225. High Ground; movie review

 

HIGH GROUND

Cert 15

105 mins

BBFC advice: Contains strong bloody violence, threat, racism, sexual threat, language

The ugly face of racism has been seen in England over the past few days in connection with our football team's narrow loss in the Euro final.

Sadly, as Stephen Johnson's High Ground suggests, not only was it worse years ago but we exported it!

It lights upon a time when the colonialists took over Australia and imposed their 'laws' upon the indigenous population.

In other words, they murdered them.

High Ground begins with a massacre as a family are bathing at a pool and have the misfortune to take in two men who are on the run.

Their pursuers have a plan to negotiate but become trigger-happy and all hell lets loose with deaths on both sides.

Simon Baker plays a former soldier who shows compassion by taking a boy survivor back to his station.

The movie then moves on 12 years when it becomes clear that, the lad's uncle (Sean Mununggurr) also escaped death at the pool is going on a spree of revenge.

Meanwhile, the boy (Jacob Junior Nayinggul) has been brought up by a vicar's sister (Caren Pistorius) and nurtured in the ways of white settlers.

High Ground doesn't hold back in highlighting the cruelty of the colonialists and how cheaply they viewed the lives of the native population.

It also presses the point that not only were the invaders brutal but were also too stupid to soak up the knowledge of native people who knew how to survive in the Outback.

Jack Thompson and Callan Mulvey play those who are intransigent in applying the law while Witiyana Marika leads the people who only recognise nature's rules.

Meanwhile, there is spectacular cinematography - the camera regularly panning to the wildlife and beautiful backdrop and the birds sing throughout making a fascinating contrast to the humans' violence.

It all adds up to a surprisingly tense and enthralling film.

Reasons to watch: Tense, outback thriller

Reasons to avoid: Meanders a bit

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: Yes

Overall rating: 8/10

Did you know? According to The Guardian Australia, there were at least 270 frontier massacres over 140 years, as part of a state-sanctioned and organised attempt to eradicate Aboriginal people.

The final word. Stephen Johnson: "I’ve never seen the world in black and white. I’ve always been very, very engaged and live my life very much with indigenous people. So it’s a very natural and easy process for me to sit down and get dirty  and for us to grapple together with the idea of telling a story like this." Cinema Australia

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