Ten Canoes
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Movie Reviews of Ten Canoes
Movie Review: Ten Canoes to yous
Summary: 5 Stars
Ten canoes is a charming, delightful in depth look into the aborigines of Australia. The film captures the beauty of Australia's Northern Territory as it opens upon the green landscape "in a land far, far away." It explores the lives of the aborigines while at the same time revealing an unknown culture before the Balanda (white person) took over. We would have never been able to see or experience a culture like this if it wasn't for this film. This is the story of a young man Dayindi who covets one of the wives of his older brother, Minygululu. To teach Dayindi the proper way his brother tells him a story from the mystical past of wrong love, kidnapping, sorcery, and revenge gone wrong. Director Rolf de Heer was inspired by Dr. Donald Thomson who first captured the aboriginal group with an extensive group of photographs, especially one photo of ten men in bark canoes. The movie is unlike anything I have ever seen before. It sends you to a land away from that of Hollywood blockbusters and transplants you into an enchanting hypnotic land of solidarity. I highly suggest it. The bonus features grant the viewer a deeper insight into the making of the film and how difficult of a process it was, especially with non-English speaking actors, yet Heer maintained an authentic quality throughout.Movie Review: Yolngu Ethnographic Record
Summary: 5 Stars
Illustrating their culture through oral story-telling, using narration in the original ancient language, fusing archival still photographs throughout the film, accentuating the Northern Territory's visual landscape with enhancing colouring, allowing the Yolngu to craft all of their own costumes, props, and sets, and having an audio track narration in the Yolngu language created a visual living and breathing ethnographic historical record of their culture.
The entire fim is humourous, saccharine, sentimental, and inspirational and uplifting.
One of the film's major themes concerns the circle of life - each human begins his existence as a small fish lurking in the waterhole, and, following his death, he will return to the exact body of water from which he was taken. Likewise, each character in the film follows a cycle of his own. Rather than rushing into drastic actions and disturbing the balance, one must always be patient, for life will always follow a full-circle. And be careful what you wish for, because you might just get it
One of life's most important lessons, life resolves itself by coming full circle.
Movie Review: Visual Experieince
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a very interesting film. It is not an action movie and does not have much of a story line. Nothing much happens, but you are part of a fantasic visual experience. You feel like yoy are there with the natives as the live their daily lives (except they speaking in their nature tongue and you need a translator). You are part of the tribe. You see the land as they see it. You are with them as they build canoes and hunt goose eggs. Even more, the director went out of his way to make many of the scenes into works of art. There is balance, striking lines, dimension, and depth. All in all, an education and very visual experience. I highly recommend this movie. Be sure to watch the discussion with the director.Movie Review: Aboriginal adventure downunder
Summary: 4 Stars
As art house films go, this movie is very good, maybe even exceptional. On the other hand, if you like Hollywood type movies, than you might want to pass. However, even if you are not inclined to the type of movies that don't get the publicity or distribution and are stacked thirty deep at your local movie rental conglomerate four months later, you still might enjoy this movie. Remember the Australian classics The Last Wave - Criterion Collection, Walkabout - Criterion Collection? Well, this will probably someday be considered alongside those movies as great movies from Australia. Coincidently , David Gulpili, who starred in the aforementioned movies, narrates , often times tongue in cheek, and as he says ,that is another story. The storytelling is superb, a story within a story, an adventure for the ages and a moral tale that doesn't club you upside the head. The humor is great, it is funny stuff that transcends the cultural differences.The scenery is spectacular, especialy on your giant screen with surround sound. You will feel as if you are walking with the aborigines. The mixture of mystical shamans beliefs and otherworldly scenery, shifting from black and white to color is hallucinatory and adds an extra dimension to an already multi-layered on many levels movie. The ages old lust-for-your-brother's wife is the vehicle for the narration as you join in the adventure two fold(two different time periods)in creating ten canoes from scratch(pulling the bark)as the men embark on a journey that reveals the past in the present. One of the features to not be missed is the making of the movie extra that is included. The directors, Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr, take you through the scenes and you see just how difficult it was to get the aboriginal "actors" to act so naturally. It is amazing because they come across so natural in their roles, but it did require alot of coaching. The directors, did a marvelous job and the result was a superb movie. If you are in the mood for some National Geographicesque tribal scenes (some nudity), exotic landscapes and an adventure back in time, then check out this Australian flick that is soon to be a classic.
Movie Review: Aboriginal Magic
Summary: 4 Stars
"Ten Canoes" is an extraordinary movie about the indigenous Aboriginal natives from the Arnhem region of Australia. Learning is often passed along through instructional story-telling and at the heart of this tale is the story of an unmarried younger brother's lust for for one of the wives of his elder brother.
As the men of the tribe hunt for goose eggs in a remote swamp, having to team-build canoes to carry them, they boast about their sexual prowess. The elder brother uses this opportunity to explain what happened to some of their ancestors when a younger brother also coveted an older brother's wife. So, this is a story within a story, filled with mystery, tribal rites, revenge, sorcery, and a beautiful untrammeled background.
The bonus features are not to be missed. The movie was 2 years in pre-production and that they managed to make it is almost a miracle. For example as filming was about to start, one of the key actors disappeared; scenes between husbands and wives had to use actual married people and there were cultural norms and relationships that had to be honored. Even the skills required to make the canoes, once the province of every tribesman, had long been forgotten and only one cast member actually knew how to make the canoes (shown in detail as part of the movie).
This will be a classic, remembered Australian movie. It is for those who value the unique and unusual, and not typical Hollywood fare.
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