{"id":3202,"date":"2018-04-16T19:00:02","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T19:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2018\/04\/16\/the-australia-set-sweet-country-is-an-outback-western-of-epic-proportions\/"},"modified":"2018-04-16T19:00:02","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T19:00:02","slug":"the-australia-set-sweet-country-is-an-outback-western-of-epic-proportions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2018\/04\/16\/the-australia-set-sweet-country-is-an-outback-western-of-epic-proportions\/","title":{"rendered":"The Australia-set \u2018Sweet Country\u2019 is an Outback western of epic proportions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Alan Zilberman\/ The Washington Post<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3058\" src=\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/-\/media\/3SEDLEB6QQI6RDKT5OQO2I3RZQ.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Rating: 4\u2009stars<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a scene in \u201cSweet Country\u201d in which a character is shown wandering the Australian Outback, on the brink of hopelessness. At that moment, we\u2019re expected to share that character\u2019s despair. That\u2019s a big demand for any audience, but in this case, director Warwick Thornton (\u201cSamson and Delilah\u201d) earns that response, combining sensitive direction with strong performances and unflinching visuals to create a western of epic proportions. Though set in 1920s Australia, the tale has a moral force beyond time and place.<\/p>\n<p>Events are set in motion by Harry (Ewen Leslie), an embittered, racist World War I veteran who asks his preacher neighbor, Fred (Sam Neill), if he can borrow the services of a laborer for help on his ranch. That laborer, Sam (Hamilton Morris), is aboriginal; Fred treats him with respect, insisting they are equals, so the man of God balks at helping someone who does not share his views. Eventually, Fred agrees, sending Sam to the ranch with Sam\u2019s wife and niece. After an alcohol-fueled act of violence by Harry, Sam shoots Harry in self-defense, then flees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSweet Country\u201d is concerned with the fallout of that violence.<\/p>\n<p>Seen through Thornton\u2019s lens, the Outback is a more pitiless landscape than the American West, yet he frames it elegantly, as if to show why settlers might have been drawn there. His direction also includes a technique that is startling, even bizarre: After shooting from one character\u2019s perspective, he then jump-cuts forward in time. Although it is not always clear whether these future events are actual or imaginary, the effect is powerful, showing us how unspoken prejudice infects this loose community of ranchers and lawmen.<\/p>\n<p>Bryan Brown, the veteran Australian character actor, plays one of those lawmen, in a role that recalls his appearance in the 1980 Australian classic \u201cBreaker Morant,\u201d which also dealt with the question of real-world justice.<\/p>\n<p>This shrewdly observed story asks another question: Is civilization possible in a nation where discrimination has such deep roots? In \u201cSweet Country,\u201d the answer arrives with a tough fatalism. If the movie\u2019s outlook is less than hopeful, it nevertheless suggests that there is still time to learn from our mistakes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alan Zilberman\/ The Washington Post Rating: 4\u2009stars There\u2019s a scene in \u201cSweet Country\u201d in which a character is shown wandering the Australian Outback, on the brink of hopelessness. At that moment, we\u2019re expected to share that character\u2019s despair. That\u2019s a big demand for any audience, but in this case, director Warwick Thornton (\u201cSamson and Delilah\u201d) &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2018\/04\/16\/the-australia-set-sweet-country-is-an-outback-western-of-epic-proportions\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Australia-set \u2018Sweet Country\u2019 is an Outback western of epic proportions - Thunderbird Entertainment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2018\/04\/16\/the-australia-set-sweet-country-is-an-outback-western-of-epic-proportions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Australia-set \u2018Sweet Country\u2019 is an Outback western of epic proportions - Thunderbird Entertainment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Alan Zilberman\/ The Washington Post Rating: 4\u2009stars There\u2019s a scene in \u201cSweet Country\u201d in which a character is shown wandering the Australian Outback, on the brink of hopelessness. 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