BUSHFIRE MOON

Australia, 1987, 87 minutes, Colour.
Dee Wallace, John Waters, Bill Kerr, Bud Tingwall, Nadine Garner, Kim Gyngell.
Directed by George Miller.

Bushfire Moon is a pleasant Australian family film of the 1980s, directed by George Miller, director of The Man from Snowy River.

It is a variation of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. The setting is the Australian bush in the 1800s, the selectors on their land, the difficulties and hardships, the lack of water, the bushfires. It focuses on the O’ Dea family, the mother, Dee Wallace, from America and the father, played by John Waters. the Scrooge character is played by Bill Kerr and Bud Tingwall is the Father Christmas character.

The film was geared for an Australian audience as well as an American audience, and pleased family audiences around the world.

1. A Christmas film? The family audience? For the Australian audience? The worldwide audience?

2. The location photography, the terrain, the re-creation of the period, in Australia? The musical score?

3. An equivalent of Dickens, A Christmas Carol?

4. Family drama, wholesome, hopes, despite difficulties? Spirit of Christmas?

5. The O’ Dea family, the mother in California, selectors? Sheep, money, the hard life? Roses and gardens? The children, the shopping? Celebration of Christmas? The storm and the sheep? Cleaning the house? Asking Watson about the water, the search for water, the take on the men? Christmas and the fires? Reconciliation? How typical? A family struggling and having to leave things behind?

6. The father, stern, the gifts? For? The wind, the sheep, the dusty land? Watson and the request? The men, the water? His wife, the bush and the fire? The meal? The mother coming from America? Shopping, no toys? The supportive wife? The roses? The hardships and suffering? The meal?

7. Ned and his age, the equivalent of Tiny Tim? The bank toy, Father Christmas? The work, dusty? The mess? The flowers on Watson’s place? His sister, being good, or meeting Father Christmas? The water and the fires? With Watson? The gifts? The pudding and the coins?

8. His sister, her age, place in the family, work? Angus, the meeting, the story, the flowers?

9. Watson as Scrooge? Memories, his son, the housekeeper? The English traditions? Buying the decorations? No water? Father Christmas, catching him, Angus and the money, the party and the heat, the songs? The Yule log? The collapse, anger, bending and the visit?

10. The old man, Father Christmas, from out of the town, dead in his associations, the talking, Watson? The robbing of the shop? The confrontation at the party? Money, gifts? The workers, put off? The ball, the jobs?

11. Australia in the 19th century, ideal, homely, nice?