Rabbit Proof Fence (***1/2)
review by Ken Gumbs

Three aboriginal children escape cultural genocide and walk 1,500 miles across the Australian outback to return to their homeland. It’s like the Wizard of Oz! Both films are long journeys with a couple of misfit friends trying to get back home. Well, it’s the same if you just replace the lovable little munchkins with bounty hunters and the wizard with a fascist government, then you have the exact same movie! Unfortunately Rabbit-Proof Fence is absolutely true and undeniably sad. Fortunately, out of this horrific story comes a pretty great movie.

It’s the 1930’s and the Australian government has plans to wipe out the Aboriginal people by a system of crossbreeding. An assimilation program is set up for young aboriginal children to learn the ways of their new white Christian value system. That system is shaken up when three girls named Molly, Daisy, and Gracie are brought to one of these fine establishments of evil. Molly, the oldest and leader of the group decides that assimilation is not for her and the trio take the dangerous trip home across the Australian outback. Sent on their path is an Aboriginal tracker hired by the government. Normally an excellent tracker, he not only has to deal with Molly’s cunning wits, but with the principles of his work itself. The tracker’s own daughter stays in the aboriginal camp in which he works for. He knows he must keep tracking the girls to keep his job and daughter, but can’t help but to root for Molly and the girls.

While this film sounds like an epic, it really doesn’t play like one. Some may feel that the quick-moving story and lack of real character depth may come off as a failure; I feel it works wonderfully in this film. We all know this assimilation program is wrong; we are all rooting for the girls. I was not looking forward to a 3-hour epic film beating me to death with morals I already have. Instead this story spent its 90 minutes giving human qualities to the “heroes” and “villains” and a real insight into this time in history. While Kenneth Branagh, who plays Mr. Neville, the leader of this aboriginal assimilation program, would seem like the star of this film, his screen time is limited. Under other direction, he could have made a great enemy to the small children and maybe have made a more appealing film to the masses; Rabbit-Proof Fence simply did not do that. No one was used as simple tools to move along the story. Instead, all characters seemed accurate and honorable. Mr. Neville, the tracker, and the girls were all victims of their circumstances and were simply attempting to improve their own lives. If that is not enough for the moviegoers out there hungry for more epic storytelling, than stick around for the last shot of this film. It is sure to be one of the most awe-inspiring things you’ll see on screen for a while.

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