Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
by Fred Schepisi
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Angela Punch McGregor, Freddy Reynolds, Ray Barrett, Tommy LewisDirector: Fred Schepisi
Brand: RYKODISC
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 122 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-11-18
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Industrial Ent
Product features:
- The highly explosive and equally funny story of Jimmie(Tommy Lewis) a young Australian half-cast Aborigine who is torn between his true Aboriginal roots and an impulsion to integrate himself into White Colonial society. As Jimmie grows into a hard working young man, he consistently finds himself flagrantly cheated and suppressed by his white employers, forcing him to some seek relief in love, whic
Movie Reviews of Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
Movie Review: Baz Luhrmann's "Australia"....NOT!
Summary: 5 Stars
I had just about abandoned all hope that this marvelous 1978 sleeper from Australian writer-director Fred Schepisi would ever see the light of day on DVD, until I was pleasantly surprised to see it pop up on the "new release" rack of my favorite neighborhood independent video store last month (I quickly snapped up the last copy). Adapted from Thomas Keneally's novel (which was inspired by true events) this semi-epic culture-clash tale concerns the travails of the title character, played with explosive intensity by non-professional actor Tommy Lewis. Jimmie is a half-caste Aboriginal, living in New South Wales in 1900. He struggles between the pull of his native culture and the insistence of white sponsors who want him to "do the right thing" and assimilate into "civilized" society. This is easier said than done; it seems that the harder he tries to please everyone, the more he is shunned by all. Jimmie sublimates his reaction to the enveloping systemic racism and roiling inner conflicts for too long, which eventually leads to a shocking explosion of violence. This is visceral, powerful and disturbing stuff (not for the squeamish), but well worth your time. The film makes an excellent companion piece to the more recent Rabbit-Proof Fence. The DVD includes a recent interview with Lewis.
Summary of Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
The highly explosive and true story of Jimmie (Tommy Lewis) a young Australian half-cast Aborigine who is torn between his true Aboriginal roots and an impulsion to integrate himself into White Colonial society. As Jimmie grows into a hard working young man, he consistently finds himself flagrantly cheated and suppressed by his white employers, forcing him to some seek relief in love, which he finds in a white woman he marries under duress. However, as the pressure builds, Jimmie explodes, resulting in one of the darkest, most violent endings in movie history. Directed by Fred Schepisi (Roxanne, The Russia House, Six degrees of Separation) and based the book by Thomas Keneally (author of Schindler s List).Extras include:
Documentary on Tommy Lewis (The World According to Tom)
The Making of The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith is a chilling portrait of a young Australian boy struggling for acceptance in either of the two societies he half-belongs to, the Aborigines and the whites. Based on the life of Jimmy Governor, director Fred Schepisi (Six Degrees of Separation) transforms this turn of the century criminal drama into a tragic identity study, as Jimmy is a victim of sheer racism and nothing else. Jimmy, brilliantly portrayed by Tommy Lewis, is a hard-working and intelligent boy who understands two cultures but occasionally mistakenly assumes that they will overlap. His allies, full-blooded Aborigine brother Mort (Freddy Reynolds), and white wife Gilda (Angela Punch McGregor), are the only characters who treat him with the common decency that we take for granted today. Otherwise, we meet Mr. Newby (Don Crosby) and Mrs. Newby (Ruth Blacknell) among others who hire Jimmy for rural tasks and treat him unjustly from the start. By the time Jimmy seeks revenge by "declaring war" on his offenders, the viewer is apt to empathize with his plight even when he resorts to utter violence. The crux of the plot revolves around Jimmy's revenge, and the white society's way of punishing a monster that they, in essence, created. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith not only tells a riveting humanist tale, but also is beautifully filmed and offers comparative glimpses into two lifestyles that Americans, especially, may be unfamiliar with. Majestic shots of the Australian desert and the people who have long inhabited it are in stark contrast with the urban scenes of Aborigines in drunken stupors at the hand of then newly introduced alcohol into their culture. In this sense, the film is culturally rich, more akin to dramatized ethnographic documentary. In fact, the extras on this DVD enlighten one as to how the film crew recruited members of this elusive culture to act, and how they enlisted their help for accuracy. Also rewarding is an interview with Tommy Lewis who retells the account of his being cast for the film in a humorous narrative style that elucidates even more entertainingly how he and his many, many "brothers" from his extended family came to agree on his accepting the part and how this film has served to expose a history which is usually buried. -Trinie Dalton
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