Australia directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.

The epic feel good movie of they year… Well, that might not be exactly true, but it certainly was a great movie.  I hope it does well in the theaters. This movie deserves it.The movie is about a gal who goes down to Australia to get a little cattle outpost ‘Faraway Downs’ sold off.  Of course she finds corruption and tries to stamp it out along the way.  In doing so, she isolates her little community and is now stuck with a huge herd of cattle that are hundreds of miles from Darwin.  The town on to the north that needs cattle to feed the troops going into WWII.

She finds Hugh Jackman, and convinces his character to be the master drover and have one heck of a cattle drive.  As expected, they drink and kiss each other.  Ick!

At the town of Darwin, there is one hell of a bombing.  Japan decided that their little stunt at Pearl Harbor wasn’t good enough, so the fleet moves south and decimates this little one horse town.

In the interest of letting you watch the movie for yourself I won’t talk very much more about the details.

While the film was a big epic romance/adventure/drama/action/coming of age story, it didn’t take itself so seriously as I had expected.  There wasn’t needless drama just for the sake of having tension and the movie almost seemed to mock those moments.  But when the drama was needed, it certainly pulled it’s own weight.  In these respects I think it can be compared to ‘Gone With the Wind.’

Another similarity the two movies have is the effective use of swearing.  While most movies today curse left and right Australia refrained from any swearing until a very emotionally charged and appropriate moment.  It was nice to see it used for emphasis, rather than part of a regular vocabulary.

At points the cinematography was a little jarring as the camera moved around in unusual patterns, but once getting used to the style it really adds a unique feel to the flick.

But with all of that, the question still remains… Who is the real king?  King Carne or King George?