thethumbthing

I also randomly watched this film and was pleasantly surprised, it captivated me right to the end I found it very well written and directed, the acting of the main character was excellent, he carried the film with great intensity, his decline until the scene with the alien, was very well done, great acting! The director and writer has some serious skills, I'm sure he will continue his rise in Hollywood over the years and I look forward to his future projects I give this film 8/10 for the acting, writing and direction, and also because it wasn't made on some Hollywood budget. Well done

I'm a big fan of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the cinematic quality was like a painting in every scene, it was a master piece to say the least and winning the Academy awards once all 3 films were screened was inevitable.

I saw The Hobbit on 12.12.12 as a friend of mine was chewing at the bit to see it. The first thing i noticed was the cinematic values... some scenes were like looking at cheap video, this is due to the frame rate that was used, it looked too clean and as a result the cinematic quality of The Hobbit fell short of the LOTR films.

Why did they choose to go 3D? I don't get it. OK, the 3D effect itself looks very 3D and gives that feeling of distance between the characters and foreground and background, but the frame rate seems to completely take away the cinematic quality we saw in LOTR. When we both came out of the cinema we both complained of head aches, my head ache lasted the entire day! I think this was due to all that was going on on the screen, my brain was trying to make sense of what i was seeing... i guess. I am not saying the film was crap, what i am saying is the choices made cinematically were perhaps not necessary, a bit like polishing firewood.

Chips Rafferty and Lee Robinson were partners for many years and this is one of the earlier feature collaborations they worked on.

Making films in Australia back in the 1950's was not easy, it was considered a " Non Essential Industry" due to the financial constraints put upon the country after WWII. This film had a budget of 25 thousand pounds, this is all the Government would give to assist film makers during this dry period. Its impressive to see a film of this caliber being made on such a small budget considering the locations involved.

Robinson had a theory in those days, he couldn't make an Aussie film as the fear was that an international audience would not be interested in this island of once convicts. The idea Robinson and Rafferty had was to make a film with fantastic locations which would in its own right be eye candy and write a script which would encapsulate these beautiful locations. The visual aspect of this film in some scenes is stunning, this was Robinson's idea from the start, he knew he needed to incorporate stunning visuals all tied up in a story which actually makes sense, the fact is, human smuggling is still being done to this day.

The underwater scenes were real, I was told that Robinson sat on the bottom of the ocean wearing a bell helmet and sitting in his Directors chair, what a class act for 1954!!

This film is an Aussie gem, really deserves a place in the history of Australian Cinema. Robinson and Rafferty changed the rules with this emerging industry, having audience with the Prime Minister on numerous occasions to discuss changes which were necessary to help the Australian film Industry evolve into what it is today.

The Australian Film Industry has a lot the thank Lee Robinson for, he was true pioneer.

I salute you Lee Robinson an unforgotten Hero!