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Australia

Australia

Adventure · Romance · Drama · 2008

Set in northern Australia before World War II, an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch reluctantly pacts with a stock-man in order to protect her new property from a takeover plot. As the pair drive 2,000 head of cattle over unforgiving landscape, they experience the bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces firsthand.

Movie details

Australia

“Welcome to Australia!”

2008 Adventure · Romance · Drama 2h 45m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.6 / 10

Community rating

Set in northern Australia before World War II, an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch reluctantly pacts with a stock-man in order to protect her new property from a takeover plot. As the pair drive 2,000 head of cattle over unforgiving landscape, they experience the bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces firsthand.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Australia?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Castaway

Castaway

Adventure · 1986

Middle-aged Gerald Kingsland advertises in a London paper for a female companion to spend a year with him on a desert island. Young Lucy Irving takes a chance on contacting him, but once on the island, things prove a lot less idyllic than in the movies. Gradually, it becomes clear that it is Lucy who has the desire and the strength to try and see the year through.

The Horse Whisperer

The Horse Whisperer

Adventure · 1998

The mother of a severely traumatized daughter enlists the aid of a unique horse trainer to help the girl's equally injured horse.

Elephant Walk

Elephant Walk

Romance · 1954

Colonial tea planter John Wiley (Peter Finch), visiting England at the end of World War II, wins and weds lovely English rose Ruth (Dame Elizabeth Taylor) and takes her home to Elephant Walk, Ceylon, where the local elephants have a grudge against the plantation. Ruth's delight with the tropical wealth and luxury of her new home is tempered by isolation as the only white woman in the district; her husband's occasional imperious arrogance; a mutual physical attraction with plantation manager Dick Carver (Dana Andrews), and the hovering, ominous menace of the hostile elephants.

The Man from Snowy River

The Man from Snowy River

Drama · 1982

Jim Craig has lived his first 18 years in the mountains of Australia on his father's farm. The death of his father forces him to go to the lowlands to earn enough money to get the farm back on its feet.

Far and Away

Far and Away

Adventure · 1992

A young free-spirited Irish woman from an affluent Protestant family spontaneously befriends a street-smart commoner cheated by her family’s hostile land takeovers. They escape to America, ready to take advantage of the 19th century Oklahoma land rush.

Far from the Madding Crowd

Far from the Madding Crowd

Drama · 2015

In Victorian England, the independent and headstrong Bathsheba Everdene attracts three very different suitors: Gabriel Oak, a hardworking young sheep farmer; Frank Troy, a handsome and reckless Sergeant; and William Boldwood, a prosperous and mature bachelor.

The Light Between Oceans

The Light Between Oceans

Drama · 2016

A lighthouse keeper and his wife living off the coast of Western Australia raise a baby they rescue from an adrift rowboat.

Love's Enduring Promise

Love's Enduring Promise

Drama · 2004

In the 1800s frontier, Missie Davis is a bright and beautiful schoolteacher whose love for the prairie is matched only by her passion for books. When Missie encounters Grant, a handsome New England railroad executive, she feels as though she's met a hero from one of her novels.

Love's Long Journey

Love's Long Journey

Drama · 2005

Missie's surprise pregnancy sets her on a new course that is both thrilling and terrifying. After all the planning and dreaming, she and her husband Willie are headed west in a covered wagon, leaving behind the prairie home of Missie's parents. Now, caught between the excitement of the new adventure and the pain of not knowing when she'll see her family again, Missie copes with the challenges, and cherishes the rewards, of her new homestead.

Walkabout

Walkabout

Adventure · 1971

Under the pretense of having a picnic, a geologist takes his teenage daughter and 6-year-old son into the Australian outback and attempts to shoot them. When he fails, he turns the gun on himself, and the two city-bred children must contend with harsh wilderness alone. They are saved by a chance encounter with an Aboriginal boy who shows them how to survive, and in the process underscores the disharmony between nature and modern life.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Baz Luhrmann

Written by

Baz Luhrmann · Stuart Beattie · Ronald Harwood · Richard Flanagan

Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman

Lady Sarah Ashley

Hugh Jackman

Hugh Jackman

The Drover

Essie Davis

Essie Davis

Katherine

David Wenham

David Wenham

Neil Fletcher

Bryan Brown

Bryan Brown

King Carney

David Gulpilil

David Gulpilil

King George

John Jarratt

John Jarratt

Sergeant

Court is in session

Put Australia on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.