BUSH CHRISTMAS

Australia, 1946, 76 minutes, Black and white.
Chips Rafferty, John Fernside, Helen Grieve.
Directed by Ralph Smart.

Bush Christmas is an Australian classic of the immediate post-World War Two period. It was financed from England and proved popular there. It is a story of children in the Australian bush – with fine black and white photography of the bush. The children encounter horse thieves and go in pursuit of the thieves. They are lost in the desert – and finally reunited with their families.

The simple story has strong spirit, encapsulating the idealism of how Australians image themselves, especially in bush life. This was reinforced by Chips Rafferty, the Australian icon, in the central role. While he had appeared in earlier films like The Forty Thousand Horsemen and Rats of Tobruk, after World War Two with the Overlanders, Bitter Springs, Eureka Stockade and Bush Christmas, he became the Australian film star. During the 50s he produced a number of films – and also appeared in some American productions which needed Australian characters. He made the searing Wake in Fright at the end of his career.

The film was written and directed by Australian-born Ralph Smart who also made Bitter Springs and worked in the United Kingdom on some feature films but mainly with television for several decades.

The film was remade in the 1980s, in colour, with John Ewart and a young Nicole Kidman.

1. The film is considered a children's classic. Why? What basic response did the film evoke?

2. Its impact in 1946? Now? The qualities of Australian film-making? The scenery, black and white photography, qualities of acting?

3. The image or Australia, its people, the bush then and now? What differences? The influence of the past on present responses?

4. The film's creation of atmosphere of the bush, school, the children and their world, the post-war atmosphere, family life, the bush, aborigines, work, danger?

5. The structure of the film: the role of the narrator, the impetus of the journey and the quest?

6. How easy was it to identify with the children? Their varying personalities, moulded by their Australian background, the English visitor, their relationships amongst themselves? The early encounter with the horse-thieves?

7. The presentation of their disobedience and their reaction to this? Their honouring their promise? Their response to the trouble? Their attempts to rectify it? The reaction of the adults? How credible was this?

8. The portrayal of the adults? How sympathetic? Especially mother and father, the concern about the horses, Christmas coming and presents? The importance of the Christmas atmosphere?

9. Comment on the film's presentation of the journey, the changes of landscapes and terrain? The persistence of the children? Their shrewdness yet their being lost? Their ability to track the thieves? The importance of their tormenting the thieves and the time the film spent in portraying this? The humour?

10. The personalities of the horse-thieves? The way they went about their business? Covering their tracks? Their realization they were being followed? Types of men and their behaviour?

11. How did the film build up to a climax? The horse-thieves tricking the children? The danger in the town? The coming together of all the aspects of the pursuit?

12. How suitable was the happy ending for the film? Why was it a happy ending? How was the moral of the story pointed?