Spring Break
'Australia' neglects to stay grounded
by Ben Strassfeld
Staff Writer
Arts | 12/9/08
Posted online at 11:37 PM EST on 12/8/08
/ Last updated at 1:06 AM EST on 12/8/08
It is often said that America is obsessed with the race issue. From the signing of our Constitution and the arguments over slavery that led to the Civil War to our most recent presidential election, race relations have always seemed to be at the forefront of our national conversation. In fact, race relations and American history often seemed so inextricably linked that we forget that other countries have struggled and continue to struggle with the issue as well.
In France, the Algerians were long treated as second-class citizens (or worse, at times), while in Africa, the deeply disturbing and borderline genocidal actions by European settlers against natives have been well-documented. Yet, there is another major case of racial conflict that continues to be a problem even today and that has been long ignored by the world at large.
Much of the reason the world has ignored the situation is simply because Australia hasn't, over its nearly 300-year existence, been a particularly major player in the global scene. The country, despite its role as a major destination for European settlers for over 200 years, still boasts a population less than a tenth the size of America, even though its land mass is nearly the same.
Yet Australia's struggle with race relations between its white European settlers and the indigenous Aboriginal population is long and extremely troubling. For roughly 100 years, even until the 1970s in some parts of Australia, it was custom for the government to remove Aboriginal children from their homes so as to "protect" the children from their "brutal and wild" native parents. To say the practice, often called "stolen generations," was vile and barbaric doesn't seem to do it justice, but it was not until February of this year that the Australian government finally apologized to the Aboriginal people for the millions of deaths and broken families it caused.
This sad affair in Australia's history is the subject of Baz Luhrman's latest film, simply titled Australia. If you have trouble recalling Luhrman's name, don't fret; the man has made only three films until now, the last one released seven years ago. On the other hand though, when the only three films Luhrman has released are the imaginative and spectacular Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!, critics tend to take note of pretty much anything he does. Australia is as grand and epic as it is confused and jumbled, but overall the film's successes outweigh its failures.
In France, the Algerians were long treated as second-class citizens (or worse, at times), while in Africa, the deeply disturbing and borderline genocidal actions by European settlers against natives have been well-documented. Yet, there is another major case of racial conflict that continues to be a problem even today and that has been long ignored by the world at large.
Much of the reason the world has ignored the situation is simply because Australia hasn't, over its nearly 300-year existence, been a particularly major player in the global scene. The country, despite its role as a major destination for European settlers for over 200 years, still boasts a population less than a tenth the size of America, even though its land mass is nearly the same.
Yet Australia's struggle with race relations between its white European settlers and the indigenous Aboriginal population is long and extremely troubling. For roughly 100 years, even until the 1970s in some parts of Australia, it was custom for the government to remove Aboriginal children from their homes so as to "protect" the children from their "brutal and wild" native parents. To say the practice, often called "stolen generations," was vile and barbaric doesn't seem to do it justice, but it was not until February of this year that the Australian government finally apologized to the Aboriginal people for the millions of deaths and broken families it caused.
This sad affair in Australia's history is the subject of Baz Luhrman's latest film, simply titled Australia. If you have trouble recalling Luhrman's name, don't fret; the man has made only three films until now, the last one released seven years ago. On the other hand though, when the only three films Luhrman has released are the imaginative and spectacular Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!, critics tend to take note of pretty much anything he does. Australia is as grand and epic as it is confused and jumbled, but overall the film's successes outweigh its failures.
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