{"id":8335,"date":"2010-02-22T22:00:59","date_gmt":"2010-02-23T06:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=8335"},"modified":"2010-02-22T22:12:37","modified_gmt":"2010-02-23T06:12:37","slug":"bran-nue-dae-rachel-perkins-2009-australia-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=8335","title":{"rendered":"Bran Nue Dae (Rachel Perkins, 2009): Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Nicholas Berquist<\/a>. \u00a0Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rachel Perkins\u2019 adaptation of Bran Nue Dae<\/a><\/em> won\u2019t win any awards for its artistic nature or spellbinding camera work, mainly because there is none.\u00a0 Instead, this film grabs us and takes us on a wild, spontaneous, and hilarious ride through Western Australia.<\/p>\n

It starts off in a church gearing the audience up for a main theme of the film.\u00a0 Willie, our protagonist, is falling in love with Rosie, a cute aborigine girl.\u00a0 Rosie likes Willie but doesn\u2019t like that he\u2019s always listening to his mom and she definitely doesn\u2019t like waiting around while he\u2019s away at boarding school.\u00a0 Willie\u2019s zealous, overbearing mother sends him to the city to learn to be a priest.\u00a0 This year, Willie arrives at the school unsure if this is what he really wants.\u00a0 A priest can\u2019t marry Rosie.\u00a0 Unfortunately, upon his arrival Father Benedictus (Geoffrey Rush) makes Willie a prefect putting him in charge of other students.\u00a0 Willie is cracking under the pressure and can\u2019t stop having sexual thoughts about Rosie.\u00a0 After Father Benedictus catches Willie and the boys stealing from the kitchens he makes several racial remarks about the aborigines.\u00a0 Not only does this bring about the delightful, \u201cNothing I Would Rather Be\u2026\u201d musical number, it also forces Willie to flee the school.\u00a0 He decides he would rather be chasing after his girl Rosie and living away their lives in peaceful Broome.<\/p>\n

First things first: Geoffrey Rush is outstanding in this film.\u00a0 His German accent is spot on.\u00a0 Every time he was on the screen the audience, myself included, was giggling like a bunch of schoolgirls (no offense to any schoolgirls in attendance).\u00a0 This isn\u2019t necessarily because Rush\u2019s lines were funny or he looked funny.\u00a0 It was more because he perfected the tone of this film through his actions.\u00a0 We knew this film had a quirky, happy nature and Rush really encapsulates that.\u00a0 Portraying an old priest following a young boy in a musical comedy isn\u2019t exactly your everyday role, but Rush is more than up to the task.<\/p>\n

Unlike some films that try to capture real life, Bran Nue Dae<\/em> constantly is reminding the audience that it is watching fiction.\u00a0 Singing, dancing, and hitching rides from European hippies aren\u2019t things that happen every day.\u00a0 Also, the corny sound effects add to the goofy tone of the film.<\/p>\n

Despite all of that there is a stark and serious message in this film.\u00a0 Willie is tired of being pushed and pulled in all directions.\u00a0 Really, all he wants is to be who he is.\u00a0 On an even greater stage it says let people be who they are.\u00a0 Why should we invade and conquer especially in the name of religion?\u00a0 As long as their culture does no harm why do we feel the need to \u201ceducate the uncivilized\u201d?\u00a0 Perkins uses the song, \u201cNothing I Would Rather Be\u2026\u201d to highlight this message.\u00a0 Yes, the lyrics are funny and the song has a light melody, but if you really listen to what they\u2019re saying you realize this film is all about being who you are.<\/p>\n

Perkins deserves a lot of credit for converting a stage musical into a wonderful film.\u00a0 Beneath all the sarcasm and irony she really knows what she is doing and should be commended.\u00a0 Go see this film in support of aborigines and their culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Nicholas Berquist. \u00a0Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Rachel Perkins\u2019 adaptation of Bran Nue Dae won\u2019t win any awards for its artistic nature or spellbinding camera work, mainly because there is none.\u00a0 Instead, this film grabs us and takes us on a wild, spontaneous, and hilarious ride through Western Australia. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,131],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}