Few youngsters today have heard of this movie, even fewer have seen it, and their lives are quite a bit poorer for that lack.
In today's world of gun-blazing police tracking down the latest serial killer and movies that try to set records for how many cars they can smash up in ever more inventive ways, this movie stands out as impossibly warm-hearted and simple. It's the story of the Carmody family, itinerant sheep drovers in 1920's Australia, and the only gun in this story is one used to shoot rabbits for the family pot. What makes this movie so watchable are the great and finely nuanced performances by just about all the actors here: Robert Mitchum as a man who can't stand being tied down to one place, but nevertheless recognizes and respects his wife's desire for a permanent home; Deborah Kerr as a strong woman who'll take only so much idiocy from her husband, but who also always finds a way to forgive and understand; Peter Ustinov as a British expatriate who finds the concept of marriage disturbing but is always attracted to the fairer sex; Glynis Johns as the impossibly bright, cheerful, and non-stop chattering pub-owner - each performance is as solid as the hard soil of the Australian sheep country where this was filmed.
The scenery is impressive in its own right, with various indigenous Australian animals each coming in for their own cameo appearances, from kangaroos and koalas to emus and wombats. But the background that really impresses is the portrait of the sheep farming industry itself, from the large flocks of sheep to the shearing sheds to the rough-and-tough men who make their living from the sheep.
There's quite a bit of humor here, much of it provided by Ustinov and Johns, but the thing that sticks, and will cause a possible case of teary-eyed vision, is the relationship between Mitchum and Kerr. This is a marriage that won't fail, a bond much stronger than the vagaries and vicissitudes of life or even their disparate desires for a particular way of life. It's never overplayed, but you can sense the deep chemistry between these two from the opening minutes of the film and it never falls out of sight.
This movie was nominated for five Academy Awards, and though it won none of them, it's almost criminal that this movie has been largely forgotten. Perhaps finally having it available on DVD will rectify that situation.
---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
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| Additional DVD options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
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January 16, 2018 "Please retry" | — | 1 | $10.58 | $8.95 |
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January 23, 2007 "Please retry" | — | 1 |
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| $24.96 | $28.98 |
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L'état de l'article et avant tout sa qualité.
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