Wednesday, January 30, 2013
The Road From Coorain
When a movie declares itself to be based on a true story or a
book--fiction, memoir or history--it would be more truthful if the
producers declared it was 'inspired by'. Granted that a work of fiction
can be truer to the sense of a story than a fact-based account, when
script writers get there hands on a story the original is often hard to
recognize in the finished product.
Aside from the sweeping vista of salt-bush shown over the opening
credits, a few shots of sheep, and a grassy track of road one gets the
sense that most of this movie was shot on the backlot of some movie
studio. An evocation of the windy outback which gives Coorain its name
is largely missing. The storyline centres on interior shots of Jill and
her Mother Eve. Her father who died when she was 11, (was it suicide),
and her brothers are minor players in the story. A brother who died of
snake-bite is dropped from the piece entirely. Uncle Angus, her Mother's
brother (?) appears irregularly at meals and Alec (Conway), an American
entrepreneur, figures prominently in the final third in some rather
torrid love scenes.
What is made clear is the fact that this is a Man's world even though
the story features two very strong women. The boys are sent off to
boarding school, Jill is educated at home by her Mother. Her Mother may
be the more astute business woman but Bill, her Father is deferred to
while he lives and later her brother Bobby, who by his own admission is
no station manager, is sent to run Coorain. A strong attachment to the
land and identification with it is embedded in this family's psyche. The
death of her brother Barry described by Jill as stunningly handsome in a
road accident serves, more than the near failure of her station, to
unhinge her Mother and reduce her to an attention-seeking wheedler who
will do anything including break her own arm to prevent her daughter
from leaving.
The Road from Coorain is more about the obstacles Jill faced than about
a girl with a brilliant mind and strong will who overcomes adversity to
succeed in the wider world.
book--fiction, memoir or history--it would be more truthful if the
producers declared it was 'inspired by'. Granted that a work of fiction
can be truer to the sense of a story than a fact-based account, when
script writers get there hands on a story the original is often hard to
recognize in the finished product.
Aside from the sweeping vista of salt-bush shown over the opening
credits, a few shots of sheep, and a grassy track of road one gets the
sense that most of this movie was shot on the backlot of some movie
studio. An evocation of the windy outback which gives Coorain its name
is largely missing. The storyline centres on interior shots of Jill and
her Mother Eve. Her father who died when she was 11, (was it suicide),
and her brothers are minor players in the story. A brother who died of
snake-bite is dropped from the piece entirely. Uncle Angus, her Mother's
brother (?) appears irregularly at meals and Alec (Conway), an American
entrepreneur, figures prominently in the final third in some rather
torrid love scenes.
What is made clear is the fact that this is a Man's world even though
the story features two very strong women. The boys are sent off to
boarding school, Jill is educated at home by her Mother. Her Mother may
be the more astute business woman but Bill, her Father is deferred to
while he lives and later her brother Bobby, who by his own admission is
no station manager, is sent to run Coorain. A strong attachment to the
land and identification with it is embedded in this family's psyche. The
death of her brother Barry described by Jill as stunningly handsome in a
road accident serves, more than the near failure of her station, to
unhinge her Mother and reduce her to an attention-seeking wheedler who
will do anything including break her own arm to prevent her daughter
from leaving.
The Road from Coorain is more about the obstacles Jill faced than about
a girl with a brilliant mind and strong will who overcomes adversity to
succeed in the wider world.
# posted by garthmailman@gmail.com @ 8:37 am 
