An epic adventure in ‘Australia’

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A country so big, it’s actually a continent. A people so brash and ultra-masculine, they drink their beer out of immense oil cans. Bush hats cover their tanned brows, and real knives (now, that’s a knife) hang from their belts. They inhabit a land so in hospitable there are only two seasons; bone dry and “the wet.” And now, they have finally moved past the image of “Crocodile Dundee” and “Quigley” (remember his adventure Down Under?) to shine in a new cinematic light radiating from the glorious, and aptly titled, epic “Australia.”

It has been seven years since director Baz Luhrmann brought his acclaimed vision of “Moulin Rouge” to life. Now he returns with “Australia,” a Herculean undertaking if such a thing ever did exist. Luhrmann draws deeply from the well of Hollywood’s Golden Age with a film steeped in the tradition of old, yet as shiny and new as an Obama commemorative plate.

This well-crafted and engaging tale follows the journey of three of the most diverse individuals ever thrown together (at least since the Fellowship left for Mordor). Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) has arrived in Australia from England to check up on her husband who is attempting to grow the Faraway Downs cattle ranch into a financial boom for himself and his wife. The cattle industry — or better yet monopoly — in the country is currently tended by one man: King Carney (Bryan Brown).

Lady Sarah learns of her husband’s “accidental” demise and is urged to sell the land to Carney. This gives him a complete monopoly, and her a tidy sum with which to return home. Before she can sign the paperwork, however, her mind, and subsequently her life, changes forever with the arrival of a strange, and somewhat magical, little boy. Nullah (Brandon Walters) is a “creamy.” Half-white and half-Aboriginal, he is an outcast despised by his father, and in the estimation of his government, in need of “re-education.” He wins the heart of Lady Sarah, exposes the truth behind the goings-on at Faraway Downs and gives the proud woman the fortitude to stand and make a go of working her own cattle operation. She has the land, the cattle and the gumption, but who will show her the Aussie ropes?

Enter the world’s sexiest man (as per “People” magazine, and after this flick, about 2 trillion more women): Hugh Jackman as “The Drover.” This tragic figure is filled with past sorrows, mocked for his friendship with the Aborigines, and as hard as the land upon which drives he drives the cattle under his care. Lady Sarah makes a bargain with him; should he help her drive the cattle to market, he can fulfill his life’s dream of mating a tough local horse with her prized English thoroughbred.

What follows is a tale ripe with adventure, love, and a story mired in the deeper meaning of tolerance and respect, all wrapped in a majestic package of cinematic beauty that will drive the breath from your body as readily as a January plunge into Lake Wallenpaupack. Luhrmann has delivered a sprawling, classically inspired epic by traversing the traps that can easily befall an overzealous venture (near three hours long) by seamlessly taking us from point A to point B in a well written, flawlessly flowing film as grand as any film in recent memory, and rivaling even some of Hollywood’s crowning achievements. I feel it would be safe to assume Australia’s ambassador, the late Steve Irwin, would have approved and summed this one up most simply with a boisterous cry of “Crikey, that was bloody awesome.” Yes Steve, “Crikey” indeed.”

Rating: W W W W 1/2