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Trust Weighted
Good
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5Trust Points
BigdaddyDave's Review
Summary - Good 3.0
A moving, true story set in Western Australia in 1931 about three aboriginal girls, taken from their homes, and sent to a camp where they can learn to be servants "to save them from themselves.†Mr. A.O. Neville (Kenneth Brannagh), the Chief Protector of Aborigines, is the legal guardian of every Aborigine in the State of Western Australia. As part of his egregious views on aboriginal half-caste children, he has them forcibly removed from homes and sent to camps to learn servitude. Such is what happens to Molly, Daisy, and Gracie, who are savagely ripped from their mother’s arms and sent over 1,000 miles away.
In a bold and defiant move, the children try to escape the oppressive conditions of the camp, and travel across the Outback by foot to their home in Jigalong, following a countrywide government fence that happens to run by their home.
The children are resilient in their quest and their determination and story is remarkable. The movie itself, while powerful and beautifully filmed, fails to invest enough time in character development to capture them beyond a cursory relationship. It’s a powerful story that could have been made better by investing more into the backgrounds off the characters, even those who are morally repulsive.
Social justice films are a wonderful tool in documenting change so that we learn of our mistakes, triumphs, and history. I applaud the filmmakers for not only telling a story of endurance and triumph of the human spirit, but one that teaches us of our own failings as a civilization. Highlighting those injustices through film should be celebrated, and on those grounds, Rabbit Proof Fence does not disappoint.
Watched on Netflix streaming.