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Bran Nue Dae

Written by Jonathan Jacobs

Bran Nue Dae is a rare commodity in today’s Hollywood market. Musicals are seldom turned into films (Guys and Dolls, The Producers, Moulin Rouge, Grease are the successful adaptations that come to mind). Typically Broadway smash hits and/or Tony Award winning shows are the musicals at the top of the short list for being made into films. The producers of Bran Nue Dae have done the unthinkable by choosing an obscure Australian musical for a Hollywood adaptation and in doing so they have triumphed. Bran Nue Dae stars the eminent Geoffrey Rush (Les Miserables, and The Tailor of Panama). This musical about Australian aborigines and their struggle to retain their independence against all odds, and frankly logic, is something to behold.

There are four principle characters involved in this mamba. Willie (Rocky McKenzie) is an aborigine on the cusp of adulthood. He lives with his mother in relative seclusion. During his free time Willie is entranced by an up and coming singer Rosie (Jessica Mauboy). Rosie shares Willie's feelings of amorousness but she is tired of waiting for him to be a gentleman and make the first move. She is a virtual goddess with a mellifluous voice and a lovely appearance. While Willie is dithering and barely revealing his feelings to his infatuation, Rosie is busy trying to make a career out of her singing talent. In the middle of the young man's gradual lusting, his mother decides to better his education by sending him to religious school under the tutelage and careful watch of Father Benedictus (Rush).

At school Willie continues to fantasize about Rosie and he dreams about their reunion. This causes him to feel both rebellious and sinful. Diurnally he is taught about his place in the universe under god. Father Benedictus has charitably volunteered to school several aborigine boys in the hope that they may make a better future for themselves, for their society as a whole, and in turn ameliorate their stock in the eyes of the non-savage white Australians. One fateful night, Willie follows a few of his classmates to the kitchen where the Father has stocked Coca Cola and chocolate bars (emblematic of what money can buy and of the commercialist instincts that often drove (and still drive) mainstream Australians to marginalize the aborigines as archaic savages). Willie watches his colleagues pilfer several foodstuffs and in turn he receives the rebuke from Benedictus. He accepts the blame unfairly of course, but Willie has enough honor not to retaliate or to implicate anyone else. Rather than allow the Father to make an example of him via a public beating, Willie escapes and runs away in the hope of returning home to his beloved mother and pseudo-girlfriend. This begins a comical and depressing chase across Australia. Benedictus is determined to bring Willie back into the fold to humiliate him and to demand his allegiance to modernization and to God. Willie wants his life back exactly as it was, minus the shyness of course.

Bran Nue Dae is a daring musical that harkens back to an important period in Australia's history. There is no better anchor for a film of this magnitude and diversity than Geoffrey Rush. He is a superb actor with so much to contribute even in his twilight years. The singer's voices are as good as those of any Broadway star if not more so. The choice of showcasing the bucolic parts of Australia turned out to be a brilliant one. Obviously it goes without saying that if you loathe musicals you should be careful to avoid Bran Nue Dae. If on the other hand you crave Broadway and feel resentful over the economic downturn's impact of the ability of Stage Companies to bring more of it to your town or city you should look to other mediums. Try Bran Nue Dae with full confidence in its caliber and quality.