Rabbit-Proof Fence
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Movie Reviews of Rabbit-Proof Fence
Movie Review: Excellent treatment of a story everyone ought to know
Summary: 5 Stars
I will forever be grateful to Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper for having reviewed their film on their TV show. Indeed, that's how I heard of it and immediately placed it on my list of must-see films.
It's a heart rending film, at least to human beings with compassion. I had heard from Australian friends that, historically, Australia had treated Aborigines as badly as the United States had treated American Indians, but I knew none of the specifics.
Rabbit-Proof Fence, based on the book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara, gives its audience an insight into a blatantly racist policy in place in Australia from the early 1930's through the beginning of the 1970's. Here, we learn of three "half-caste" Aboriginal girls, sisters Molly and Daisy and their first cousin Grace, whose biological fathers are white and whose mothers are Aborigines. Empowered by the Aborigines Regulation of 1931, the government systematically arrested children of mixed race and removed them from their parents, transporting them huge distances to boarding schools that differed little from concentration camps. There, the children were forced to speak English only and educated to become domestic servants to be placed with white people. The program's purpose was to prevent them from having children with aboriginal spouses. Children who ran away from the camps were hunted down, brought back, put in solitary confinement and beaten severely.
In the instant story, the three children, miserable in their new surroundings at 14, 12 and 8 years old, escape despite the possible consequences and walk home, a distance of 1,500 miles. Australia had constructed a system of rabbit-proof fences, designed to keep the burgeoning rabbit population (a species introduced from Europe with no natural enemies in Australia) from further invading farmlands. The girls know that the rabbit-proof fence goes through their home settlement and stretches for thousands of miles, so they follow it.
The film gives us a look at their journey and as they progress over nine weeks.
Australian filmmaker Philip Noyce has done an outstanding job. This story requires no complicated treatment and none is given. It all looks very real and Noyce did an outstanding job locating the three Aborigine girls who play Molly, Grace and Daisy. By the way, it's Molly's daughter who wrote the book Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence based on her mother's own story.
We Americans should be able to appreciate this film given our own history with regard to our aboriginal people, the American Indians. We need to know this story because we need to take a stand that such things should never again be allowed to happen.
Movie Review: Rabbit Proof Fence. Better than expected!
Summary: 5 Stars
Rabbit Proof Fence starts out near Perth, Australia in an area called Jigalong in the 1930s. It begins with an Aborigine woman telling a story about her family members as you see a scene of local aborigines tracking animals in the Australian wilderness. Off in the distance, you see two white men watching these children. They try to hide the children, but it is too late. It then shifts to a scene in a city with a man and his secretary and the names of the Aborigine children come across his desk. This man is Mr. Neville, the "Protector of Aborigines" and is put in place due to new legislation regarding Aborigines as of 1931. The 3 children (Molly, Gracie, Daisy) that Mr. Neville approves are set to be placed into camps because they are considered what he refers to as "half-castes." This means that the child has one Aborigine parent and one white parent. After the order to gather these 3 children is signed, the police officer returns to Jigalong and forcibly removes the children from their families to take them to one of these special camps. At the camp, the goal appears to be to integrate them into white culture and society and teach them the ways of white society while abandoning all of their original traditions including their native language. The camp is located at a place called Moore River and most of the children will be sent to become servants for white people after they reach a certain age.
Even more disturbing is a scene where Mr. Neville is showing a presentation to a group of white people where he talks about how breeding can breed out the Aborigine traits and they will look white. All of this is based on a premise that the Aborigines must be protected because they are somehow dangerous to themselves. Shortly after being in the camp, the 3 girls run away when the other girls are going to church one day. It is during a rainstorm so they wouldn't leave tracks. Even with another Aborigine tracker, the police are having a hard time finding the girls as they try to find their way home along a 1500mile fence called the "Rabbit Proof Fence." Mr. Neville ends up spreading some false rumors about Gracie's mother waiting for her in a town so she ends up looking for her there. This allows her to become captured so the other 2 girls continue on their journey. When the 2 girls get close to their home town, the police officer is waiting for them but is scared off by their family as they were chanting and holding sticks. They end up meeting up with their family at this point in time. At the end of the movie, footage is shown where the 2 girls are now grown up and Molly talks about how her own children were captured and she only got 1 of the 2 back by traveling along the fence again.
Movie Review: A story everyone should see
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is the true story of Molly Craig (Everlyn Sampi) and her sister Daisy (Tianna Sansbury) & cousin Gracie (Laura Monaghan) as they escape a training camp in the year 1931. The film, based off the novel of the same name written by real life daughter to Molly Craig, Doris Pilkington Garimara, chronicles their capture and escape in brutal detail and puts you in their shoes. A little background info for you, in the years between 1905-1971 the white settlers in Australia enforced a law that allowed all half-caste children (that's half aboriginal and half white) to be taken from their homes and brought to camps where they would be assimilated into white society. The purpose was to stamp out the race. They wanted these children to mate with other white men, and their children to mate with whites and so on and so forth until any traces of aboriginal desendence would be gone. Kenneth Branagh (who resembles Ewan McGregor) plays the enforcer and owner of all aboriginies (it's explained in the outset of the film) and thus he's the villian sort-a-speak. After the girls are uprooted from their home and placed in the camp they decide to escape, and escape they do. The rest of the film follows them as they trek for 9 months through the Australian desert, following the rabbit-proof fence, a 1,500-mile fence separating outback desert from the farmlands of Western Australia. There journey is a heartwrenching, heartwarming story of their desire and need to be who they are. What is so important about this film is that at times we only see racism in this country, which to be brutally honest is the [...] of too many jokes, and so to see how others were treated sheds light on the subject and hopefully will help others see a need, maybe even in our own homes. It's crazy how we, as Americans, know of racism, know of slavery...we're taught it in schools and reminded of it everytime we see shows like 'Black/White' and at times it's shows like that that make racism seem more like a joke then a reality, but while watching this film my wife and I started talking and you really start to see what racism really is and that it is a serious problem. To hear the men in this movie talk about their beliefs and how they feel they are helping these people by in an essence 'making' them white is horrible. I mean, they really thought they were doing a good thing. The courage these young girls showed was amazing. The conclusion of this film is heartbreaking, but as the actual footage of these courages young girls (old women now) rolls onto the screen your touched because your reassured that these women are real and that there story is as well. Brilliant story...something we should all see.Movie Review: The definition of `hidden gem'...
Summary: 5 Stars
Some films just touch something inside you that you didn't know was there. For me, `Rabbit-Proof Fence' is one of those films. It is honest, heartfelt, brutal and reaching. It is also one of those hidden gems that don't get a lot of attention. In fact, in a year as rich as 2002, this beautiful film was all but forgotten come awards season. Instead, it was disregarded for big budget mediocrity like `Gangs of New York'.
Sad; very sad.
`Rabbit-Proof Fence' tells the true story of young Molly and her sister Daisy and her cousin Gracie as they escape from a training camp in Australia, year 1931. During the years between 1905 and 1971 (HUGE time span), law in Australia allowed white settlers to basically kidnap half-castle children (that is half white/half aboriginal) and place them in camps where they were integrated into white society. The purpose of these camps was to basically stamp out the race, forcing these young children to mate with whites in order to phase out their race. Molly, Daisy and Gracie were stripped from their homes and brought to one of these camps.
But they escaped.
After fleeing from their brutal new home, these three girls made the 1,500 mile trek (along the rabbit-proof fence) back to their homes, covering desert for nine months. As grueling and dangerous as their journey was, it serves as one of the most heartwarming and uplifting stories put to screen.
Adapted from the book of the same name, which was actually written by Molly's very own daughter, Doris Pilkington Garimara, this beautiful film is bound to touch your heart. The performances by the entire cast, especially these three young girls (Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury and Laura Monaghan), are outstanding and very raw and real. Everlyn Sampi especially carries this film with such honesty. I was amazed at her beautiful performance. Kenneth Branagh (yes THAT Kenneth Branagh) is brilliantly used as the enforcer at the camp. His steely gaze breathes a subtle evil that never overdoes it but respectfully (if you can call it that) approaches this man's wrong ways with honesty and realism.
`Rabbit-Proof Fence' is a film that broaches the subject of racism in a way that will make it a real issue for us. Instead of tacking a slew of clichés in a row and calling it provocative (`Crash'), this film uses a subtle yet harrowing approach to give validity to a horrible atrocity. This film makes racism real to the viewer and raises awareness of the disease.
This is a brilliant film that everyone should make a point to see!
Movie Review: Feel the Power, Feel the Way
Summary: 5 Stars
The shameful story at the core of "Rabbit Proof Fence" is not a new one and can be traced back many thousands of years: the pilgrims and subsequent settlers of what was to become the USA decimating the Native Americans of Northern America and the Spanish Conquistadors who conquered and decimated the Aztecs and other Indian Nations of Mexico and South America all in the name of bringing an unwanted civilizing effect on these "natives." The English settled Australia primarily as a penal colony but when towns began to be form, they felt it necessary to bring about the "civilizing" of the Aborigines peoples of Australia as they attempted to stamp out the native language and religion.
The specific story of "Rabbit Proof Fence" is true and involves the extremely sad yet life affirming journey of Molly and Daisy (Everlyn Sampi and Tianna Sansbury), two half caste girls, who are placed in a school to basically teach them how not to be Aborigine girls and to work in British factories and thereby be accepted by proper British society. The fences of the title are those that ran almost the full length of Australia in an attempt to stamp out a problem involved with the over population of rabbits that plagued Australia in the 1930's.
There is a particularly horrendous scene involving Mr. Neville (Kenneth Branagh), whom the Aborigines call "Mr. Devil," who talks to a group of women about how the Australian Government hopes to rid Australia of Aborigines through the use of inter-breeding with Caucasians:
"All it takes is three generations to accomplish," he says with a self-satisfied smile on his face. Disgusting.
Molly and Daisy and at first Gracie (who is captured) have very strong ties to their mothers who seem to be guiding them home...some 1800 miles away from the school. Daisy and Molly are guided by more than a knowledge of the land and of tracking in particular but by the mystical nature of love: there is a magical scene in which Molly's Mother has her hand on the fence 1800 miles away from Molly who also has her hand on the fence and you can tell that they can "feel" each other.
Much of "Rabbit Proof Fence" reminds me Peter Weir's "The Last Wave" another film with the strong reverberations of another world, another level of reality. In fact, David Gulpilil so persuasive and effective in "The Last Wave," plays a tracker hired by the authorities to find the runaways.
"Rabbit Proof Fence" is a simple story, told extremely well. If it changes the thinking of merely one person so inclined...it will have served its purpose.