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Movies
Film critisicm of "Long Walk Home"
Summary:
The movie "A long walk home" by Phillip Noyce takes place in Australia in 1931. The protagonist Molly Craig, a 14 year old Aboriginal girl, her sister Daisy and her cousin Gracey are resettled from their town Jigalong to a reservation called Moore River. At the reservation, the Aboriginal children are taught in the British way. They learn how to speak English and how to behave in the correct way.
Everybody who wants to escape from Moore River gets persecuted by Moodoo, an Aboriginal tracker. In spite of this knowledge, the three girls take their first chance to escape from the reservation. The three girls pioneer their long walk home along the rabbit-proof fence, while they are persecuted by Moodoo and a white policeman. Molly knows how to survive in the wildness but A.O. Neville, who is responsible for the native people, does everything that the three girls are caught.
The movie "A long walk home" deals with the theme of the Stolen Generation. That means that the white colonialists think that all children who are crossbreeds have to go to the reservation and be taught in the British way. These kids were taken away from their mothers that they could go into these reservations.
This theme is very explosive in Australia. Nobody wants to talk about this chapter of the Australian history, but the daughter of Molly Craig wrote a book about the theme "The Stolen Generation". The movie "A long walk home" is the film version of this book. So these three girls were real. All the inhumanity shown in the movie was real. At this point I like to say that the actors of Molly, Daisy and Gracey were perfect for these roles.
As the heroes of the movie, they were playing their roles expressively and really authentically. But without the brilliant pictures of the Australian outback, it would not have been possible to impart the realness of the story. Finally, I would like to mention the soundtrack of Peter Gabriel. He managed to do a great job by making use of the sounds of Aboriginal music and underlining the emotions and moods on the screen.
All in all I would say that it is a great movie with great actors and a very important theme. I find that is necessary to talk about the existence of the Stolen Generation in Australia.
Christian Dornauf, 13a
"Long Walk Home" (2002)
Summary:
The film "Long Walk Home" is about three Aboriginal girls who were taken away from their mothers in 1931. It is based on the novel "Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence" by Doris Pilkington and tells the true story of her mother, Molly Craig. She, her sister and her cousin were taken away from their mothers in 1931. This was part of a government policy, the so-called "assimilation" policy, to educate Aborigines and integrate them into a white society.
The three half-caste girls, Molly, who is 14 years old, Gracie, her 10-year old cousin, and Daisy, her 8-year old sister, live with their mothers and other women in an Aboriginal settlement called Jigalong in Western Australia. Mr. A. O. Neville is the "chief protector of Aborigines", thus a representative of the Australian government. He is against the Aboriginal way of life, wants to eliminate the Aboriginal blood line and wants the Aboriginal children to get a good European education. They should learn the path of "duty, service, and responsibility" that good Christian women must adhere to. This is the reason why he orders a policeman to take away the girls from their mothers. The policeman brings them to a Christian mission called Moore River, an official government camp, which is 1.930 kilometres away from Jigalong.
The girls live there with other girls. They have to pray in church and to do some work, like to tip out the toilet or to clean the room. The adults forbid the children to speak their Aboriginal languages. All have to speak English. One day, when it is church the three girls decide to escape from the mission and walk back home. The rainy season is coming at the right time in order to cover up their tracks. A tracker, an Aboriginal man called Moodoo, who works for the white people, has to find the girls and to bring them back to the mission. Jigalong is near a rabbit fence and Molly follows the rabbit fence to find her way home.
On their way the girls meet some kind and friendly people who help them, but often Molly has to be tricky because of their pursuers who take orders from Mr Neville. There are also some dangerous situations. One day they meet a man who tells them that Gracie's mother is in Miluna, a village near the place they are. Gracie is in a conflict. She wants to go to her mother; however, Molly tells her to follow her and Daisy. Gracie goes alone to the train station and the two other girls continue to walk to Jigalong. As Molly doesn't feel good about Gracie's decision she goes back to her to the train station. Exactly at the moment when Gracie wants to join Molly and Daisy again two men catch her. The following story is only about Daisy and Molly who protects her. They walk through the desert and it is a long and hard walk along the rabbit fence. Although the fence suddenly stops, the girls manage to find their way home. A policeman is waiting for them in Jigalong, but their mothers drive him away. When the girls finally arrive, they have walked for nine weeks to cover the long distance. The next day the girls and their mothers leave Jigalong for a life in the desert.
Molly marries and gets two daughters. The younger daughter has the same destiny like her. She is taken away from Molly to Moore River. Nowadays Molly and Daisy live in Jigalong and are more than 90 years old. They have never seen Gracie again.
Sophia Buck, 13a
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