Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #67 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-04-27
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 158 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Watching the early reels of Australia, there's certainly no doubt who's in charge: this could only be a film by Baz Luhrmann, that wacky purveyor of all things over-the-top. In this old-fashioned, 165-minute hymn to his native continent, Luhrmann travels back to the late 1930s/early '40s, for a scenario that would not have been out of place at MGM in that era. Straightlaced Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) journeys Down Under and is put under the protection of--crikey--a rugged cattle driver known only as the Drover (Hugh Jackman). When the two are forced to team up (along with a motley crew of misfits) to take a herd of cattle through the hostile landscape, their way is challenged by the dastardly plans of the local beef baron (Bryan Brown) and his elaborately evil lieutenant (David Wenham). At some point you realize that this film's main commodity is not cattle, but corn: Luhrmann piles on the melodrama and the old-school climaxes with his usual frantic glee. Employing "When You Wish Upon a Star" and the Japanese air force to make his case is not beyond Luhrmann, and he reaches big here. Those with a taste for un-ironic silliness might just go for this stuff, but even fans of the Baz will have their patience tested by the broad comedy and the absence of discernable chemistry between Kidman and Jackman. Australia does manage to skewer the culture's prejudices against the Aboriginal people, but in this context such a victory comes across as rather tinny. --Robert Horton

Synopsis
Moulin Rouge's Baz Luhrman and Nicole Kidman reteam for this epic that pays homage to their homeland. In Australia, Lady Sarah Ashley (Kidman) is a prim and proper Englishwoman who journeys to Australia in the years before World War II reached the country's shores. She is determined to have her estranged husband sell his cattle ranch to a monopoly-craving businessman named King Carney (Bryan Brown), but when she arrives, Lord Ashley is dead, and her plan to sell the ranch changes when she sees an employee named Fletcher (David Wenham) cheating her husband's business and mistreating a young boy named Nullah (Brandon Walters) because he is of mixed race. Urged on by both pride and a sense of justice, Lady Ashley wants to drive her herd of cattle to Darwin so she can sell them to the troops, but she'll require the help of an independent cowboy (fellow Aussie Hugh Jackman) to get them there.


Australia changes genres almost as much as Kidman's character changes from fantastic costume to fantastic costume (courtesy of Luhrman's wife and collaborator, Catherine Martin). The film begins as a fish-out-of-water comedy, then changes into a Western, then morphs into a romance, and it finishes as a World War II drama. But in this genre-bending epic, there's something for everyone, especially for fans of Jackman. The actor has rarely looked better, and there's plenty of opportunity for him to show that he can be an action star as well as a romantic lead in the mould of the Golden Age stars. The film itself harks back to classic Hollywood, at times resembling essentials such as Gone With The Wind and The African Queen. And fans of The Wizard of Oz will enjoy seeing how the beloved film works its way into Australia's plot and score.

Customer Reviews

Good!
A surprisingly good film. Didn't quite know what it should be for the first hour or so, comedy? fantasy? silent movie spoof? But it gets better and settles down to an old fashioned romp, fun and easy to follow, just a litttttttle long but otherwise worth a watch.

A genre-bending blockbuster! Not just for girls!
When I first put Australia on, I was beginning to think that I'd put the wrong film on - yes, the narrator was talking about Australia, but where were Hugh and Nicole? Plus the tone of the film seemed, well, playful, whereas I was thinking it would be romantic. Regardless, I carried on watching. The storyline came along soon enough, it had just been setting up some backstory.

The basic plot is Lady Sarah Ashley's husband is living and working in Australia on a cattle ranch. Understandably his wife is a bit miffed that her husband lives on the other side of the world and she wants to sell the land so he can come home. Getting to the end of her tether, Lady Sarah heads out there only to find (spoiler!) on her arrival that her husband is dead. Still determined to go through with the sale, everything changes when she finds out that there are people determined to see the ranch fail and be sold to the local monopoly-craving, money-grabbing businessman. Feisty Lady Ashley decides she's going to keep the land, but after sacking the underhanded manager she finds herself lacking in staff. She knows just the man for the job, but unfortunately it's The Drover (Hugh Jackman) and he works purely on a commission basis as a drover, unwilling to be hired or fired by anyone.

The action continues as Lady Sarah tries hard to persuade The Drover to work for her and not have to sell to King Carney (played by Bryan Brown). All the while there are subplots going on which all tie fabulously together. I do agree with some of the reviews I've read that the film doesn't really fit neatly into a genre, but I wouldn't necessarily say that's a bad thing - surely it just widens its audience? The film wasn't what I expected but I really enjoyed it nevertheless. It's great to see how Kidman's character changes throughout, and the role of independent man's man The Drover seemed made for Jackman (thinking about who the director is, I'd say it probably was!) - including some of the dry quips we've become so used to when he's in the role of Wolverine.

Overall, I think the DVD cover doesn't do the film any favours as it will send many men running for the hills at the prospect of being forced to sit through another soppy love story. But I have to say, there's so much more to the film than that, there's plenty of action, scandal, humour and chemistry to keep most film lovers entertained.

Flawed but in fabulous in many ways
This is a far from perfect film; never sure what he wants to achieve, Luhrmann allows it to try and cover all bases from western to romance to action adventure to story of conscience. That said, if you're a fan of the Luhrmann vision you will love this film. It has all the stylistic and romantic elements of previous movies like Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet and Hugh Jackman in particular shows some genuine class as the Drover - who is a very typical Luhrmann hero; a man's man with a dream. I'm less convinced by Nicole Kidman (who I genuinely liked in Moulin Rouge) and there are times when the chemistry between the two is totally unconvincing. The story of Nullah the Aboriginal boy feels hackneyed and overly corny at times, a deliberate pull on the heart-strings, but again it's very typically Luhrmann and its very hard not to like Brandon Walters.

You have to want to like this film, you have to buy into Luhrmann's vision and you have to allow its flaws to pass you by. If you can you will find some absolute gems of style, direction and story-telling and above all an entertaining film that leaves you feeling as though you've seen a genuine modern-day epic