Film Analysis: Rabbit-Proof Fence

Superior Essays
To either Australians or a public less familiar with Australia’s history and culture or, Rabbit-Proof Fence by Philip Noyce (2002) is considered an excellent source to know about the ‘Stolen Generations’, an important chapter in Australian contemporary history. Premiering in a context in which there were increasing voices calling for the reconciliation with the Aboriginal community, the movie was a key landmark in this movement (Martin, 2002). Contrasting to frequent stereotypes in the artistic representation of Indigenous culture (Milner, 2002, p. 72), this movie portrays in an authentic way the determination and courage of the Aboriginal people to fight for their life against injustice exercised by the authorities and to maintain Indigenous …show more content…
Since the beginning Australian’s silver screen - one of first cinema industries of the world in the late 18th centuries, many movies about the Indigenous people have been made but full of stereotypes and clichés. Byrnes (2006) argued that most early movies focused on Aborigines as social problems rather than issues of identity. Aboriginal people tended to be portrayed as “a threat, an accusation, a regret or an ideal”. However, from the “Golden age” starting from the 1970s, there have been more efforts to depict Indigenous culture from a more neutral and balance view. According to Davis (2010), there has been a growing number of films about Indigenous peoples and their culture produced by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous film makers. Aboriginal culture has their own voice when the presence of Indigenous characters in movies has shifted from peripheral roles to central ones (O 'Neill and Wells, …show more content…
It also succeeded in avoiding stereotypes about the native people. The movie was based on true accounts of Molly, the leader of the escape as told to her daughter Doris Pilkington Garimara, who would later write the book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence (1996). This book itself is considered a touchstone for the stories of so many people from the Stolen Generations (Macqueen and McDowell, 2014). As an adaptation from an important book and touching a highly contentious issue, accurate depiction was the priority for the film makers (Cordaiy, 2002). Careful researches and consultation from the Aboriginal community were carried out by the screen writer Christine Olsen. The book’s author, Doris, also participated in writing the screenplay for the movie (Olsen, 2014). In addition, in the end of the movie, Molly and Daisy, appeared in a footage when they already grew old. Therefore, the movie, despite employing stylised visual and sonic techniques, still depicts reliable accounts of the

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    I lived in an inland rural area of New South Wales, and after finishing school I moved to Kununurra, a northern remote area in Western Australia. This was a place where my knowledge and understanding of the Aboriginal people their culture, history and identity was largely developed. I was exposed to so many dimensions of the different ways they lived, whether it was traditionally in remote communities or within the township. This exposure tested and challenged my thoughts, it lead me to further question some of the reasons why the Aboriginal people had vastly different ways of living. During the 3 years I lived in Kununurra I gained much repect for their culture and…

    • 1485 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Fordham (2013) argues that “Brand Nue Dae” is part of this new wave of “reconciliatory cinema” which aims to project a more optimistic resolution were Indigenous communities can themselves resolve their own concerns. The political issues within the film are intertwined in an often subtle as well abstract manner, through the use of complex characters searching for their identities and dealing with ongoing issues of despair and dispossession. This director deliberately uses stereotypes with a hint of irony in order to ridicule assumptions laid upon Aboriginals by the greater circle of society with the ultimate goal to challenge such. This is exemplified through the complex nature of Uncle Tadpole were he exaggerates his Indigenous identity by using animal references, in order to meld into the idea what others perceive Aboriginals to be, perhaps as a method of commenting upon wider Australia. While the film alludes to the ever historical presence of previous injustices, it manages to set a new parallel to guide towards a new beginning, a ‘Bran Nue Day”, celebrating a young man’s resistance to…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Obomsawin's physical presence on screen as an interviewer ("Cry from the Diary of a Métis child") and as a journalist ("270 Years of Resistance") draws her audience into the frontline; thus, creating a sense of confidentiality and intimacy between her viewer and the people featured in her film. Although she is, in fact creating expository documentaries, I think this is an important rhetorical strategy, one of which I would explore with my students as part of teaching Obomsawin's premise for structure in her films. What is more, Gauthier acknowledges, "her onscreen participation in her films not only enhances her credibility, but it also affirms her close emotional investment in the situation" (4). In terms of subject matter, Obomsawin reveals untold truths, many of which I believe will challenge my students pre-existing notions of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Pedagogically, I will need to prepare my students for these topics by outlining acceptable language and providing students with background knowledge as a means to comprehend the context and understand the lens through which Obomsawin delivers her information.…

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mabo

    • 888 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Directed by Rachel Perkins, Mabo, takes viewers through the life of a Meriam man, Eddie Koiki Mabo. The audience is taken through Mabo’s life as he battles with discrimination, segregation, injustice and his identity. Mabo’s determination and tenacity is also seen as he contests the claims of terra nullius and land ownership rights in the high court. The viewers of this film see firsthand the dehumanising, unfair, and degrading treatment which the Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander community was and subjected to. As Mabo overcomes oppression and racism, to attain the rights to which he and the rest of the aboriginal community was entitled, viewers see the misfortunes innocent people have to go to in order to be treated equally.…

    • 888 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Saroo The Movie Belonging

    • 528 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Our understanding of other nations and cultures is often designed by our visual memory of mediated visual information or film. Numerous inter-related social forces contribute to perception of others and these portrayals play an integral role in influencing this society’s attitudes towards certain groups, especially when presented in a realistic form like film. Film shapes ethnic and national identities, particularly in the absence of personal interactions with one another. “Lion” has great impact on how Australian society perceives India. The depiction of India in Western society is examined from the expansive framework of representations of third world countries in Australian film.…

    • 528 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Australia seems to be blessed for producing beautiful films about real life situations fraught with meaning and mystery. The movies “Puberty Blues” and “The Year my voice broke” are of no exception. The landscape seems so realistic on the screen, and the sense of Australia's isolation does as well. The subject matter and thematic thrust of Puberty Blues is the girls’ inceptive desperation to hook into the “in-crowd”, but with a strong feminist kick.…

    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Nacirema Analysis

    • 1038 Words
    • 5 Pages

    His 1914 silent film, “In the Land of the Headhunters,” documents the traditions of the Kwakiutl Indians that were prohibited under the Federal Potlatch Prohibition and no longer practiced, such as ceremonial dances, sorcery, and head hunting. The film serves as a cultural narrative and documents an important moment of the interconnection between the emerging technology of filmmaking and the cultural change of the Kwakiutl. Through the film, the Kwakiutl exercise their own agency by evading the Potlatch ban in their participation as actors in Curtis’ film, and reenacting their own representation of their history, therefore maintaining their expressive…

    • 1038 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    That being said, when these negative opinions and stereotypes about Indigenous peoples are portrayed in pop culture, it increases the chances that individuals will adopt these ideas and stereotypes without trying to educate themselves on the facts. This is a problem as more and more generations will adopt these ideologies which will not assist us in taking steps towards reconciliation. Knowing that the rhetoric and ideas presented in laws, media and pop culture contribute to the ideologies we develop, should be used in a positive way. If we use these means as a way of educating individuals on the past and present struggles that Indigenous persons are faced with, perhaps steps can be taken towards reconciliation. We can express and achieve respect towards Indigenous persons and communities by acknowledging the past and understanding the present…

    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Racism In The Sapphires

    • 719 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “Thought I told you Abos to get off my premises” (Noelene). The gravity of racism exhibited in the film is a strong reminder of the inequity and discrimination that Indigenous Australians faced both then and now. Body Paragraph 2 – Cultural differences…

    • 719 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This can coincide with Edward Said’s Orientalism but can further examine the notion of ‘revolt’ amongst Indigenous Australians. In the building campaign for constitutional recognition of Indigenous people, moving away from treating Indigenous people as a race must be replaced with the idea of ‘first peoples’. Problem not being race, but more racial discrimination. Indigenous people use self-determination; and express themselves according to their lineages and strong culture that connect them to places and ways of life that have existed long before colonisation. Additionally, by labelling an Indigenous Australians as a ‘race’ and determining laws around their way of life has only enhanced confusion of the Indigenous Identity within Australian society.…

    • 1170 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Native American characters and themes were popular inclusions in films throughout the 20th century; there were films that to a degree romanticized Native American culture and there were films that made a mockery of Natives. Important was that these films were very popular, as a result they were largely responsible for establishing the public’s concept of the Native American and of their culture, even for some young Natives. In a way, they were taking the culture of the Native American people again by defining it for the world; in inaccuracy there was a tragedy, in that they were misrepresenting a culture that they had earlier helped to…

    • 1683 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Director, Phillip Noyce represents Aboriginal people much more sympathetically than he represents Europeans by using a range of technical and symbolic codes such as colour, camera angles and shots, auditory devices and symbols. This codes can be seen in the Abduction scene, Arrival at Moore river, Mr Neville’s says No and the scene where Mr Neville signs the papers for the girl’s removal. The technical codes and symbols used in the abduction scene of the Rabbit-Proof-Fence effectively help represent the Aboriginal people as powerless, thus, the audience will feel more sympathetic towards them. The first technique used was the dreadful camel noise, which is a diegetic sound.…

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Portrayal Of Native North Americans In Hollywood No group of people of the same ethnic origin deserve to be misrepresented in such a way that it distorts the world 's understanding of who they truly are. So what makes Native North Americans any different? Neil Diamond 's documentary "Reel Injun" studies the image of Native North Americans in Hollywood throughout the history of filmmaking and vividly illustrates how they were practically robbed of their identity through use of stereotypes, causing misconceptions of what Natives North Americans were really like. The image of Natives in films has changed as different eras of filmmaking were introduced and various genres and styles of film have altered over decades.…

    • 1310 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Barry Barclay (2000, p.1) coined the term ‘Fourth Cinema’, a classification in which he encompasses all means of Indigenous Cinema, made by Indigenous people, for Indigenous people. Barclay also puts emphasis on Fourth Cinema ‘Indigenous’ being spelt with a capital “I”, a category he created for his own personal satisfaction but has since caught on globally. This essay will discuss the concept of Fourth Cinema as outlined by Barry Barclay in general, as well as, in relation to Taika Waititi’s Māori film, Boy (2010). First, Second and Third Cinema are all Cinemas of the Modern Nation State and from an Indigenous place of standing, these are all invader Cinemas according to Barclay (2000, p.7). Barclay (1990, p.9) suggests that over the years…

    • 2178 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The Stolen Generation Elouise Campbell 8C The poem, The Stolen Generation, is a message about the loss of Aboriginal culture and the transformation into ‘white society’. The poet, David Keig, conveys the message that people get taken from their parents as merely babies, growing up in church schools, and turning those kids into ‘civilised’ people. The structure of this poem is a short lined, 8 verse poem developing the ideas of changing culture and religion. By using shorter lines, and stronger words, the poet has put emphasis on the harsh emotional disturbance those children and adults had to endure.…

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays