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This is a film that relies on an underbelly of good intentions and a spirit of reconciliation, choosing, as it does, to explore a dark time in Australian history when half-caste (or non full-blooded) Aboriginal children were forcibly taken from their mothers in an attempt to assimilate them into White society and ultimately breed them out of existence.
The film comes at a time when the Australian government and its refugee-rejecting Prime Minister John Howard are still refusing to publicly apologise to indigenous people for the way they were treated by white settlers.
This refusal to apologise has been the subject of much debate in the lead up to the last Olympics and the Australian Centenary of Federation. In a history that includes wanton slaughter and imprisonment of an indigenous population, and, more recently alarming rates of substance abuse and suicide amongst young Aboriginal prisoners, it is not surprising to find the issue that seems to draw most emotion is that of the forced removal of children from their families. These children, many of whom never saw their parents, siblings or extended families again, have come to be known as The Stolen Generation.
Like most political debates, there is much disagreement about the term ‘Stolen Generation’ with some people arguing that the actual percentage of Aboriginal children removed from their families was so small that the suggestion of a ‘generation’ is a histrionic embellishment.
In the last few months the Australian Government forced a standoff with a foreign vessel that had rescued refugees on their way to Australia and used the political will and machinations of a civilised western government to redirect those same refugees to small Pacific Island nations and New Zealand rather than have them set foot on Terra Australis.
So Rabbit Proof Fence is a timely film and one which takes an extra-ordinary risk as traditionally films about Aboriginals have not fared well at the Australian box office.
Perhaps it is for this reason that the film has the feel of something that has been watered down. It seems diluted and deliberately restrained. Despite a promising performance from Everlyn Sampi in the lead role of Molly, and cinematography that captures the landscape without romanticising it, Rabbit Proof Fence does not have enough emotional resonance, character development or dramatic energy to sustain it.
The story is about three young girls who walk for nine weeks (over 1500 miles) across outback Australia, along a rabbit fence (built to protect farms from an encroaching rabbit population). The girls want to be reunited with their mother after they are forcibly taken to an outback school to be anglicised and trained as domestic help. It’s set in 1931, but apparently the policy of removing children continued until 1970.
In some respects it’s hard to completely believe this story, from a historically accurate point of view, and from the way it is portrayed in the film. It’s not just the distance factor, it’s the suggestion that authorities knowing the girls are walking a path adjacent to the rabbit proof fence still do not manage to recapture them.

But, this aside, the film establishes the removal of the children far too quickly. There is precious little time to see them interacting with their mother and grandmother. Basically they hunt a goanna and the next thing you know a solitary young policeman is packing them into the back of a police car. The obligatory shots of the mother and grandmother banging on the car’s windows and children wistfully looking back through a trail of dust loses the opportunity to be heart breaking because we have not come to know the depth of the relationships.
In fact, as the film progresses, the most frequent reminder of the mother and grandmother is of them standing beside the wire rabbit fence looking sadly into the distance. This lack of emotional context is ultimately emphasised when the girls make it home. The reunion is portrayed in such a stand-offish way that it seems a considerable let down.
However, the main problem is that while the story is conceptually large and universally inspiring – human spirit overcoming all odds – it is not very dramatically interesting. Phillip Noyce has made a film that is virtually devoid of tension. There is never a feeling that the girls will not succeed. The film relies heavily on internal conflict but finds few ways to represent this dramatically in the external actions of the characters.
It may be that Noyce has tried to capture the silent resilience of the characters but in some ways it plays out like an old and uncomfortable note that sounds a lot like ‘noble savage.’
Those chasing the girls are perfunctory characters. Kenneth Branagh (Mr Neville a.k.a. Devil) gives a pedestrian performance and never seems anything more than a weakish misguided do-gooder and this pretty much sums up nearly every white character in the film, including a handful of people who help the girls by giving them food and clothing.
The Aboriginal tracker who follows the girls seems to find an unspoken respect or empathy with them, allowing himself to be less dedicated to his job. But his perpetual silence doesn’t help to bring out the conflicts that must surely haunt someone who must hunt his own people down.

Overall, this is a film that has soul but not a lot of heart. It deserves a wide audience, not because it is a powerful engaging film with something of great importance to say, but because you have to start somewhere and this is as good a place as any.

link directly to this review at https://www.hollywoodbitchslap.com/review.php?movie=5779&reviewer=288
originally posted: 02/23/02 01:39:12
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