To fully appreciate Red Hill, I think you need to be an Australian. Not that that means you won't enjoy it if you're not. Nonetheless, there is definitely an unmistakable 'difference' from your typical western genre thriller movie that can only really be attributed to the Australian psyche.
Having so said, I agree with several other reviewers that Red Hill is well worth the watch. Ryan Kwanten played the part of Shane Cooper, the new-cop-in-town well - although I wondered how long he had been a cop in the city because he was a bit timid to start with even though he had a past incident that framed him as maybe too compassionate to be a hard- nosed law officer. He was clearly a human being who cared and also happened to be a cop! Steve Bisley was every bit the "this is MY town" local sheriff (except that, in this modern version, he's a police inspector who just thinks he's the Wyatt Earp of Red Hill) and plays the part brilliantly.
Then there's the protagonist Jimmy Conway excellently played by Tommy Lewis, a Northern Territory Aboriginal from way back. What other reviewers have totally failed to understand is that Tommy plays Jimmy exactly as he would have been in real life - all action and no talk! The make-up crew did an excellent job on him too.
The plot is a bit "Blue Heelerish" (for you non-Aussies, that was a very popular TV series set in much the same environment as Red Hill) except that likable Sergeant Tom Croydon was very different from Steve Bisley's Bill.
I would have liked to see a bit more development of the wild animal side-plot which I feel was left a bit up in the air (maybe there's a sequel planned to deal with that). All-in-all, a good movie that was pretty true to form (given the true circumstances - which aren't revealed until the very end).
Having so said, I agree with several other reviewers that Red Hill is well worth the watch. Ryan Kwanten played the part of Shane Cooper, the new-cop-in-town well - although I wondered how long he had been a cop in the city because he was a bit timid to start with even though he had a past incident that framed him as maybe too compassionate to be a hard- nosed law officer. He was clearly a human being who cared and also happened to be a cop! Steve Bisley was every bit the "this is MY town" local sheriff (except that, in this modern version, he's a police inspector who just thinks he's the Wyatt Earp of Red Hill) and plays the part brilliantly.
Then there's the protagonist Jimmy Conway excellently played by Tommy Lewis, a Northern Territory Aboriginal from way back. What other reviewers have totally failed to understand is that Tommy plays Jimmy exactly as he would have been in real life - all action and no talk! The make-up crew did an excellent job on him too.
The plot is a bit "Blue Heelerish" (for you non-Aussies, that was a very popular TV series set in much the same environment as Red Hill) except that likable Sergeant Tom Croydon was very different from Steve Bisley's Bill.
I would have liked to see a bit more development of the wild animal side-plot which I feel was left a bit up in the air (maybe there's a sequel planned to deal with that). All-in-all, a good movie that was pretty true to form (given the true circumstances - which aren't revealed until the very end).