Sweet Country (2017)
I am always up for a western that is a bit different. This Australian western unrelentingly tackles the racism and horrible treatment of aboriginals.
The basic plot is familiar western territory with a conflict getting heated, a white man is killed by an aboriginal and a manhunt is ensues. The pace is slow and brutal it it’s violence. It mostly works fairly well but I think it tries too hard. The bad guys are just total assholes screaming at their aboriginal slaves and treating them like animals. That portrayal may be accurate and I don’t exactly need villains to always be nuanced characters. It is simply uninteresting when it gets hammered down like this. In general the characters need some work and I feel like the movie tries to tell a story of too many people at once. All have potential for interesting depth, but never fully developed.
At its core it is a tragedy about how these aboriginals are loosing their heritage and identity in a misguided attempt to please their white overlords. At the center of this is a sad story arc for a young boy who becomes the new favorite for his boss.
While the movie is flawed and doesn’t deliver all it’s potential, I think it is worth checking out if you are open to modern westerns that are a little bit different in tone and execution.
Rating: 3