Sweet Country (2018)

I can't wrap my head around why directors think it's perfectly fine to show, without symbolism, the brutality of rape. It's done all the time, but one is led to believe that these directors, and anybody else involved in the film, are voyeuristic weirdos with nothing else on their minds while rationalizing that they are somehow telling the truth of the reality of life. Things can be suggested, people. They don't have to be spelled out. You're sick. You need help. Here's my one star to help you understand that you don't have support from me and many, many others like me. Wake up.

I've read here two reviews by Australians, one hated the film, the other loved it. I've seen the film in the company of two other Australians, they both loved it. Yes, I agree to the point made, by the hating reviewer: the movie does judge the past according to modern morals and sensibilities. But this would be a valid point if we were discussing an academic paper or a movie that was made back then. This is neither it's a movie about Australian past that was made at the present and it feels so true it hurts. It hurts because the only way we can see it is with our modern eyes. Saying people thought differently back then, is true but it's beside the point. We, the viewers are here and now and that's the only time and place we can watch it.So lets speak about other aspects of the film: cinematography, acting and story telling are superb. But I liked most of all the editing, with these tiny flashes forward and backward throughout the movie, flashes we can fully understand only when we've seen the movie all the way through. Please do, I think you won't regret it.

Australian western set on the Northern Territory frontier in the 1920s, where justice itself is put on trial when an aged Aboriginal farmhand shoots a white man in self-defense and goes on the run as a posse gathers to hunt him down. Sweet Country is another movie about racism and slaves and unfortunately not a good one. I found the storyline to be quiet the boredom as it is, the acting as well too and i was disappointed that someone like Sam Neil even agreed to appear in something like this. The characters were also carbon copies of themselves and overall not a good film, in the end it's just another political slavery movie with nothing new to give to it's viewers. (0/10)

'SWEET COUNTRY': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five)An Australian western set in the 1929 outback. It tells the story of an Aboriginal farmhand, who goes on the run, with his wife, when he shoots a white man in self defense. The film stars Hamilton Morris, Sam Neill, Bryan Brown, Ewen Leslie, Matt Day, Anni Finsterer and Thomas M. Wright. It was directed by Warwick Thornton, and it was written by David Tranter and Steven McGregor. The movie has received nearly unanimous positive reviews from critics, and it's also won multiple prestigious awards as well. I was surprisingly captivated by it.The story is set in 1929, in the outback of Australia's Northern Territory. Sam Kelly (Morris) is an aboriginal farmhand there, working for a preacher named Fred Smith (Neill). When an alcoholic and very bitter war vet, named Harry March (Leslie), arrives in town, Fred sends Sam to help him renovate some cattle yards. Harry is extremely racist and abusive towards Sam, and his family, and it eventually leads to Sam killing Harry in self defense. This results in Sam going on the run, with his wife, across the outback, while the law chases him down. The movie is beautifully shot, and masterfully edited. It's always very subtle, but extremely effective. The dialogue is short and to the point, and I always felt like I was completely involved in every scene in the film (just about). The acting is also really well done as well, especially Morris (who I hadn't heard of before this movie). I walked into it not knowing much about it (because I had planned on seeing something else), and I was really pleasantly surprised by it!