I watched Rabbit Proof Fence the other night. It's a movie that takes place in Australia in the year 1931. The story seems utterly unbelievable in that the government is taking half-caste children from their Aboriginal homes to "civilize" them in hopes of integrating them into society and breeding out the black over generations. The children get sent to what amounts to a rehabilitation camp in which they are prohibited from using their native language and forced to learn aspects of the white culture. In this story one of the girls that is taken decides to take her sister and cousin and return home (a 1,500 mile journey) and she has no idea of where she is or how to get back. All of it sound preposterous, but then you get told this is a true story based on actual events. It's a bit disheartening to realize that people could do things like this. What's worse is the conviction the people who are responsible for doing this have that they're doing the right thing. You keep telling yourself that things like this couldn't possibly happen in today's world, but then you only have to look at some of the genocide that's occurring in hot spots across the globe and realize we still have a long way to go. The film is pretty basic, no special effects or anything and there's limited character development, but I found the film worth watching just for the history lesson alone.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Rabbit Proof Fence
I watched Rabbit Proof Fence the other night. It's a movie that takes place in Australia in the year 1931. The story seems utterly unbelievable in that the government is taking half-caste children from their Aboriginal homes to "civilize" them in hopes of integrating them into society and breeding out the black over generations. The children get sent to what amounts to a rehabilitation camp in which they are prohibited from using their native language and forced to learn aspects of the white culture. In this story one of the girls that is taken decides to take her sister and cousin and return home (a 1,500 mile journey) and she has no idea of where she is or how to get back. All of it sound preposterous, but then you get told this is a true story based on actual events. It's a bit disheartening to realize that people could do things like this. What's worse is the conviction the people who are responsible for doing this have that they're doing the right thing. You keep telling yourself that things like this couldn't possibly happen in today's world, but then you only have to look at some of the genocide that's occurring in hot spots across the globe and realize we still have a long way to go. The film is pretty basic, no special effects or anything and there's limited character development, but I found the film worth watching just for the history lesson alone.
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2 comments:
i thought this was pretty good when i saw it a few years back. i remember being amazed, as you say, with the fact that this was a true story.
very interesting film.
Cheryl and I saw this in the theater in NYC when it came out. Excellent movie.
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