THE SUNDOWNERS
US/Australia, 1959, 132 minutes, Colour.
Robert Mitchum, Deborah Kerr, Peter Ustinov, Glynis Johns, Michael Anderson Jr, Dina Merrill, Chips Rafferty, John Meillon, Ronald Fraser.
Directed by Fred Zinneman.
The Sundowners is very entertaining - unless you are particularly sensitive to films about Australia. Although so many features of Australian life in the country round the turn of the century (as well as bushfires, flora and fauna) are crammed into the film, the overall reaction is one of recognition, warmth of interest in the Carmody family and regrets at their regrets that they cannot settle down. Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr (who appeared together in Heaven Knows Mr Allison and The Grass is Greener) do well in their adopted Australian roles. Glynis Johns has a hearty role which she can carry off well and Peter Ustinov is always enjoyable. Local talent, including Chips Rafferty and John Meillon, have supporting roles. Fred Zinneman who directed The Men, From Here to Eternity, The Nun's Story, A Man for All Seasons, The Day of the jackal, directed this film for all ages.
The Sundowners is very entertaining – unless you are particularly sensitive to films about Australia. Although so many features of Australian life in the country round the turn of the century (as well as bushfires, flora and fauna) are crammed into the film, the overall reaction is one of recognition, warmth of interest in the Carmody family and regrets at their regrets that they cannot settle down. Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr (who appear together in Heaven Knows Mr Allison and The Grass is Greener) do well in their adopted Australian roles. Glynis Johns has a hearty role which she can carry off well and Peter Ustinov is always enjoyable. Local talent, including Chips Rafferty and John Meillon, have supporting roles. Fred Zinneman who directed The Men, From Here to Eternity, The Nun's Story, A Man for All Seasons, The Day of the Jackal, directed this film for all ages.
1. Why were the principal characters in this film called "Sundowners"?
2. Was this an authentic picture of life in the N.S.W. countryside around 1912? How?
3. Did you like the Carmodys? How well did they relate to one another? Why were they so poor? Why couldn't Paddy settle down? What did Ida want? What did she want for her son? What did he want?
4. Why were the camp sequences contrasting with houses' sequences so important? Which sequences showed how hard it was for Ida – her watching of made-up ladies and so on?
5. Was the presentation of the droving interesting, entertaining, realistic – the difficulties, the nature of sheep, the dogs, the tracks, the fires? (Did we see too many Australian animals at once?) The dangers and risks? Dingoes, riding etc.?
6. The style of life at the fringes of the towns – tents, pubs, drinking, songs, fights?
7. Venneker as a character, as an Englishman? Did you enjoy him and his comments? Why did he go with the Carmodys? What was he doing in N.S.W.? How did he relate with the family? The boy?
8. Mrs Frith – an Australian type, garrulous, friendly, the pubs? likeable?
9. Ida's manoeuvres to keep Paddy in the town, the shearing job, Ida's being employed? How happy did this make her?
10. Shearing life – well presented, interesting, authentic? The rivalry (the car accident and the fight'), the hard work, speed, fatigue, meals, mateship, the son's helping. The competition, the betting, pubs, the old man winning – how effectively filmed was the competition, the spirit, the exhaustion, the pretending etc.?
11. Why couldn't Paddy settle? Why were Ida, Venneker and the boy so happy?
12. Jean, the station aristocracy, her boredom and problems, the sympathy of Ida?
13. The importance of Bluey and his wife?
14. Venneker and Mrs Frith? What quality of relationship?
15. Gambling, Australian-style – humour, luck, risk, Paddy and his wins and losses, the horse?
16 Did you hope that they would buy the house? Were the sequences of their going to the house effective? Why?
17. Was the race exciting, especially since so much depended on it? The disqualification?
18. What future did they all have? Would they survive well enough? Be happy?
19. What insight into Australia, origins, pioneering, style and spirit did the film offer? A man's land, not a woman's? Rules and laws – made for country people by city wowsers? The need to settle down?
20. Australia, beauty, harshness and so on as different and distinctive from other countries?
