Bast
Protector of Cats
... Drover, Nulla and Lady Sarah Ashley represent three very different segments of Australia. Drover is in a way the old Anglo-Saxon Australia that descended straight from the First Fleet etc... The rugged type. I know Lady Sarah Ashley is meant to be from England too but I see her as the new Australia. The Brits that came over later or migrants from Europe, Asia etc... And of course Nulla, indigenous Australia.
The fact that they at one point united to create an unlikely family suggest that that's the theme they should've built on. The story ends with Drover and Lady Ashley being together and Nulla going away. Nulla going away is fine. But I'd rather that Drover had stayed away as he did previously. This would've meant that the three - the little family - was disjointed at the end but there would be hope that the three were to unite again at some point in the future. It's symbolic and would leave the viewer thinking about the possibilities.
The other problem is that as an epic, it needed to show the passage of time. The evolution of Faraway Downs showed that a little but it's not enough. I was reading Ebert's review and I agreed most about the point that Lady Ashley and Drover were too different people to just "get together" like that.
If anything it probably would've worked better to have them not get together at all in the movie but just hint at the underlying chemistry and hint that there is hope for a reunion in the future.
Thoughts?
The fact that they at one point united to create an unlikely family suggest that that's the theme they should've built on. The story ends with Drover and Lady Ashley being together and Nulla going away. Nulla going away is fine. But I'd rather that Drover had stayed away as he did previously. This would've meant that the three - the little family - was disjointed at the end but there would be hope that the three were to unite again at some point in the future. It's symbolic and would leave the viewer thinking about the possibilities.
The other problem is that as an epic, it needed to show the passage of time. The evolution of Faraway Downs showed that a little but it's not enough. I was reading Ebert's review and I agreed most about the point that Lady Ashley and Drover were too different people to just "get together" like that.
If anything it probably would've worked better to have them not get together at all in the movie but just hint at the underlying chemistry and hint that there is hope for a reunion in the future.
Thoughts?
