Pioneers in the rugged Australian outback drove a thousand head of sheep into the bush but run afoul the local Indigenous population over custodianship of the land and hunting rights. Perennial ocker Chips Rafferty pairs with cockney Tommy Trinder, whose son is later abducted by aborigines as retribution after Bud Tingwell kills one of the tribe during a heated stoush. Trinder sets out to retrieve his son and also ends up prisoner, but the two guards left to watch the pair are beguiled by his amateur magic tricks enabling both to escape.
Scot Gordon Jackson and Aussies Bud Tingwell and Michael Pate tag along for a little brawn and the occasional moral disagreement with the short tempered Rafferty (particularly Jackson),while half caste tracker and interpreter Henry Murdoch abandons the group and takes up with the aborigines in opposition to Rafferty's rough-handedness.
Standard Australian bush tucker from the era, with apparent racially prejudiced subject matter that might challenge some of today's audience sensitivities, but without commenting on the socio-political atmosphere, there's enough action, landscape, tribal culture and light drama to mildly entertain.
Bitter Springs
1950
Action / Adventure / Drama / History
Bitter Springs
1950
Action / Adventure / Drama / History
Plot summary
Wally King, with his family and stockmen, drive livestock over hundreds of kilometres of dry country to take up their new selection at Bitter Springs, in central Australia. A government trooper warns them that they are moving onto a waterhole that is home to a clan of Aborigines, but King believes he has all the rights. Trouble begins soon after they arrive, when Wally's son John shoots a kangaroo that some Aborigines are trying to spear. Englishman Tommy and his son Charlie are abducted, and the Aborigines burn down the makeshift homestead that Scottish carpenter Mac has built. Hot-headed John kills a young tribesman in a skirmish and is speared trying to get water. The Aborigines cut the family off from the waterhole to force them out. As they await the final attack, the trooper arrives with reinforcements. He has orders to round up the Aborigines and move them off their traditional lands, an order with which he disagrees. A final shot shows another possibility: blacks and whites working alongside each other in Wally King's prosperous shearing shed in the future.
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Australian Western
An English western ?. Maybe; but there is much more.
The previous reviews document well about how this has been influenced by American westerns.
However, don't let this put you off in any way.
This movie is not a western movie with an Australian wrapping. It is not an English attempt at "Cowboys & Indians".
This movie documents well how the conflict between white settlers & Aboriginals started. White man wants land & water. White man cannot comprehend the Aboriginal culture of land & water ownership, and how it works. (Communally owned) Two opposing worlds collide. Two misunderstandings. Two cultures meet at a "fault line".
Remember that this is 1950. Australia has a "white Australia Policy". Aboriginals can't even vote !. This is a very brave film that tackled white Austalia's prejudices at the time.
The acting from Chips Rafferty is at its best. The Aboriginal actors did a great job too.
This movie should be shown to anyone interested in Australian history, and how "we got here" today.
ealings Australian western
Ealing Studios had a flirtation with Australia just after the war.This clearly was their attempt to do a western.The sheep drive with hostile aborigines is virtually identical to many cattle drives with warring Apaches.As usual there are the usual disparate characters.The old reliable Chips Rafferty and the soon to be Doctor in EW10,Charles Tingwall.However when it comes to Tommy Trinder one starts to scratch ones head.One can only assume that Ealing tried to build him in to their substitute for George Formby.The one consistent note of all his Ealing performances is that he was no actor.The outback is well photographed and the scenes with the aborigines are quite interesting as we do learn a little about their culture.