Metro Australia — January 2018

(WallPaper) #1
http://www.metromagazine.com.au | © ATOM | Metro Magazine 195• 11

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  • two thematic precursors to2VDDS "NTMSQX.
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    scale.Instead,2VDDS "NTMSQX’s restrained camera move
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    scapes evoke the epic sweep and grandeur of classic
    westerns like3GD ,@M EQNL +@Q@LHD(Anthony Mann,
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    (Charles Tait, 1906). This intertextual reference connects
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    origins of cinema in this country through to the portrayals
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    an outlaw hero in the mainstream national consciousness.
    In a similar way, Thornton’s6D #NMS -DDC @ ,@Osurveys
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    "NTMSQX’s grim irony, the same white settlers who cheer
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    he faces his day in court for the killing of Harry March.
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    "NTMSQXemploys western archetypes to level an uncomfort
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latter offers a slim hope that another way may be possible.
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‘Peace in the Valley’, a sardonic rejoinder to the blood
shed that has preceded it, implying that the only peace the
characters will know in this land is in the sleep of death.
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commemorative date should be moved, or the holiday abol
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us. As Thornton asserted at AFF, ‘This is our story, Australia’s
story.’^7 2VDDS "NTMSQXsuggests that individual decency and
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alism comes back to wound everyone in the end.

Nicholas Godfrey is a lecturer in Screen and Media at Flinders
University in South Australia, and the author ofThe Limits
of Auteurism: Case Studies in the Critically Constructed
New Hollywood. He is a regular contributor toMetro and
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Endnotes

(^1) ‘Wilberta Jack Acquitted of Murder of Harry Henty’,Northern
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been used here.
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(^3) ibid.
(^4) ibid.
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(^6) Thornton,Sweet CountrySRVWVFUHHQLQJ4 $RSFLW
 ibid.
InSweet Country’s grim irony, the same white settlers who cheer for Ned Kelly’s
violent stand against the police become a Greek chorus of sorts, baying for
Sam Kelly’s blood when he faces his day in court for the killing of Harry March.

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