Van Diemen's Land

A peculiar ghostly experience aside from the frequent and grotesque close ups of people masticating. The film starts with a supercilious officer slurping down some slimy bits of what looks like sea food (mollusks?) and moves onto the timber cutting scenes where the guard tries to cheer up the convicts - 'freedom is work lads, finish this and we go back'. Well, they might have listened to him. Instead, for the next two hours, we are stuck in the forests of Tasmania with the convicts after their 'escape', their numbers quickly diminishing as they take to slurping down tasty bits of each other. Again, as with too many films where there are a lot of male characters together - another is Carpenter's 'The Thing' - it is often difficult distinguishing one guy from the other, especially as most have beards here.. Yes, I kept flinching at the horrendous violence, but can't say I cared much for any of the victims - aside from the first, who seemed the most interesting and charismatic. In that respect, despite great images of trees in the wind and evocative music, it was a bit of a slog, just waiting for the next one to die, and knowing the historical outcome anyway. (It didn't help that my version lacked subtitles and the melancholic narration was in Irish!). But the most memorable thing here is the overall mood of despair and doom in a washed out landscape - largely filmed in gray to add to the sense of coldness and desolation (in fact it's probably beautiful and sunny most of the year!). Was it also intentional to not include one single animal in the entire film:? Perhaps the sight of another living creature would have lightened the mood so it was avoided (aside from the mention of one snake being seen). In fact, we never leave the company of these demented convicts who were better off staying prisoners and serving their sentences. Even when a small group of three break away and leave the main group of nutters, we never see these three again - no respite from our time among the cannibals. Meanwhile the constant beauty of the nature around them made me think: yes, lucky country if the company were a bit cheerier.

Grim. Relentless. Unsettling. Frightening even. This film leaves nobody sitting comfortably whilst they watch it.

This is 'us' when the thin veneer of being 'civilized' is stripped away. When all that Life has left you is no future, a few rags and a brutalized nature then the consequences can reach unfathomable depths.

I've read some of the negative reviews for this film and can understand it when viewers who watch 'sanitized' Technicolor visions of what are classed as the 'norm'…that is their benchmark and they don't like concepts that stray beyond that. But when one has watched unglamourous brutality and emotions in such good, raw films like Saving Private Ryan, Last of the Mohicans, Apocolypta, Fateless and the superb Kokoda, then one can appreciate what this true-life film was trying to achieve.

There are no heroes in this film…and no villains, just survivalists. From the uniformed officers and men posted to what seemed a god-forsaken land, to the convicts they had control of, they all had one thing in common…the desire not to be there!

I'll not watch this film again for a couple of months as I'd like my senses to be on an even keel next time, but already I'm looking forward to it.

The film is probably realistic, but would have been better as a shorter documentary.

The Tasmanian bush in winter looks dark and foreboding, and the convicts are a pretty uninspiring lot, divided between the Irish and English. The pace is slow, the killings brutal and none of the convicts are very likeable.

While it successfully recreates the awful experience these men went through, it is too dour to be good cinema.

This feels like a 'Tourism Tasmania' commercial with a touch of cannibalism, truly a great combination.

The movie is based on the true account of Alexander Pearce, Australia's most notorious convict, and the events that took place in 1822, as Pearce and a group of convicts escape into the Tasmanian wilderness. The group is then left at the mercy of nature, themselves, and notably the human desire to eat.

This is truly a beautiful movie, the cinematography of sweeping landscapes and rugged bushland is worth watching the rental/ticket price alone. It strikes me as the type of DVD they play in appliance stores to show off the new HD-TVs (although they would have to skip the numerous bludgeoning scenes).

The story itself is a simple and tight narrative of the human condition pushed to its limits. While there is some grizzly violence and confronting concepts, the movie never descends into gratuitous visuals based purely on shock value.

While the story is compelling and rolls along nicely, I found myself just wanting a little more depth to all of the supporting characters. This is also one of the main strengths of this film, it makes you want more; I was always wondering what was going to happen next, what's that guy going to do, where are they going, what's around that corner, what does that taste like etc… Ultimately this factor leaves the viewer a tad unsatisfied yet appreciative of the movie as a whole.

On the Fruit-Meter, Van Demons Lands gets the "KIWI-FRUIT" - A bit grizzled and rough on the outside, but once you peel off the skin it's fresh and tasty, but it was a small fruit and I want some more.

MART-FLIX PUN-FUN – It's compelling to watch convicts battle their inner "demons"…..that sucked

It's based on a true story. The music, cinematography and the acting was superb. I love this movie, the bleakness, the nature..it's really interesting to see something darker about human nature.if you want something fun then this movie isn't for you. The music when the credits roll...outstanding! I never written a review before nor will it probably help you in anyway but it justifies that how much i love this movie.

sorry for my bad English