
THE SHIRALEE
Australia/UK, 1957, 99 minutes, Black and white.
Peter Finch, Dana Wilson, Elizabeth Sellars, George Rose, Rosemary Harris, Russell Napier, Niall MacGinniss?, Tessie O’Shea?, Sid James, Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell, Reg Lye.
Directed by Leslie Norman.
The Shiralee is based on the popular novel by D'Arcy Niland. It tells the story of Jim Macauley who finds his wife with another man and decides to take his daughter with him on the road. The shiralee is a swag, also meaning a burden, and applies to the young daughter, attractively played by Dana Wilson.
The film is interesting in its portrait of a father and daughter, especially a carefree father who finds that his life on the road takes on greater responsibilities in looking after his little girl – and her ability to transform him.
There is a very strong British cast including Rosemary Harris who, for more than fifty years, was a prominent stage and screen star, best known in her later years for her role as Aunt May in the Spiderman films. The supporting cast is Australian including Bud Tingwell before he went to England to appear in films and television.
The film is directed by British Leslie Norman who made The Long, the Short and the Tall as well as the film version of The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll in these years of the late 1950s.
The film was remade by George Ogilvie in 1987 as a miniseries with Bryan Brown, Noni Hazlehurst and Rebecca Smart as the daughter.
1. How enjoyable an Australian film was this? Its most interesting features? Involvement and warm response?
2, The meaning of the title, the aboriginal word for 'burden"? The theme?
3. The impact of the locations and the black and white photography? The Australian atmosphere of the bush, the towns homesteads, Sydney? How particularly Australian was the film?
4, The presentation of Australia of the fifties, a different era from the present, the slow life of the towns, the shearing and the farm work, the nature of work and building etc? What did this add to the film's impact?
5. The importance of the introduction and a commentary on the wanderer's way of life? The significance of this in Australian culture?
6. The interest in McCauley? as a character, his style? His relationship with his wife, the discovery of her with Don, his anger and violence? The reason for his continual wandering, the reason for his marriage? His attachment to Buster, his right in taking her away from his wife?
7. The relationship growing between McCauley? and Buster: the scenes of their walking, the nature of the bond, the friction, Buster's complaints, McCauley's criticism? In what detail did the relationship build up? What was the effect on McCauley? having his daughter with him?
8. McCauley? and the details of his way of life? the lack of direction in the wandering, the Australian roads, life in the towns, the shops and the hotels, the finding of work, the nature of fights and their violence? Sickness overtaking Buster on the roads? How much sentiment in her acting? How much realism? The style of the child on the road? The kangaroo, her relationship with her father, her getting tired and sick?
10. The film's presentation of people in an optimistic way: the truck driver, the shop keeper giving the kangaroo? The violent people especially the tough men in the town?
11. The significance or the Parker homestead: Parker's hatred of McCauley? McCauley's lack of awareness about the child, his memories of Lily, his ability to leave her? His relationship with Beauty and Beauty's relationship to McCauley? His helping the little girl? Parker's and Lily's sympathy?
12. The love/hate relationship between Lily and McCauley? Lily as a contrast with McCauley's wife? Lily's resistance and later concern for Buster and McCauley?
13. How enjoyable were the sequences with Luke Beller? Their effect on Buster?
14. The importance of the court case: the harsh attitude of McCauley's wife's visit to the bashing of McCauley? by the thugs, the negations about the case?
15. The encounter with Desmond and his philosophy about life? The accident and Buster's illness?
16. How appropriate was the happy ending? The future for them all?
17. What values did the film stand for? How agreeably did it communicate these? With what feelings?