The
Naked Country is a tawdry
drama about a couple
named Lance (John
Stanton) and Mary (Rebecca
Gilling), who own land
that encroaches on what
some local Aborigines
claim to be their land.
After an initial stand
off, Lance decides to make
peace with the Aborigines.
When the chief agitator
Mundaru (Tommy Lewis) is
denied the hand in
marriage of Menyan (Neela
Dey), who instead joins
the growing list of wives
of an elder, Mundaru loses
it. First, he and those
friendly with him kill a
prize bull owned by Lance,
then in the commotion, a
local cop (John Jarratt)
is speared to death and
Lance narrowly escapes,
although he cops a spear
in the shoulder.
Meanwhile, head local cop
Sergeant Neil Adams (Ivar
Kants) comes in to look
for the missing Lance.
Mary, who is feeling
unfulfilled in marriage to
Lance, asks to join in the
manhunt and one night Mary
and the cop sleep
together. While this is
going on, Lance, Mandaru
and his friends are in a
life and death battle, as
local elders set about
getting their own justice
for Mundaru.
There's some interesting
stuff here and most of it
settles around the battle
between Lance and Mandaru
(both John Stanton and
Tommy Lewis are great in
this film), but when the
film doesn't focus on
this, it's extremely
soapy. Everything
involving Mary is so groan
inducing that it stops the
film from been a good
watch. And then there's
the 'blacking up' of Neela
Day to look like an
Aborigine, which is just
embarrassing and even more
so when in the interviews
with various people
involved with the film
have a problem with it.
Whose dumbarse decision
was that? Director Tim
Burstall once blazed a
trail for future
filmmakers, but The Naked
Country is a poor film and
it wouldn't get any better
for him with the mediocre
Kangaroo in 1987 and the
just plain embarrassing
American supersoap rip-off
Return to Eden (which is
being remade, fuck
off...).
