Break of Day

This is a superb Ausralian film made early in the renaissance of film making that commenced with PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK in 1975. BREAK OF DAY is from 1977 just as cinemas were recovering from the advent of colour TV which decimated attendance. It is part of a string of films exploring the past and is set around 1919. Otherfilms of the production time 1976-79 that deserve to be seen are DEVILS PLAYGROUND, NEWSFRONT, and THE GETTING OF WISDOM. This one, BREAK OF DAY, is a quiet rural film about a damaged soldier recovering from World war One. His romance with an older woman played by Sarah Kestelman is especially tender and their troubled romance is gently presented with honesty and heartfelt care. She hasn't been seen in many films (ZARDOZ, LIZSTOMANIA of all things!) and believe it or not will soon be seen in the last of the STAR WARS franchise REVENGE OF THE SITH. However, for the mature viewer, BREAK OF DAY is a quiet drama and a DVD transfer would look superb. It is like the some of the DH Lawrence films made in the UK in the 80s like THE RAINBOW or returned soldier pix like A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY. So many Australian films of this period are historical dramas and most deserve to be re packaged and released. Most are very good, like THE IRISHMAN, CADDIE, and those above.

You kind of get the feel this movie's an extension of The Sullivans, even thoughit isn't and the movie has a few of it's stars, but it isn't, where I kind of wondered if I heard the Sullivan name drip. The film was made 6-7 years earlier than I thought, '76, not '83. The hands behind Gallipoli and Picnic At Hanging Rock, are partly responsible,and it shows, with again the wonderfully set period shots, and locations, giving us a wonderfully air and feel the movie, This one joins the ranks of the other two, although there's not that much memorable, or wowing about it, and this I felt watching it. It has admiring features, though. Although it has war themes, it's not a war film, if that's what you're thinking. Only in it's beautifully, un rushed and moving opening (the best I've seen in a film) plus another flashback fighting scene, near it's finale, that's all there is, in that department. Handsome Macfarlane, again playing a Tom, and he's not a Sullivan, plays a soldier, wounded in WW2 2, who's returned, visibly shattered, and taunted, and he really show's great depth in this role, although he's not the most likeable character. Now working as a chief editor/boss of a town crier, he starts up a torrid affair, with an older, bolder woman, Kestlemane, and she's the magic to this film. She steals every scene, and she has the most beautifully gentle, and memorable voice, kind of sounding a bit like French Actress, Jeanne Moreau. She become's Tom's salvation, and restoration of life, his earlier pre war self if you will, getting him to move past his anger, resentment, and scarring memories of that fateful day in war. His heavily pregnant wife, (Mason, really good, better than Macfarlane) we feel is kind of suss, about his infidelities, but she has other issues at hand. Tom's happiness and sexual intimacy, is invaded when Kestlleman's friends arrive, headed by a loud, opinionated and reckless, former lover (great Shakespherian actor John Bell, who kind of livens the last half of the film. Tom is kind of made small around them, and again Macfarlane really impresses with his emotions and reactions, at a nice, not overdone level. I really like Tony Barry too, one of my favorite Oz actors, as a carefree and wise thinking local of a watering hole, and again in those tastefully great close ups, we see beer being poured from tap, froth atop it. Tom, pre war days, was also a great batter we learn. Break Of Day is a rarity, I must say. It's a period and mood feel film, and character study. Good traits these are, in film, and the films ends resolutely, humbly, but not memorably, though, and this is one of a magic suck to what is engaging, pleasant, mellow two hour viewing. A must see for it's photography, set period, and of course Kestlemane, the one gentle of this wonderfully moving story. Worth a look? Yes. One of the most beautifully, (I know I say that a lot in this review, but there's a lot that's beautiful to this film) shot scenes, is Tom watching morning sky break, hence the title. Duh. This scene brings a new lease of Tom, which you too the viewer will be moved.

I saw this movie when it first came out in 1976. Back then I thought it was unusual, but not all that significant. However I never forgot it. Now, 40 years later, I feel it is more unique than I first thought.

It must have been the first film to depict the Australians landing at Gallipoli since "Tell England" in 1931. There have been many depictions since, especially around the 100th Anniversary last year, but "Break of Day" was made quite a few years before mini-series such as "1915", "A Fortunate Life" and "Anzacs". However, with the exception of Peter Weir's Gallipoli, like nearly all films and series since, it didn't capture the scale of the event - no doubt budget being the limiting factor.

In 1976, many veterans of WW1 were still alive, although they would have been around 80-years of age. And yet the Anzac legend had been through a number of evaluations, especially in light of the Vietnam War. The lead character, Tom Cooper (Andrew McFarlane), is the antithesis of the glorification of war, an attitude that reflects 70's sentiment as much as that of the 1920's.

Andrew McFarlane almost seems too good-looking for the part, in the same way that Hollywood's Jeffery Hunter often seemed too handsome for many of his roles. His character, Tom Cooper, is complex; he works on the town newspaper, but seems happier in the bush. His near abandonment of his pregnant wife and the relationship with the much older Alice Hughes (Sara Kestleman) is arresting, and adds to the slightly unsettling nature of the film - there is subtext all over the place, but the film is subtle enough not to spell it out.

The film has a detached quality with the pace and feel of the Merchant Ivory films, which it predates, or even a film such as Fred Zinneman's "Five Days One Summer". The film has many things in its favour including a fine orchestral score by George Dreyfus, and a believable recreation of 1920's rural life in Australia. We see a number of Alice Hughes' paintings, which were beautifully painted by Queensland artist Dale Marsh - it's a small point, but it adds to the texture of the film.

"Break of Day" has atmosphere to spare, and is a movie that doesn't deserve to be totally forgotten.