Samson and Delilah! Hmm. Just recovering from "Tulpan" and the dose of boredom I endured watching it. I was not too keen with the prospect S&D would be. I did not read anything about it but knew it was about Aborigines people, and it also had very high review from well-known Australian film reviewers. But if this little, I learned that often you have to find out for yourself. It certainly was slow and I had to make an effort to stay with it as I was also nursing a "cold". Although by then in a fairly negative mood, I had to give in the cinematography so well executed and pleasing to the eye. As for the story, I found it difficult to enjoy, yet one can appreciate which is quite a different thing and could well have been the motivation to make this film. I read some previous comments here, and yes there were a lot of unrealistic events and handling, not mentioned previously, both kangaroo "hunting" seemed rather simplistic but I also felt, perhaps too much elaboration might distract the viewer from the intended theme. Some did not like the lack of dialogue, to me it made the story more powerful, often these days we rave on about communication or the lack of it, but I'm not quite convince this is entirely or necessarily done through a lot of verbal expression. So this worked for me. Recently I taught myself to make some noise blowing through what we call a "didgeridoo" and in some small ways thought that at least I would be treated with a little of its playing. Thank you for not giving it to me as I concluded it was much better suited without it or without other "clichés" often attached to Aboriginal representation; and thank you also for not going to the other extreme towards more depressing facts about Aboriginal reality. Possibly the impact is so stronger. I'm glad I attended this session and perhaps got more out of it than I did out of "Australia"
Review of Samson & Delilah
