A Footnote on Australia

Where do I even start with this one? Let’s begin by saying Gone with the Wind isn’t really the best comparison this writer could have made. (Though, to be fair, SLB’s review does show that the comparison might be spot-on.) Between lot of interesting criticism of the novel by black women and the unauthorized parody, The Wind Done Gone there has been a massive attempt to describe how many of us do not see the same story when we read Gone with the Wind.

The line quoted above also cuts to the heart of the criticism I hold for a lot of writers (novelists and screenwriters alike) and their treatment of characters of color. Even when we are the main characters, we are treated like an afterthought. We always occupy that space of something-that-exists-as-a-plot-device or a tool of redemption to the other white characters. To illustrate, here is a note on the development of Nicole Kidman’s character:

By the end of [the initial screenplay writing] period, they created a suitably epic tale that Luhrmann describes as follows: “A woman from a far away place by happenstance finds herself in a foreign environment. All she cares about is her physical possessions – she’s tired of spirit and tired of love. She goes on an African Queen-like journey and finds herself with the most unlikely man who she, by status, could never be involved with, or love in any way whatsoever…and with a child who loses his mother. Together they go on an incredible quest and journey and, out of that quest and journey, she is transformed by the landscape and the experience. She finds love for all three of them. The rest of the film is when the world is spinning and changing: War comes and society says you can’t be together.

[...]

[W]ith a desire to enhance Sarah’s “Englishness,” Luhrmann approached Academy Award winning screenwriter, novelist, and playwright Ronald Harwood (The Pianist, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) in February 2006. Initially, Luhrmann asked Harwood to work on the sequence in which Sarah makes her journey to Faraway Downs, but this quickly expanded into the two of them doing a thorough pass thorough pass of the whole script. Luhrmann was thrilled to be able to work with Harwood. “He is one of the grand masters of writing. He has a great sense of the classical and just of storytelling..and had a couple of really cracker ideas [to solve problems]that I had been struggling with for a long, long, time.

There was little discussion of Jackman’s character, who apparently represents Australia. And, for a movie that is “really told from a little child’s perspective,” Nuala’s characterization is also glossed over, save for this note:

The mythological aspect of the script also benefitted from input from a full-time aboriginal script consultant, Sam Lovell, and a number of Aboriginal storytelling and song partners, including Richard Birrinbirrin and Frances Djulibing.

Related:

White Authors, Ethnic Characters

Ballad of the Magical Half-Negro (by Baz Luhrmann)

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