Backbencher

This film is based on the book by the same name written about the author’s mother, Molly, and two other young children Daisy and Gracie who were taken from their homes in Jigalong. These three girls were put in the Moore River Native Settlement to turn them away from their culture and embrace a new European one. Molly, Daisy, and Gracie escape and walked nearly 1500 miles back home with the constant fear of being caught and sent back. When they finally returned their families went into hiding so that government officials could not take them away again. They all made it back with the exception of Gracie who was caught and taken back. Thought Molly would again be taken back to Moore River and would once again walk all the way back with her youngest daughter, leaving behind her eldest who would later write her story.

Before I watched the film I had read the novel and I have to say that I thought the director did a very good job at keeping to the original story. As far as I could tell the only part of the story that was exaggerated was the presence of the tracker who in the book was mention only briefly. I thought that the director was able to accurately show the misery of their kidnapping, imprisonment and journey through the Australian bush but also keeps true the hope and joy in their return home. The cast of the film did a superb job of making us identify with the characters. While the actresses who portrayed Molly and the two younger girls kept you glued to the movie and hope for their return, Kenneth Branagh made you despise the calm and uncaring nature of the Chief Protector of the Aborigines. It is the terrible reality that makes this movie so important to the people of today. So that we don’t forget and that these people don’t fade from memory, and that we continue to learn from them and see how these events are still important. While we say that what these girls went through was awful, we in the United States put into motion many of the same things. It is from these events that we can see the culture of a people and how that culture changes through time.