Wednesday 10 December 2008

Australia: the movie

Peter Costello points out one or two errors of fact.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did Japanese troops ever land in Australia? Costello seems to say no but I've spoken with returned servicemen who say troops did land in the North West. I was pretty sceptical but they were insistent and I've never had a chance to chase it up further.

Anonymous said...

Well,

Gordon you (and Costello) have turned me right off going and seeing it.

I liked the bit about what happened when the missions went and welfare arrived. I wonder when that will get teased out.

When I was in my 20's in the the mid 60's to mid 70's, every CMS Summer School there were heaps of "missionaries" returning to the NT, actually school teachers, mechanics, carpenters, agriculturists, doctors, nurses and the occasional clergyman.

Leah said...

thatgreatcity - no, Japs did not land in Australia. Some had to bail out of their planes over the sea and were washed up onto islands etc, but were taken prisoners of war. None actually landed intentionally. (Not that have been reliably verified, I suppose).

I actually really liked the movie. The romance only came into play a third of the way through the movie.

No, that's not what Australia is like today: but Mr Costello should know better than to suggest it is a misleading portrayal of Australia. The cattle industry is a huge part of our history and our economy.

I also think Mr Costello was wrong in suggesting the police in the movie were right in removing Nullah from his murderous father; he was not in his father's care, and he was already removed from his father by his mother and grandfather.

I'd say Mr Costello's review only gets it half-right. I reviewed it myself on my blog, too.