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I’ve long wondered if Baz Luhrmann has Oscar Wilde’s mantra “nothing succeeds like excess” embroidered on scatter cushions all over his house.
The thought first occurred to me in 2008 when I saw his outback spectacular, Australia, which has now been re-fashioned as a four-hour TV series from the 1.1 million feet of film shot during the film’s making. Faraway Downs will unfold over six parts, or chapters, as Luhrmann calls them, with a score enhanced by the work of Indigenous composers and musicians and a new titles sequence featuring graphics redolent of the dust cover of a 1940s potboiler.
Set during World War II, the story remains the same. Lady Sarah Ashley, an English aristocrat, arrives in Australia planning to force her wayward husband to sell their vast Kimberley cattle station and spend the money on their English country estate. But her husband is killed soon after she arrives and she stays on in the station’s homestead, eventually falling in love with Hugh Jackman’s glamorous stockman, The Drover.
It’s a narrative that bounces merrily through a medley of moods and styles ranging from broad Croc Dundee-style comedy to overblown melodrama, rising to a climax which takes place during the Japanese bombing of Darwin. And according to Luhrmann, who introduced a preview of the first episode at Sydney’s SXSW Festival at the weekend, there is a different ending.
The opening is all farce with Kidman producing a parody of aristocratic toffiness as Sarah lands in Darwin to a shambolic reception. The Drover is embroiled in a brawl with a red-faced racist who dares to taunt him about his Indigenous friends and she watches, shrieking, as her luggage gets caught up in the mayhem and her underwear goes on public display.
It’s chaotic enough to work as slapstick but Kidman’s performance is so caricatured that it never really recovers. She herself has since looked back on it critically, saying she can’t feel proud of her work in the film. But she does praise Jackman and Brandon Walters as Nullah, the young Aboriginal boy who bonds with her.
Baz Luhrmann speaks the Faraway Downs world premiere at SXSW Sydney.Credit: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images
In 2008, Walters, who was 11 at the time, was hailed as the star of the show, with good reason. His grace in front of the camera and charming voice-over narration are highlights and for the series, Luhrmann says he has intensified the focus on his point-of view and the fears he faces as a child of the Stolen Generation. In hindsight, there is poignancy, too, in the fact that Walters did not go on to fulfil the hopes that were held for his future as a screen actor. He had a small part in the series, Mystery Road, but over the years, there has been little else.
Also poignant is the appearance of David Gulpilil as Nullah’s grandfather and it’s fun to watch former industry stalwarts Bill Hunter and Ray Barrett having a good time in the Darwin sequence. Barrett died a year after the release of Australia and Hunter’s death came two years later.
Every melodrama needs someone to loathe and a snarling David Wenham fits the bill as Sarah’s nemesis, who’s determined to grab her land for his father-in-law, a ruthless Kimberley cattle baron played by a faintly amused Bryan Brown.
Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jacknam in Baz Luhrmann’s Australia.
And there are the timeless glories of the landscape, shot to dreamy effect by cinematographer Mandy Walker.
Time, in fact, is looking kindly on this “re-imagining”. When Australia came out – in the midst of the global financial crisis – the film, with its grandiose title and matching ambitions, was touted as the movie which was going to save the industry and give us a shiny new view of ourselves. When it failed on both counts, it was written off.
Now, following the referendum, the timing is more favourable. It’s also been stripped of its pretensions, which means that its particular blend of saga and soap could make it right for the streaming era. It could well turn out to be bingeworthy.
Faraway Downs streams on Disney+ from November 26.
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