The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith

Thomas Keneally's THE CHANT OF JIMMIE BLACKSMITH novel works on so many levels - a period piece, as a biting satire and as a wonderfully composed drama. This film of the same name attempts to capture the poignancy and strength of the original classic novel. It achieves this wonderfully. The film is excellently acted and the violence is both well shot and vibrantly enacted. The score is great too. Also the Australian landscape - not to mention its social underbelly, was never shot with as much insight.

An excellent starting point to understand such great Aussie films like the tracker and rabbit proof fence.

10/10

Fred Schepisi's 1978 film may well be just that but it's not included in my Australian Cinema 12 disc boxed set and I've never known it to be on TV, here. I became aware of it through my old film 'bible' Halliwells and they rated it very highly, awarding a rare maximum score, citing it as 'one of the greatest achievements in Australian cinema'.

It's taken me a good number of years to finally find a copy that was on region of DVD I could play and wasn't a silly price.

The first thing you notice is the sheer authenticity. Language is as brutal as any and is more akin to a Victorian Scorsese than starched collars and stiff upper lips. The language used to describe the aboriginal natives is as coarse and racist as you'll find in any gritty 70's set LA cop show and for that it is both upsetting and rather embarrassing, but at least goes to show the leaps and bounds humankind has largely made on this issue, since.

Jimmie Blacksmith is a half-cast, a subject that has been visited in a few memorable films, particularly 'Rabbit Proof Fence' and as 'these' were often the result of rape against white women, were seen as worse than the lowest. Jimmie (superbly played by Tommy Lewis) does have an advantage, he's overseen by the local white vicar and is known as a hard and honest worker.

He soon goes on to work for white farmers, along with his fully aboriginal brother, erecting fences. Miles of them. He does too good a job and they don't want to pay, so he moves on. His relationship with a white girl, then marriage results in a child, that by colour alone, cannot be his. Then, around half-way in, all this pent-up anger boiling up inside the civilised and decent Jimmie erupts. This is when the violence (extreme in its day, now, maybe sadly, average) erupts as he goes on a vengeful killing spree.

I need not go further than this, except that obviously, he is then a wanted criminal and a fugitive on the run.

There's a real sense of the epic, with cinematic hints and nods to Nicolas Roeg's 'Walkabout', with the natural geography, fauna and the culture all vividly brought to life, superbly filmed by Ian Baker .

Thankfully - hopefully, this can now be seen as a historical drama, the like of which can never happen again. It is as hard-hitting and making as powerful a statement on in-bred racism there is and is without doubt a five star classic.

This is a fine example of the breed of excellent Australian films released in the 1970s during the Australian film renaissance (it's interesting to note that virtually all of the directors of these films, including director Fred Schepisi, later moved to the U.S. to make big budget Hollywood films). This tale of a young aboriginal man who eventually turns to violence following one humiliation after another by white settlers in 19th century Australia asks some very uncomfortable questions of the audience such as: Is it morally justified to use violence against a corrupt, racist, violent system in which there are no lawful means to receive justice? Additionally, it is up to interpretation whether the violent reactions of the title character are justified: we are clearly sympathetic to him in the beginning, but once he perpetuates incredible brutality on the settlers, can we remain sympathetic? He is definitely not a monster, but a well-mannered and educated Aboriginal brought up by missionaries. After all, his actions are not simply heat-of-the-moment reactions; he has formally "declared war" on the perpetuators of injustice. Does that legitimize what he is doing? The U.S. has been asking itself these exact same questions for the past 50 years: Jimmy is very much a close Australian cousin to Bigger Thomas, the main character in Richard Wright's classic American novel "Native Son" - a black man pushed to violence by virtually every aspect of white society.

However, like Wright, I admired director Schepisi's decision to carefully straddle the line between whether Jimmy can be viewed as a simple societal construct or whether he is a man in control of his own actions. One could easily make a case for either of these scenarios or probably both of them. That makes the movie even more uncomfortable when one thinks about it afterward.

In many ways, this is a very depressing movie; in the end there is no closure, no justice, and nobody has learned a damned thing, except possibly the audience, if they truly think about what they have just seen. I really respect filmmakers who tackle incredibly difficult subject matter such as this, with moral quagmires and complex characters. My only complaint is that it is very difficult to understand much of the Aussie English, so an American viewer must listen very closely. This is a film definitely deserving of a U.S. audience. Too bad that its controversial (i.e. thought-provoking) nature has probably prevented it from being released on VHS or DVD in the U.S. I understand copies of this are quite rare abroad, as well, so I suggest viewing it if given the opportunity.

Like the great film "Walkabout", "The Chant Of Jimmie Blacksmith" is a first-rate, world-class Australian movie! Director Fred Schepisi & writer Thomas Keneally have collaborated to artfully fashion a masterpiece!

Based on true events, this film vividly elucidates the repulsive ways in which White Australians mistreated Aboriginals in the early 1900s. For example, White men were unrelentingly domineering in their treatment of Aboriginal men whom they hired to perform work on their property. For example, when a White homesteader hires Jimmie to construct a split-rail fence, he demands results about 40 seconds after he hires Jimmie, instead of, say, one-half day. In addition, the homesteader intentionally cheats Jimmie out of the pay-rate they had agreed upon, because he claims that one of the posts Jimmie has sunk is one-half inch off. When Jimmie is done with the job, he is deliberately underpaid, & the White homesteader commands, "Now get off my property!"

Now Jimmy Blacksmith is a "half-breed" - one of his parents was White & one of his parents was Aborigine. He is also what the White Australians refer to as a "Missionary Black", which means that, as a very young child, he was taken away from his parents & his tribe, & was raised, churched, & educated by a White, Protestant minister, Reverend Neville. These "missionary" efforts were, in fact, an integral part of an overall strategy to destroy Aboriginal culture, lifestyle, native language, ethnic identity, & native religious beliefs. The Whites, simultaneously behaved as if they were performing some sort of kindly service for the Aborigines!

Now, throughout his youth & early manhood, Jimmie had to endure all manner of racial slurs & verbal jibes with a forced smile on his face, & he was constantly reminded of his "inherent inferiority." Perhaps most serious, were the frequent, thinly-veiled threats of physical violence.

In terms of systemically ingrained prejudice, if Jimmie were to happen upon an illiterate, White ditch-digger, he would be required to wear a forced smile upon his face & refer to the man as "Boss", even though Jimmie was bilingual, adept at reading & writing poetry & prose, & highly intelligent!

The breaking point comes at an Aboriginal tent-party, where a White man of no account has crashed the party. This White man & an Aboriginal man get into an alcohol-fueled altercation, & the White man draws a large knife & charges the Aborigine; in turn, the Aboriginal man draws a pistol & shoots the White man in the throat, & the White man dies soon thereafter!

There was no such thing as a fair trial for an Aborigine in White Australian courts, even if the Aborigine was acting in self-defense. First off, Aborigines had no legal standing in White courts; second, they were denied access to lawyers; third, since Aborigines had no legal standing, a trial by a jury of one's peers was impossible!

When Investigator Farrell - an Evil man & a drunkard - begins to frame the Aboriginal gunman for murder, he actually expects Jimmie Blacksmith to help him! For a very brief time, Jimmie goes through these motions, doling out to Farrell what he desires, but then Jimmie snaps, & he becomes an entirely different person.

The rest of the movie propels forward from this pivotal moment, & this reviewer will not reveal any more of the plot from this point on (no spoilers). Please watch the film for yourself!

9 out of 10 stars!

One of the handful of truly great, Australian films!

Well intentioned and well meant, I am sure, but director Fred Schepisi is perhaps a little too reverent in his interpretation of the original book to the detriment of a smooth and effectively flowing cinematic narrative. There is an awful predictability here and for a lengthy film not really enough for the viewer to get their teeth into. It is true that the violent incident that transforms the action does come as a surprise in so far as the extent of the violence is concerned but it is something that has been signalled for a while. Beautifully shot, this is an attractive looking outback and countryside that is presented but the film is preceded by Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) which is far more beautiful overall and Walkabout (1971) which is far more dramatic. Jimmie Blacksmith has some fine sequences portraying the indigenous peoples but less maybe is more and these do not seem as dynamic as those in Nick Roeg's film. it is tempting to wonder just how much Schepisi was influenced by the rock formations and aboriginal depiction in the earlier films but it seems a little unfair and if the political and racial issues are a little heavy handed is to be applauded that he tackled them at all.