Ten Canoes (2006)
A story within a story within a story. In Australia's Northern Territory, an Aboriginal narrator tells a story about his ancestors on a goose hunt. A youngster on the hunt is being tempted to adultery with his elder brother's wife, so an elder tells him a story from the mythical past about how evil can slip in and cause havoc unless prevented by virtue according to customary tribal law.
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The Worst Film Ever
How sad is this?
It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
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.
As an anthropologist, I'm often faced with the task of trying to get my students to look at life through the eyes of someone from a different culture. Alas, many of the ethnographic films used are often presented in the format of "look at the friendly natives." There are exceptions, to be sure but over the years in the face of the absence of good ethnographic films, I've come to rely on good commercial films with a solid ethnographic content. Now, being a film buff as well as a social scientist, I've seen a lot of films. And, to be sure, there are some stinkers, e.g., overly romanticized or historically distorted portrayals of people in some cases, and sacrificed ethnographic facts in the spirit of "making a good story," in others. But, every once in a while a real gem comes along. Ten Canoes is such a film. The presentation and setting is authentic and the actors are all aboriginal Australians. The greatly talented David Gulpilil is joined by his son, Jamie and a crew of very talented and energetic Native Australians. The tale, based on Australian cultural lore is simple yet profound in the telling. The acting is subtle and devoid of Western theatrics. As a commercial film with a solid depiction of something from the multiplex cultures of Native Australian Aborigines, it is delightful to watch and fascinating to observe these people in the act of being themselves.
Despite its exquisitely photographed and exotic locale, "Ten Canoes" is strictly for those who still need a bedtime story to help them fall asleep. Set in the Australian outback, this tale of life among the Aborigines is as beautiful to look at as it is tedious to sit through. As we watch a group of men building canoes, a wizened but droning narrator spins an ancient yarn about a stranger who wanders into a village, forever altering the lives of those who live there (interestingly, while the scenes in the past have been filmed in color, those set in the present are in black-and-white)."Ten Canoes" may have value as an anthropological study of sorts, but its desultory pacing and lack of compelling drama make it a very dull slog indeed for even the most adventurous of armchair-traveling moviegoers.
Australia's 2007 Oscar entry is a wry gem of a film that translates our contemporary values schema into a morality play set a thousand years ago in an indigenous tribe settlement somewhere near the Arafura Swamp in Australia's Northern Territory. Iconic Aborigine actor David Gulpilil (of "Walkabout" and "The Last Wave" fame) eloquently and drolly orates the film's triple narrative of native Australian lore that concerns itself with coveting, revenge, sorcery and even a dash of penis envy. Remarkable in its scope and mesmerising in its photography, director Rolf de Heer's idiosyncratic fascination with the interaction of human nature against nature is condensed into a simple but effective lesson of history repeating itself. Possibly venturing to rail against critics of the noble savagery belonging to the Aborigines, "Ten Canoes" allow us the positive enlightenment that comes from observing a different and alien culture operate on levels familiar to us.
"Ten Canoes" tells three stories: That of the storyteller himself, that the of hunt for geese and their eggs, and that of the ancestors -- especially their troubles and the consequences of their actions and relationship to the law. Midway through the second story, which bookends the mythical one, that interior storyteller (Elder Brother) states that Younger Brother is beginning to learn a lesson from the telling itself -- patience. Such patience is also required of the viewer, for the pace and structure of both the "today" story and the "mythical" have their an organic unfolding (metaphor: a growing tree) that is quite unlike that of most contemporary Hollywood movies, with their fast call to conflict and continuous conflict.I was struck by the transition of "today's" story from color to black and white as the mythical story is told, the showing of the mythical tale in color (which helped to separate it from the today story), and the dissolve to color in today time as the mythical telling ends.Water is the core of the story, as the river, the swamp, and rain are the images that open and close the movie. The tale begins, ends, and begins again.