Lightdeossk Captivating movie !

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Robert J. Maxwell American viewers who expect an old-fashioned story about race in which the minority is treacherous and the white guys are mostly honorable -- "The Birth of a Nation" with African-Americans or "Stagecoach" for Indians -- will be disappointed. So will those looking for a more politically correct story about white arrogance and noble savages -- "Tell Them Will Boy Was Here" or "In The Heat Of the Night".Instead they'll get something more along the lines of William Faulkner's more mature stories, in which race place a central part and there is a history of injustice, but people are people.I don't think I want to get into the plot too much. Jimmy Blacksmith is a handsome, cheerful young man, half white and half Australian Aborigine, industrious and polite. When he leaves the family of the Methodist minister who raised him, he runs into racism in forms that are both petty and materially important.Without much adumbration, there is an explosion of violence involving axe murders and shootings of men, women, and children. We attribute it to racism or, as the Brits call it, racialism. Jimmy feels insulted beyond endurance and finds retribution in murder. But as I write this, a week ago, a twenty-two year old American, went on a killing spree that left seven dead and thirteen wounded. He looked and acted normal, but left behind a long list of complaints about having been mistreated by others and having his importunings turned down by attractive women.Are people like Jimmy Blacksmith and Elliott Rodgers driven to madness by their mistreatment? Or do they decide to kill and then figure out the most logical reasons for feeling the way they do? Both, probably, but to what extent does each process contribute to the act? Deep, isn't it? The film is a reflection of its time. In the 1960s and 70s there were a spate of movies critical of what was sometimes called "the establishment." (Poor Bonny and Clyde, just a couple of kids.) This one isn't so easy. It's ambiguous in the way that life is often ambiguous. You'll have to work at it.

Tim Kidner Fred Schepisi's 1978 film may well be just that but it's not included in my Australian Cinema 12 disc boxed set and I've never known it to be on TV, here. I became aware of it through my old film 'bible' Halliwells and they rated it very highly, awarding a rare maximum score, citing it as 'one of the greatest achievements in Australian cinema'.It's taken me a good number of years to finally find a copy that was on region of DVD I could play and wasn't a silly price.The first thing you notice is the sheer authenticity. Language is as brutal as any and is more akin to a Victorian Scorsese than starched collars and stiff upper lips. The language used to describe the aboriginal natives is as coarse and racist as you'll find in any gritty 70's set LA cop show and for that it is both upsetting and rather embarrassing, but at least goes to show the leaps and bounds humankind has largely made on this issue, since.Jimmie Blacksmith is a half-cast, a subject that has been visited in a few memorable films, particularly 'Rabbit Proof Fence' and as 'these' were often the result of rape against white women, were seen as worse than the lowest. Jimmie (superbly played by Tommy Lewis) does have an advantage, he's overseen by the local white vicar and is known as a hard and honest worker.He soon goes on to work for white farmers, along with his fully aboriginal brother, erecting fences. Miles of them. He does too good a job and they don't want to pay, so he moves on. His relationship with a white girl, then marriage results in a child, that by colour alone, cannot be his. Then, around half-way in, all this pent-up anger boiling up inside the civilised and decent Jimmie erupts. This is when the violence (extreme in its day, now, maybe sadly, average) erupts as he goes on a vengeful killing spree.I need not go further than this, except that obviously, he is then a wanted criminal and a fugitive on the run.There's a real sense of the epic, with cinematic hints and nods to Nicolas Roeg's 'Walkabout', with the natural geography, fauna and the culture all vividly brought to life, superbly filmed by Ian Baker .Thankfully - hopefully, this can now be seen as a historical drama, the like of which can never happen again. It is as hard-hitting and making as powerful a statement on in-bred racism there is and is without doubt a five star classic.

thewholebrevitything Thomas Keneally's THE CHANT OF JIMMIE BLACKSMITH novel works on so many levels - a period piece, as a biting satire and as a wonderfully composed drama. This film of the same name attempts to capture the poignancy and strength of the original classic novel. It achieves this wonderfully. The film is excellently acted and the violence is both well shot and vibrantly enacted. The score is great too. Also the Australian landscape - not to mention its social underbelly, was never shot with as much insight.An excellent starting point to understand such great Aussie films like the tracker and rabbit proof fence.10/10

davidgoesboating If you're the sort of person who enjoys being depressed, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith is the film for you. A short summary of the film is as follows. Young half aboriginal/half white boy is raised by a white Christian family. As he goes off to find a job, he discovers that every white person in the world is actually a racist. He tries to get over this fact by trying to lose his 'black soul', and become more like a white man. He is constantly cheated and laughed at by his white employers. Of course there is only one thing a decent person can possibly do when faced with this. He goes and chops up a couple of women and young girls with an axe. Sound fun so far? Well it gets better anyway, but I won't give away the whole plot in case you actually want to watch the movie. Of course one might say, but isn't the message important? Well, no. It is true that Aborigines were generally considered inferior at the time, and that there was some racism going on. But this film ruthlessly exaggerates it to prove a point, which appears to be that white society is a corrupter of black people. Leaving aside the negative storyline and the political point-scoring, however, the acting is fairly decent, and score is alright too. Apart from that, don't bother watching this.