Australia's "black fella magic"

'Australia'

Baz Luhrmann's epic is ambitious. Maybe overly so.Luhrmann has not only cast Australian stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman as his leads, he's also used locally iconic actors Bryan Brown and Jack Thompson in key roles, and given one to Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil, who starred in Nicolas Roeg's "Walkabout" nearly 40 years ago and here plays a tribal wizard named King George who can manipulate time and space.

"Australia," in fact, ends up paying major attention to Aboriginal rituals and culture in general and in particular to the plight of the Stolen Generations, the mixed-race and Aboriginal children who were removed from their families and raised in deracinated mission schools (as depicted in Phillip Noyce's "Rabbit-Proof Fence"). This adroit tipping of the hat to another culture may sound like politically correct window dressing, but it actually gives "Australia" much of its integrity.Comment:  For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Movies.