Movie thoughts: Black and White (2002)
As I was watching Black and White tonight, I got depressed thinking about how little things have changed since the time the film was set in - the 1950s. Black and White is about an idealistic young lawyer, David O'Sullivan (Robert Carlyle, who was reason enough for me to watch this - I have always admired his acting ever since Hamish Macbeth) who has a practice in the very conservative society of 1950s Adelaide. He's called on to defend a young Aboriginal man, Max Stewart, of the rape and murder of a nine year old white girl. Tempers are running high and plenty of people are demanding that Stewart be lynched without delay simply because he's Aboriginal and must therefore be guilty. This was quite a good film but disturbing as an indicator that attitudes haven't changed that much in almost 50 years.
However, O'Sullivan discovers that firstly Stewart was beaten by the cops into making his "confession" and secondly that a man with his almost complete lack of literacy and extremely limited ability in English could never have used the sophisticated language contained in the confession. The Adelaide judiciary, however, doesn't want to know and repeatedly finds Stewart guilty every time O'Sullivan appeals. Finally O'Sullivan goes to the Privy Council in London but they too refuse to overturn the original verdict. New evidence comes to light after this proving that Stewart was at work at the time of the murder, and a Royal Commission is called.
I was hoping against hope with every fibre of my being that this would be a the-little-guy-who-wins-against-the-odds type film. Of course I was wrong. Stewart's hanging is commuted to 14 years in prison, and O'Sullivan and his partner Miss Devaney are forced to move to Victoria to find work after their reputations have been torn to shreds. They did manage to stop the hanging and that was probably largely due to a young Rupert Murdoch (Ben Mendelsohn) whose new newspaper, The Adelaide News takes up the case and campaigns for Stewart's hanging not to go ahead and for the police brutality to be acknowledged. As a result of Murdoch's campaign public opinion swings against the government and police and in favour of Stewart.
After I finished watching this I thought about how the closest some people who live in capital cities like Brisbane will come to seeing an Aboriginal will be on the big screen. Growing up in a rural area I knew several Aborigines and one in particular was a good friend. It still shocks me when I hear people say that they've never met an Aboriginal. I do think that people who have daily contact with Aborigines (and I still do; my office is next to the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies unit at UQ, and the people there are lovely and I chat to them almost every day.) have a better understanding of Aboriginal issues than those on the 'latte left' (and hey, I lean to the left so I don't mean that nastily!) who've never even met an Aborigine. There are so many terrible things that have been and continue to be done to them. I am very thankful that Kevin Rudd's government is going to make an official apology to the Stolen Generation. It's not before time.
All in all, I wouldn't say Black and White was a great film, but it was very good with wonderful acting from Robert Carlyle, Kerry Fox as Miss Devaney and Charles Dance as the supercilious prosecutor, Roderic Chamberlain. It certainly was an appropriate film for the Australia Day weekend.
However, O'Sullivan discovers that firstly Stewart was beaten by the cops into making his "confession" and secondly that a man with his almost complete lack of literacy and extremely limited ability in English could never have used the sophisticated language contained in the confession. The Adelaide judiciary, however, doesn't want to know and repeatedly finds Stewart guilty every time O'Sullivan appeals. Finally O'Sullivan goes to the Privy Council in London but they too refuse to overturn the original verdict. New evidence comes to light after this proving that Stewart was at work at the time of the murder, and a Royal Commission is called.
I was hoping against hope with every fibre of my being that this would be a the-little-guy-who-wins-against-the-odds type film. Of course I was wrong. Stewart's hanging is commuted to 14 years in prison, and O'Sullivan and his partner Miss Devaney are forced to move to Victoria to find work after their reputations have been torn to shreds. They did manage to stop the hanging and that was probably largely due to a young Rupert Murdoch (Ben Mendelsohn) whose new newspaper, The Adelaide News takes up the case and campaigns for Stewart's hanging not to go ahead and for the police brutality to be acknowledged. As a result of Murdoch's campaign public opinion swings against the government and police and in favour of Stewart.
After I finished watching this I thought about how the closest some people who live in capital cities like Brisbane will come to seeing an Aboriginal will be on the big screen. Growing up in a rural area I knew several Aborigines and one in particular was a good friend. It still shocks me when I hear people say that they've never met an Aboriginal. I do think that people who have daily contact with Aborigines (and I still do; my office is next to the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies unit at UQ, and the people there are lovely and I chat to them almost every day.) have a better understanding of Aboriginal issues than those on the 'latte left' (and hey, I lean to the left so I don't mean that nastily!) who've never even met an Aborigine. There are so many terrible things that have been and continue to be done to them. I am very thankful that Kevin Rudd's government is going to make an official apology to the Stolen Generation. It's not before time.
All in all, I wouldn't say Black and White was a great film, but it was very good with wonderful acting from Robert Carlyle, Kerry Fox as Miss Devaney and Charles Dance as the supercilious prosecutor, Roderic Chamberlain. It certainly was an appropriate film for the Australia Day weekend.