Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear–well, not quite an introduction to the Lone Ranger on radio, but almost a look back to the San Francisco summer of Love, complete with VW vans, hippies, head bands, beads, pot, sex and music. And original spelling, too.
"Bran Nue Dae," fairly close phonetically to "Brand New Day," is an Australian Aborigine
film, and it could stand for many things. It could be an Australian version of "Hair," or a sequel to "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," or a sly protest film opposing oppression of the native Aborigines. Or an anti-church screed. Or a road movie. Or a version of a Shakespeare comedy. Or maybe just a group of adequate singers and dancers having a good time, if that's not too much like "Hair."
The movie's anthem is:
"There's nothing I would rather be,
"Than to be an Aborigine,
"And watch you take my precious land away."
That's a rather strong statement from a long-oppressed minority, but these folks are content to stop protesting when the song ends, like those in "Hair."
It's a mostly Aborigine cast, except for veteran Geoffrey Rush, who is delightfully over the top from start to finish as an avid disciplinarian priest. The movie is loosely based on a stage production by Jimmy Chi and the Kuckles (a band). Chi and Reg Gibbs wrote the screenplay in collaboration with Rachel Perkins, whose direction is enthusiastic, if sometimes rather sloppy. It's set in 1969, for a little more credence.
Our teenage hero, Willie (Rocky McKenzie), is a boarding-school student in a seminary where Rush, a priest, is a sadistic master. Willie, a virgin stuffed like a sausage casing with youthful lust, is eager to seduce Rosie (Jessica Mauboy), and she is equally inclined, but before she can get reclined, an Elvis Presley act-alike lures her away to sing with his band.
Willie runs away from school, with thousands of miles to cover between Perth and his home town of Broome, a real resort town on the Indian Ocean in Western Australia.
And he meets Uncle Tadpole (Ernie Dingo), a hobo and petty thief, sitting around a campfire, drinking and singing folk songs, much like Woody Guthrie and friends in the American Dust Bowl of the Thirties; or maybe John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" folks discovering "The Wrath of [fermented] Grapes. And they meet Slippery (Tom Budge) and Annie (Missy Higgins), seeking the hippie life in a nicely decorated vehicle.
After a variety of adventures, with Willie's quest to lose that virginity front and center in almost every one, and many things happening to interfere with that ambition, everyone arrives on a beach in Broome, where the Shakespeare Comedy rule finally takes effect.
A silly, affectionate, funny, enjoyable movie.
Bran Nue Dae opens today at the Plaza Frontenac.
—Joe