A Cry in the Dark
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Movie Reviews of A Cry in the Dark
Movie Review: spellbinding
Summary: 5 Stars
The story of the baby who was taken by a dingo was perhaps the most newsworthy of the 1980's. I was at the time a master control operator at Channel Seven in Melbourne and on duty when the news of a missing baby at Ayres Rock in Central Australia came thru. I had the job of organizing the television signals from the Rock to our network in Melbourne. It was quite a task and seeing the events unfold on the DVD, I again revisited my own part of the overall picture of history.
Further to this event, my 3 year old daughter [Nicolette] was eventually to play the role of Kahalia Chamberlain in Fred Schepschi's film and appears in the final 3 scenes.
I still work in the TV/Film industry and occasionally look back at this excellent piece of dramatised history as a genuine piece of work, accurately played out and presented.
History proved the innocence of Lindy and the incompetence of our forensic work, however, hindsight is a wonderful thing
Barry Minster
Technical Manager
Melbourne Australia
Movie Review: PIERCING CRY
Summary: 5 Stars
No body, motive or weapon. The facts in the Australian murder trial of Lindy and Michael Chamberlain didn't add up, but other things did. Bigotry against the couple's religion. Scattershot forensics evidence taken as fact. And a hysteria that was the 1980s equivalent of a Salem witch hunt...thus says the box on this riveting true story.
Director Fred Schepisi captures the media outrage that condemned a couple for a murder that didn't exist, as the couple's infant was carried off by a wild dingo. Receiving her 8th Oscar nomination, Meryl Streep is pitch perfect as Lindy. One can see however why the media didn't warm up to her story: she seems steely, almost unaffected, until her final statements in the courtroom. Sam Neill is equally superb minister husband, a man whose entire life is unraveling around him. It's a dark disturbing film and one can only wonder how "justice" could have been served in a "kangaroo court." A timeless, evocative movie.
Movie Review: chilling account
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a measured, sober, and critical film that very clevery presents the way in which public hysteria can affect justice for individuals and is relevent to all societies. With this in mind, I would like to object to an early comment about "the blood thirsty, bigoted morbid folk of Australia." My mother, with many of her friends, campaigned on Lindy Chamberlain's behalf at the time and although there are others with opposing views it hardly warrants that kind of stereotype. I doubt that as an Irish person that the reviewer would like to be judged by some of the ridiculous cliches and stereotypes about the Irish. The film, on the other hand, is incisive and intelligent and depicts with moving gravity the seriousness of trial by media.Movie Review: Meryl Rocks!
Summary: 5 Stars
A sign of how convincing Meryl Streep was as Lindy is that Aussies who mock Lindy's "The dingo's got my baby" base it on the line from the film.The twentieth anniversary of the disappearance of Azaria Chamberlain has just passed and the Chamberlain's separately (they are separated now and both remarried) fight for compensation from the Northern Territory Government. Hence the films and Schepsi's ulitmate success is in that it exists as a time capsule to early 80's terra australis. Evil Angels is as relevant today as it was when released.
Only in her portrayal of Karen Silkwood does Streep bring the same rawness to a role as she does here.
5/5
Movie Review: A Cry in the Dark
Summary: 5 Stars
Based on the shocking true story of a Seventh Day Adventist and his wife's personal and legal ordeal, Schepisi's poignant, gut-wrenching drama builds on the astonishing performance of Streep, barely recognizable as the timid, aggrieved victim of near-daily assaults in the press. Schepisi builds suspense in the tense courtroom scenes, which are intercut with flashbacks to the camping trip, and never recoils from the lurid aspects of the Lindy witch hunt. With its sympathy for a minority faith and contempt for tabloid excess, "Dark" feels more relevant than ever.