Australia
Rent & Buy
Set in northern Australia before World War II, an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch reluctantly pacts with a stock-man in order to protect her new property from a takeover plot. As the pair drive 2,000 head of cattle over unforgiving landscape, they experience the bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces firsthand.
What critics thought
Baz Luhrmann's sweeping epic divides neatly along the question of whether its shameless artifice is a feature or a bug — critics who surrendered to its melodramatic excess found it grandly entertaining, while those who resisted found it a bloated patchwork stitched together from better films. Almost everyone agrees it looks spectacular; where they split is on whether the second half earns its emotional ambitions or collapses under them.
“A wildly ambitious, luridly indulgent spectacle of romance, action, melodrama and revisionism, Australia is windy, overblown, utterly preposterous and insanely entertaining.”
Ann Hornaday·Washington Post
“The second half of Australia, Luhrmann's attempt to pull off a wartime weeper, is so aggressively sentimental that it begins to feel more like punishment than pleasure. I left Australia feeling drained and weakened, as if I'd suffered a gradual poisoning at the hands of a mad scientist.”
Stephanie Zacharek·Salon.com
“Baz Luhrmann dreamed of making the Australian Gone with the Wind, and so he has, with much of that film's lush epic beauty and some of the same awkwardness with a national legacy of racism.”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
“Australia is clearly a labor of love, and a matter of national pride. It is also a bit of a mess.”
Andrew Sarris·New York Observer
Accolades
Parents guide
- Violence
- moderate
- Sex
- mild
- Profanity
- mild
- Substances
- mild
- Intensity
- mild
Genres
Adventure, Romance, Drama
Cast & Crew
Baz LuhrmannDirector
Nicole KidmanLady Sarah Ashley
Hugh JackmanThe Drover
Essie DavisKatherine
David WenhamNeil Fletcher
Bryan BrownKing Carney
David GulpililKing George
John JarrattSergeant
Shea AdamsCarney Boy
Nathin Art ButlerCarney Boy
John WaltonCarney Boy
Eddie BarooBull
David HirschfelderComposer
Stuart BeattieWriter
Ronald HarwoodWriter
Mandy WalkerCinematographyAustralia
Set in northern Australia before World War II, an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch reluctantly pacts with a stock-man in order to protect her new property from a takeover plot. As the pair drive 2,000 head of cattle over unforgiving landscape, they experience the bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces firsthand.
What critics thought
Baz Luhrmann's sweeping epic divides neatly along the question of whether its shameless artifice is a feature or a bug — critics who surrendered to its melodramatic excess found it grandly entertaining, while those who resisted found it a bloated patchwork stitched together from better films. Almost everyone agrees it looks spectacular; where they split is on whether the second half earns its emotional ambitions or collapses under them.
“A wildly ambitious, luridly indulgent spectacle of romance, action, melodrama and revisionism, Australia is windy, overblown, utterly preposterous and insanely entertaining.”
Ann Hornaday·Washington Post
“The second half of Australia, Luhrmann's attempt to pull off a wartime weeper, is so aggressively sentimental that it begins to feel more like punishment than pleasure. I left Australia feeling drained and weakened, as if I'd suffered a gradual poisoning at the hands of a mad scientist.”
Stephanie Zacharek·Salon.com
“Baz Luhrmann dreamed of making the Australian Gone with the Wind, and so he has, with much of that film's lush epic beauty and some of the same awkwardness with a national legacy of racism.”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
“Australia is clearly a labor of love, and a matter of national pride. It is also a bit of a mess.”
Andrew Sarris·New York Observer
Accolades
Parents guide
- Violence
- moderate
- Sex
- mild
- Profanity
- mild
- Substances
- mild
- Intensity
- mild
Genres
Adventure, Romance, Drama
Cast & Crew
Baz LuhrmannDirectorNicole KidmanLady Sarah AshleyHugh JackmanThe DroverEssie DavisKatherineDavid WenhamNeil FletcherBryan BrownKing CarneyDavid GulpililKing GeorgeJohn JarrattSergeantShea AdamsCarney BoyNathin Art ButlerCarney BoyJohn WaltonCarney BoyEddie BarooBullDavid HirschfelderComposerStuart BeattieWriterRonald HarwoodWriterMandy WalkerCinematographyRent & Buy