AustLit
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'What chance has this country got? What chance has this country got?' asks missionary Fred Smith (Sam Neill) in the closing scene of Sweet Country (Warwick Thornton, 2017). Even though Fred is walking towards a rainbow - a symbol of hope - viewers cannot help but despair. They have just witnessed the vengeful, fatal shooting of an Aboriginal man by a white pastoralist, despite a judge having acquitted the former of a killing committed in self-defence. In 2017 - nearly a century after the true events that inspired the film took place - Indigenous Australians make up 28 per cent of prisoners nationwide, yet comprise just 3.3 per cent of the total population.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Last amended 11 May 2020 12:59:23
8-13
Ruthless Landscapes : Indigenous History and Western Genre Tropes in 'Sweet Country'
Screen Education
Screen Education
* Subscription service. Check your library.
Export this record
