FILM INFORMATION
'THE SHIRALEE'
(1987)
By Cheree Dobra
LIST OF CREDITS
DIRECTOR George Ogilvie
SCRIPTWRITER Tony Morphett
CINEMATOGRAPHER Geoffrey Simpson
PRODUCER Bruce Moir
PRODUCTION COMPANY South Australian Film Corporation
PRODUCTION MANAGER Antonia Barnard
PRODUCTON COORDINATOR Tatts Bishop
PRODUCTION DESIGNER Kristian Fredrikson
STORY EDITORS Peter Gawler, Graeme Koetsveld
ORIGINAL MUSIC Chris Neal
LIST OF MAIN CAST
MACAULAY Bryan Brown
LILLY Noni Hazelhurst
BUSTER Rebecca Smart
MARGE Lorna Lesley
RUN TIME- approximately 108 minutes. RATED – PG
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1987 (month unfound)
BOX OFFICE FIGURES: unavailable/unfound
AWARDS: The Shiralee was the highest rated mini-series on Australian Television in 1988. Rebecca Smart also received a silver Logie for most Popular Actress for the movie in 1989.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DETAIL
Discussion of interview's, reviews from all sources, online presence and collecting information.
The most problematic factor in completion of this essay was its limited amount of reviews and information found in journals, on the net, textbooks, film dictionaries and guides. With all the research I could possibly muster, including the help from the Murdoch Library personnel, I concluded that the film's seemingly low profile and 'mini-series' categorization would deem it less currency in a cinematic sense, with data and critique having gone somewhat overlooked.
One Australian film bibliography text, informed me of only two sources; one of which I could not find- that being an interview with Bryan Brown in 'Woman's Day' in January 1987, and (according to the bibliography) it followed Bryan Brown through the making of The 'Shiralee'. I wish I could find it as I assumed it would have been quite insightful if information was taken from on the set. I searched endlessly for profiles of the actors and filmmakers and not once did I find that they included interviews or any sought of commentary on the film. In fact, just a brief mention on 'The Shiralee' was found amongst the list of their film repertoire, with little added information on the movie.
The other source led me to the New York journal 'Variety', a review written in October 1988. Disappointingly, I found this review to dart superficially through a casual synopsis and critique as did most of the very few reviews that I managed to dig out of the net. It was the only review I found from the States, or moreover, from abroad. The Australian Screen Movie Review Database provided me with perhaps the lengthiest and most in-depth review, but still I've read more analytical reviews that exceed the length of three paragraphs. I think the film's preceding and original version 'The Shiralee' of 1957, was a more poignant classic in which more hype and significance was invested by audiences and the media. It was my intention to review this original movie for the essay, however, I found out it was a British production just with Australian actors and setting. As I will later discuss, the 1987 film was but one of many films that was churned into a television mini-series, alongside an elaborate list of other films, similar to its melodramatic/historical genre, and I think that it was here the film was limited to television acclaim. In my search, the discovery of detailed and critically analyzed reviews on the 1957 version was found with ease, I found surplus amounts of information on the original film, in the film reference section in the library. Hardly any texts, film dictionaries, bibliographies and journals were found on the latter film.
So there it is! The extent of my internet review bibliography:
IMBD website (http://imbd.com) and the Australian Screen Movie Database (http://cedir.now.edu.au/Projects/movie_reviews/movie373.html) plus one journal review.
In light of the dismal availability of sources, I need not discuss in detail about 'The Shiralee's' online presence. What can I say? I searched all (as far as I'm concerned) the main Australian film sites as well as the International (namely American ones). The sites would lead me to a small number of reviews, but were very brief. Most sites would only provide meager details of the film's cast and credit profile. I had to attain the name of the cinematographer, the production designer/manager/coordinator and story editors and even the production company(!) from the film's actual credits, as no source other than the film itself presented this information.
So the event of collecting information was a long, frustrating and arduous task, however, it thus motivated me to establish my own review of the film, such is this essay! The problem is perhaps my choice of film, I assume it is not a commonality for information to be widespread on the Internet, particularly if the film is not a 'shining' classic like other Australian drama's of its time. But relying on textual archives was not something I could call upon and indeed the most information I managed to excavate was actually from the net after all. Many sites wont provide information if the film dates too far back.
CRITICAL REVIEW
Synopsis
The title 'The Shiralee', meaning 'the burden', is referential to the nature of Macaulay and his pre-teen daughter Buster's relationship. One night, Macaulay unexpectedly returns home to his wife and child in the city, after working outback for several months. After finding his wife in bed with the town bookie and noticing that she tipped Buster's milk with a sedative so as to be alone with her new lover, Macaulay abandons his wife Marge and takes Buster with him to spite her. The narrative hereafter is a drawn-out sojourn through the South Australian wilderness, as Macaulay proceeds with his usual itinerant life, roaming the outback from job to job, this time with Buster- 'his burden'. From the moment Macaulay accosts Buster and returns to the outback, the two become the central protagonists in which viewers follow their journey, investing their concerns into their hardships of Mac's unemployment, instability and the crisis' that fate delivers. But fundamentally and more importantly is what is burgeoning here: a profound love between an estranged father and his daughter.
The intervention of fate which sees Buster close to death twice invites a number of sequences drowned in dramatic overtones; the possible departure of our lovable Buster has the otherwise feisty and hard-edged personality of Macaulay (think Bryan Brown) reduced to tears. His anxiety and sorrow witnessed in one hospital scene where Buster is in a critical condition from a car accident is surely indicative of his love for her, an expression seldom afforded in his character. On this note, I would say the film's greatest sentimental preoccupation is that of Macaulay's person, rather than Buster's. It is a celebration of one man's emotionality, ethical and morale position, and all round humility and resilience, which defies the face of usual masculine roles central to that era. In Debi Enker's article 'Australia and Australians', she refers to the masculine stereotypes in Australian cinema 'They are seen as highly competitive: being the best fighter, fastest shearer...'(p216: 1994). Indeed, with 'The Shiralee' this fact rings true; Mac on passing through a rural circus, signs up for a fight that he of course wins and before he fights is deemed by an old friend 'the heavy weight champion of Australia'. Viewers are inclined to find a certain humility in Mac's misfortune (a cheating wife, a single father and the woes of unemployment) and remains humble about his hidden talent to fight. Moreover, locals of each town he visits treat him respectfully: the men receive him as admirable and the women want to help him and care for him.
Mac not only fulfills the typical Aussie requisite of 'battler' and masculine outback hero, he refreshingly presents a softness; a maternal element spawned from his underlying will to be a good father. This value is never hugely presented in Australian cinema; the brave, beer-drinking fist-fighting larriken always seemed to have taken precedence. As Enker argues 'To be the most devoted father, most exciting lover... is not a distinction to be coveted.'(216: 1994). This satisfying revelation however, comes at a cost and is expressed only decisively in the cathartic scene at the end when Buster 'pulls through' from her car accident. Throughout the narrative, audiences deal with an abrupt and embittered Macaulay, whose intentions to take Buster were initially motivated to revenge his unlawful wife. Mac's good-heartedness is a progression; his ethical backbone is exposed gradually and is contrasted against his 'sinning' wife's misdemeanors.
From the notion of 'Aussie Battler' derives an innate will of the character to strive for all that is 'good', to meet challenges and to ward off evil. 'Australians harbor a special affection for those who take up the good fight... The willingness to meet life's challenges or injustices head-on, unflinchingly and with resolve is so admired and deeply ingrained that the popular vernacular has coined a description to define the type: the Aussie Battler' (216:1994)
The Australian outback works synonymously with the 'battler' stereotype, as the protagonist must negotiate with the harsh nature of the land. Says Enker, '..the outback settlements.. are places that test and usually break the human spirit, condemning their inhabitants to soulless conformity.' (216: 1994) This is true of Mac's transience; despite having a family in the city, his life was always unsettled and unstable. Ultimately he chose this way of life, indicative of his preference for independence, a factor that didn't see fit with his neglected wife. The conditions of the outback involve a certain notion of 'homelessness', yet on the upside it also grants 'freedom'. As Ross Gibson relates in his paper 'The Nature of a Nation', '..every plot outside city limits has tended to signify just one thing: homelessness.. it can mean destitution, but it can also mean freedom.' (1992: 65) Here we can link this independence and freedom with Macaulay's chosen life even while still married, but his preference changes to be committed to something when coerced to look after Buster. The journey of the two entails a lot of homelessness as they sleep in the outback with just the swags on their back, or the shelter provided by an old abandoned tin shed found in the middle of nowhere. Constantly they are accommodated by the benevolence of Mac's friends; namely the Sweeney's, and Mac's long lost love, Lily.
Now I can proceed into genre territory, having covered most of the plot detail.
It is as soon as the first sequence in the film that we recognize the break down of the nuclear family. Then the two main characters are immersed in a narrative that eventually finds its way back to a stable family status quo by the time the film concludes. This preoccupation with familial themes is a central feature to the melodramatic film. The dysfunction enjoys a string of politics within the family structure, and usually a resolution is arrived at, rhetorically positioning audiences to understand a universal ethic of cherishing the importance of family. As Garry Gillard states in his unpublished reading 'Melodrama', '..both escapism and subversion function to destabilize and restabilize family structures, sometimes ambiguously appearing superficially to be doing the one while more globally doing the other (2:2004). Although Mac completely rejected his wife, and we never actually see him and Lily his true love reunite, it is however suggested amidst the turmoil of Buster's accident through the stream of consciousness' of Lily and Mac that there is a good possibility that they might. The idea of Mac and Lily getting back together is affirmed further by Lily's dying father, who days before his death vocalized his intuitive perception of Lily and Mac being in love. Lily the strong and somewhat cynical character that she is brushed off his comment with the retort "We are grown ups Dad."
That they would re-acquit their love was just a postulation, yet audiences are met with a happy ending in which we see Buster, recovering in a hospital bed, and Mac hugging her with Lily behind him. She represents the loyal maternal female in this scene, suggesting some kind of compensation for her real mother, Marge. And once again we have a stable nuclear family component.
Furthermore the acting was typically melodramatic, in a number of climactic scenes of romantic confrontation between Lily and Mac whereby audiences enjoy a mid-shot of the Mac embracing the Lily, as she's encompassed in his arms.(oh the schmultz!) A typically classic shot of their profiles as they share a moment in the kitchen, and then as it slides into a close up, intimacy is better received as we follow a closer view of their facial expressions. Their love is problematized when Mac proclaims his inadequacy in working for the woman he has feelings for. He won't work for her, even when she needs shearers desperately, and the next day he leaves. This is another melodramatic feature, the movement (or fate of the) narrative against the audiences will. The provocation of tears is prompted by the impossibility of their love, or at least the intervention of fate that keeps them apart for a while. In Thomas Elsaesser's 'Tales of Sound and Fury: Observations on the Family Melodrama', he refers to melodramatic elements as being '..clearly visible in the plots, which revolve around family relationships, star-crossed lovers, and forced marriages.'(514: 1992) The plots in 'The Shiralee' follows the logic of these plots quite accurately, with Mac marrying Marge after he learns that his true love Lily is already married. The stylistics of sound and cinematography encapsulate the emotional angst of this story in true melodramatic form; the slow panning of the beautiful landscape adds a nostalgically romantic sentiment to the film, and is accentuated by the continuous sounds of a rural slide guitar by musician Kirk Lorange.
Not a great deal of information was available to assess the critical uptake of 'The Shiralee' as a film upon its release, but the response documented by the Australian Film Commission T.V ratings of its mini-series is quite indicative of the film's over all popularity. A rating poll of Australian mini-series showed that Sydney rated 'The Shiralee' as the fourth top mini-series from 1978-2002, which is quite remarkable. The highest rating ever, within this time period was 50 (All the Rivers Run), and 'The Shiralee' scored 40, beating the popular mini-series' 'Vietnam' (1987) and 'Bangkok Hilton' (1989).
Quite interestingly, the circumstances surrounding the production of 'The Shiralee' and other TV film's of its time had much to do with a changing political front in Australia, which invested more time and energy into the promotion of filmmaking. A number of 'tax incentives' introduced in the 80's inspired a high level of funding and consequently 'The average number of feature films made per year doubled from 15 in the 1970's to 27 in the 1980's when some 65 mini-series were also made.'(1:1989) The availability of large advertising budgets effectively churned out a large portion of blockbusters in the 70's and 80's including 'Gallipoli' (1981) and 'Crocodile Dundee' (1986). Remaining however, was a demand to 'maintain 1970's industry norm of the "quality Australian film"' and given this demand is perhaps the reason Tom O'Regan believes that filmmakers started to find television as an inviting and useful media. During this time as well, saw the convergence of television and film, as they became acquainted in industry and 'the mini-series and documentaries (became) attractive investment propositions because of their presale opportunities.'(O'Regan, 3:1989) Moreover, it could be simply put that throughout this decade of the 80's drama became stabilised as a remarkably popular genre, securing high television rating at all times. One report in given by the Australian Film Commission stated simply 'Australian television drama is highly popular with Australian audiences.'
Director George Ogilvie holds an interesting repertoire of filmmaking history. Having directed numerous amount of Australian movies including 'The Crossing' (1990), a love story starring Russell Crowe in his acting infancy, as well as the highly proclaimed 'Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome' (1985) in which he directed alongside Dr. George Miller. These are to mention just two of the many Australian films, many of which, like 'The Shiralee', were mini-series', including the more recent 'The Battler's' (1994) and 'The Last of the Ryan's'(1994). Themes of romance, tragedy and history are recurring genre patterns in Ogilvie's choice of film. Ogilvie has invested his expertise into the recently established South Australian Theatre Company where he made himself associate director. Having directed in theatre, opera and ballet, Ogilvie's latest production, 'Norma', and Australian opera was scheduled to open in Melbourne last week (April 17th, 2004). Not only is the director a well known entity in Australian Cinema, but scriptwriter Tony Morphett can also be accredited for his remarkable input into Australian film and television. Morphett is responsible for writing over 1000+ scripts for Australian and U.S television including 'Above the Law' (2000) and other well known TV series such as 'Water Rats' (1996), 'Heartbreak High' (1994), 'Blue Heelers' (1994), the mini-series 'Bangkok Hilton' (1989), 'The Flying Doctors' (1986) and A Country Practice (1981). All of these are well known TV shows or mini series that most Australian's today would be able to acknowledge.
Needless to say, the main actor Bryan Brown is an Australian household name and has profoundly attributed to the industry of Australian (and American) filmmaking. Despite his American enterprise it is Brown's uniquely 'Aussie' caricature that has done much to exhibit a national character that is Australian. Not only was Brown enjoying what was probably the pinnacle of his career during this time with movies such as 'Breaker Morant' (1980), 'The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith' (1978) and many more, his on screen presence and acting prowess still holds currency today. In 1999, Brown won an AFI award for Best Actor in a supporting role for 'Two Hands' (1987) as he did 19 years previously for Breaker Morant in 1980.
Personally I would find that 'The Shiralee' (1987) would have no significant place in contemporary society. I would assume therefore it would hold little value in the Australian film market industry. The reason being is that it seems to be a generation lost; if movie goers were to celebrate the films of old, seemingly they would be a lot older, fitting into that classical/historical genre. Although the film is a depiction of rural life in the 1940's Australia, it tells no significant war tale or event. Its quality of drama still reigns functional however- as themes of love, loss, betrayal, desire (and so on) never tire and have long term (if not eternal!) applicability. I think its general position of the film is 'dormant', to take it out of the archives of Australian cinema and watch it, it would otherwise be a fairly respectable drama and, as Ross Gibson puts it, a valid 'classic realist text'. (74:1992) Moreover, it says a lot about Australian culture, as its stylistic elements convey well those preoccupations that encapsulate a meaning that is 'Australian.'
REFERENCES:
TEXT BOOK REFERENCES
Elsaesser, Thomas., 1992, (1972), 'Tales of Sound and Fury: Observations on the Family Melodrama' in Gerald Mast, Marshall Cohen and Leo Buardy eds, Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, fourth edition, Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford: 512-535.
Enker, Debi., 1994, Australia and the Australians', in Scott Murray ed., Australian Cinema, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 211-255.
Gibson, Ross., 1992, 'The Nature of a Nation: Landscape in Australian Feature films' in Ross Gibson, South of South West, University of Indiana Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 63-81.
O'Regan, Tom., 1989, 'The enchantment with the cinema: Australian film in the 1980's', in Albert Moran and Tom O'Regan eds., Australian Screen, Penguin, Ringwood 118-145.
JOURNAL REFERENCE
(Review)
Harris, Mike., Variety Magazine, vol.332, 'The Shiralee', 5th October, 1988, p120.
ONLINE REFERENCES
Australian Screen Movie Review Database-
http://cedir.uow.edu.au/Projects/movie_reviews/movie373.html
Release Success of Australian Productions-
http://www.afc.gov.au/GTP/mrrateminisalltime.html
Television Drama Policies-
http://www.afc.gov.au/downloads/policies/ftpirep.pdf
Information on Tony Morphett, Bryan Brown and George Ogilvie-
http://imbd.com