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RABBIT
PROOF FENCE
Rabbit-Proof
Fence takes place in Australia in 1931. Three half-caste girls (one
white parent, one Aboriginal parent) are forcibly taken by the police
and sent to a school in which such children are trained for domestic
service or as farm hands. They escape and begin a journey of 1500
miles back to their home and family.
Review By Darrel Manson
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CREDITS
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Directed by Phillip Noyce
Book by Doris Pilkington (Follow the rabbit-proof fence)
Screenplay by Christine Olsen
Everlyn Sampi .... Molly
Tianna Sansbury .... Daisy
Laura Monaghan .... Gracie
David Gulpilil .... Moodoo
Ningali Lawford .... Molly's Mother
Myarn Lawford .... Molly's Grandmother
Deborah Mailman .... Mavis
Jason Clarke .... Constable Riggs
Kenneth Branagh .... Mr. Neville
Natasha Wanganeen .... Dormitory Boss (Nina)
Garry McDonald .... Mr. Neal
Roy Billing .... Police Inspector
Lorna Leslie .... Miss Thomas
Celine O'Leary .... Miss Jessop
Produced
by
Laura Burrows .... associate producer
David Elfick .... executive producer
Kathleen McLaughlin .... executive producer
Phillip Noyce .... producer
Christine Olsen .... producer
Emile Sherman .... co-executive producer
Jonathan Shteinman .... co-executive producer
Jeremy Thomas .... executive producer
John Winter .... producer
Original Music by Peter Gabriel
Cinematography by Christopher Doyle and Brad Shield (additional
photography)
Film Editing by Veronika Jenet and John Scott
Casting by Christine King
Production Design by Roger Ford
Art Direction by Laurie Faen
Costume Design by Roger Ford
MPAA:
Rated PG for emotional thematic material.
Runtime: 94 min
For rating reasons, go to FILMRATINGS.COM,
and MPAA.ORG.
Parents, please refer to PARENTALGUIDE.ORG
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TRAILERS
AND CLIPS
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CD
SOUNDTRACK
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Long
Walk Home: Music from the Rabbit-Proof Fence
Aside from a multimedia pastiche he did for England's millennium celebration,
this soundtrack for Philip Noyce's film marks Peter Gabriel's first
full slate of original recordings in nearly a decade. In the meantime,
Gabriel's globally ambitious Real World musical mini-empire has taken
precedence; the knowledge the musician gleaned there is immediately
apparent in his film cues here. While the booming electro-tribal rhythms
of previous Gabriel work come instantly into play, there's a sense
of spacious mystery that's perfectly emblematic of the story's Australian
outback setting. Gabriel's penchant for dense aural construction gives
way to an ambient soundscape punctuated by Aboriginal percussion,
didgeridoo, and bird song, and occasionally washed over by lolling
tides of synth and samples. It's an atmosphere that, like the Aboriginal
world it evokes, is nearly devoid of traditional melody, but one infused
with a gripping, almost subliminal power. "Cloudless" then
brings in haunting indigenous voices as well, intertwining them with
a wordless, Westernized choral to emphasize Gabriel's compelling world
music vision. --Jerry McCulley
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POSTER
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No
available poster as of January 02, 2003
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BOOK
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Rabbit-Proof Fence
by Doris Pilkington, Nugi Garimara
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AVAILABILITY
ON VIDEO AND DVD
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SYNOPSIS
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 Based
on the biographical book by Doris Pilkington, and Directed by Phillip
Noyce. Three little girls. Snatched from their mothers' arms. Spirited
1,500 miles away. Denied their very identity. Forced to adapt to a
strange new world. They will attempt the impossible. A daring escape.
A run from the authorities. An epic journey across an unforgiving
landscape that will test their very will to survive. Their only resources,
tenacity, determination, ingenuity and each other. Their one hope,
find the rabbit-proof fence that might just guide them home. A true
story. |
REVIEW
BY
DARREL MANSON
Pastor,
Artesia Christian Church, Artesia, CA
http://netministries.org/see/churches/ch01198
Darrel
has an incredible love and interest in the cinematic arts. His reviews
usually include independent and significantly important film.
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Rabbit-Proof
Fence and Evelyn take place on
opposite sides of the world, and yet they are connected in that both
are stories of the state taking custody of children under the rubric
of doing good. And from the perspectives of those in power, it was
doing good. As we look back, we see the flaws in their efforts.
 Rabbit-Proof
Fence takes place in Australia in 1931. Three half-caste girls
(one white parent, one Aboriginal parent) are forcibly taken by the
police and sent to a school in which such children are trained for
domestic service or as farm hands. They escape and begin a journey
of 1500 miles back to their home and family. All the while the forces
of the government seek to catch them and return them to school.
Evelyn is set in Ireland in the early
1950s. Desmond Doyle's wife has left him and gone to Australia. Because
Doyle is out of work, his three children are put into the government's
care and placed in schools run by the Church. When Doyle is employed
and ready to get the children back, the courts will not allow it,
because the law requires both parents? signatures. Eventually, Doyle
had to take his case to the Irish Supreme Court asking them to invalidate
the law as unconstitutional -- something the court had never done.
 Both
stories are about terrible struggles to unite families -- struggles
against governments that said they were trying to do what was best.
The bureaucracies of government are the real antagonists in the films,
although each film gives those bureaucracies human face.
The governments are not trying to do harm. In Rabbit-Proof Fence,
the government (embodied in the Protector of the Aboriginal People,
Mr. Neville -- or Mr. Devil as the indigenous people call him) is
striving to take care of what they see as inferior people. One of
Neville's lines is ?If only these people understood what we're trying
to do for them.?
 Such
sentiments certainly aren't unique to Australian history. Consider
American history and the abuse of Native Americans, recent immigrants
in most any period, and African-Americans both in the time of slavery
and in the years since. Or South Africa under Apartheid. Or the British
as they ?protected? Palestine or India. How often did people think
they were doing some unappreciated good for ?these people??
In Evelyn, it seems obvious that the court
is concerned about the well being of the children. When they first
went to the schools, it was the appropriate thing to do to care for
the children. But when conditions changed, other issues took precedence,
including the power and dignity of the state, and support for what
today would be called valuing the family. But in the end, they really
did more harm to the children, the government's dignity and family
values than any good they did.
 As
much as is wrong in what happened to the children in these two films,
those who were doing these things were not evil. They worked out of
what seemed to them an enlightened and appropriate mindset. Mr. Neville
was trying to do what he understood as protecting and rescuing these
girls from a life that seemed to him to be harsh and unfulfilling.
Even being a household worker for a white family would be (in the
thinking of white Australians) a much better life. The various judges
in Ireland had to fulfill the law; without laws how can a society
establish justice? And the law was written to support and emphasize
the importance of the family.
It could well be that fifty years from now films will be made that
show the flaws in things we do with the best of intentions. We constantly
strive to make the world better, not only for ourselves, but for others.
Often sin isn't the result of malevolence. Most people don't seek
to do something evil or harmful. But often it is from the good we
try to do, that we create pain -- unintentional as it may be. Even
when we are doing all we can to better the world, we need to be alert
to the harm we may do. |
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PHOTOS
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