http://www.metromagazine.com.au | © ATOM | Metro Magazine 195• 92VDDS "NTMSQXhad its Australian premiere at last year’s
Adelaide Film Festival (AFF), which previously supported
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fund. This latest work picks up where Thornton’s debut
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injustices faced by Indigenous Australians. However,
audiences expecting a return to the naturalistic realism of
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ence with2VDDS "NTMSQX, as Thornton has calibrated his
tenor to the decidedly more operatic scope of the western.
Whereas2@LRNM #DKHK@Gdrew much of its power
from the intimacy of its scale and its close proximity to
its titular characters,2VDDS "NTMSQXwidens its angle
of view, employing a period setting and a broad cast of
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billy, into which black tea and white sugar are poured,
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being levelled against him. This question harks back
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incompatibility of black and white conceptions of justice.
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central visual metaphors,2VDDS "NTMSQXWKHQ ĻDVKHV
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a stockman under the employ of Christian pastoralist
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men bond over alcohol and tobacco, along with a shared
prejudice against Mick’s Aboriginal station hands. Harry
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stress disorder manifests in violent, paranoiac outbursts,and his dangerous, unhinged sense of entitlement brings
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Philomac of theft, Harry pursues the youth to Fred’s
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Brown) form a posse to follow them, with Archie acting
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his superior knowledge of the harsh landscape of the
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2VDDS "NTMSQXhas its origins in the true story of
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Harry Henty – a white stockman who violently confronted
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was the subject of an eponymous 2007 documentary
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with the ABC show!TRG ,DBG@MHBRand extends to the
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tion because of his excellent horseriding skills.^2 Hamilton
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ABC sitcom,,, ANQHFHM@K 1@CHN. Thornton revealed
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man, was unable to speak the Arrernte dialect required for
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Sam Kelly (Hamilton
Morris)This spread,
L–R:Mick Kennedy
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Philomac (Tremayne
and Trevon Doolan);
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WhereasSamson & Delilahdrew much of its power from the intimacy of its
scale and its close proximity to its titular characters,Sweet Countrywidens
its angle of view, employing a period setting and a broad cast of characters.