of "Gods" in the plots of mortal men...
If taken as literal storytelling, the movie fails in "believability".. but taken as an allegorical, poetic, fanciful parable it is a wonderful success...
This movie is suprisingly well acted---suprisingly by western standards-----the characterization and the plot development owe much more to Buddhist or Zen Koan philosophy, and to the very stylized manners of Japanese (originally Chinese) "puppet" theatre. Western viewers who have any background in watching opera will have no trouble with the "stylized" aspects of the acting.
Like moonlight through waving bamboo, the ending is moody, reflective, ambivalent, philosophical....ultimately enlightening.
This is far better storytelling and possibly better martial-arts than anything Bruce Lee ever managed to bring to the screen during HIS lifetime... The music score is alternately lush and exotic, with cello solos by Yo-Yo Mah giving it just the right touch of "classical" western melody. The cinematography is equal to anything from the epic films of David Lean.
I can't wait to go see it again!
Against the Wind (1978)
Australian Colonial History
Fine acting, excellent cinematography, good music and a grand vision of Australian history make this a very enjoyable historical "epic" on the small scale.
Told from the point of view of a small group of English and Irish transportees sent abroad on a "one way ticket" to what was then called "Van Diemmens Land" (Tasmania), most transportees ended up at Botany Bay sweating out their terms of indentured labour, serving a corrupt and arrogant military junta of British serving officers. The common belief that "There's no real need for guards here--there's nowhere a whiteman could run to, and the "savages" will eat you alive..." left the transportee's virtually without hope, and left the junta with defacto "absolute power"
Over the course of the series of episodes, the story unfolds of how, after great suffering and revolt, the colonists eventually get their situation fairly reviewed by British senior military command, and the seeds of civilian administrative government solidly germinated.
At times gritty, at times romantic, the early history of Australian colonization by Europeans is laid bare for all to see. The natural scenery of southern Australia is used to great effect to visually frame the story.>
This series has been completely unavailable on VCR or DVD, and greatly deserves to be re-issued, as it is a fine example of the "Australian Film rennaissance" of the 1970's and early 1980's
Traffik (1989)
The Seduction, The Politics, & the Reality of Heroin Addiction
This is a wonderfully gritty drama, detailing the various sides of the international heroin drug-trade--From the hills of northern Pakistan, where the tacitly allowed cultivation of opium-poppies occurs on a vast scale; to the jetsetting "Euro-Trash" in Germany and England who arrange the importation of processed heroin in multi-kilo smuggled shipments; to the end-users caught up in the web of addiction and the crime needed to support their growing habit; and finally all the levels of international government corruption and hypocrisy surrounding police efforts at controlling "the drug problem"---this drama is sketched out with a wide array of in-depth well-rounded characters, fully evolved plot, and excellent character acting and location shooting.
This puts Hollywood epics like "The French Connection" in their place!
Traffik is a deeply thought-provoking and suspenseful tale of modern drug-related espionage, and the international efforts of many people to try to eliminate it.
Unlike many "crime dramas" revolving around drugs, Traffik focusses strongly on uncovering the societal *reasons* that people slide into drug addiction... As one of the characters puts it "...until we, as a society, construct a world that people want to participate in, instead of wanting to escape from, we will not be able to stop people from taking drugs..."
This is a fascinating and fully engrossing drama. I highly recommend it!