THE ECHO OF THUNDER
US, 1998, 93 minutes, Colour.
Judy Davis, Jamey Sheridan, Lauren Hewitt, Ernie Dingo, Chelsea Yates, Michael Caton, Emily Browning, Jamey Croft, Bill Hunter.
Directed by Simon Wincer.
The Echo of Thunder is based on an Australian novel but the film is a Hallmark Channel film for an American audience, and then the world audience. The novel is called Thunderwith, the title of the dog in the film.
It was directed by Simon Wincer who made a number of Australian films including The Light Horse men, Phar Lap, it The Cup, and many films in the United States.
The film focuses on a family who own a property for growing palms, those which adorn hotels… The father is Larry, played by American Jamey Sheridan. He has been married previously, his wife leaving him to go on a singing career and taking their daughter. At a low point in his life, he encountered Gladwyn, married her and had three children. She is played in her typically idiosyncratic way by Judy Davis. Lauren Hewitt is attractive as the older daughter who comes into the house. Emily Browning in an early role plays the sympathetic young daughter, Opal.
The film is a family film, the family having to cope with the arrival of the teenage girl, the mother and the older daughter being opposed, the father glad to have his daughter back. However, he has to go to the Northern Territory to get a signature which will help with a loan for extending the property. The women and girls have to cope during his absence. There is also a hostile boy who bullies the girls.
There is a good local supporting cast including Ernie Dingo as a teacher about aboriginal affairs, Jamie Croft as the bullying boy with Michael Caton as his father, and Bill Hunter as the man in the Northern Territory.
Judy Davis helps to make this entertainment above average.
1. A family film? For family audiences? Made for the American audience? Australians, worldwide?
2. The locations, the Australian bush, home, palm plantation, the cliffs, the sea? Towns, streets and offices? The musical score?
3. The title? The focus on the dog? Its name, Thunderwith? Becoming Lara’s friend? The death, the burial?
4. The situation of the family, the business of growing palms, the hard work, the expertise? The financial difficulties? Needing the loan to expand? Larry, Gladwyn as his second wife, the three children, his past marriage and his wife abandoning him, taking their daughter? His regrets? Memories? Building a new life?
5. Larry, his strong character? Gladwyn, a Judy Davis performance? Her appearance, gaunt, nervy? Her love for her children, protective? Collaboration with Larry and the work? Pearl, her age, edge? The contrast with Opal, friendly towards everyone? Jasper as the little boy?
6. The news that Lara was to come? Larry and his reaction, glad to have his daughter? Gladwyn and her resistance? Pearl and opposition?
7. Lara, her age, character, love her mother, her mother’s cancer and death, memories of her father, the mother leaving, her singing career, in the United States, the silver dollar gift? Lara reluctant to come to the family? Larry picking her up, Gladwyn being very formal, Pearl hostile, Opal immediately friendly and welcoming?
8. Larry having to go to the Northern Territory to get the signature, the Northern Territory sequences, landscapes, Larry driving, the horses and the corral, meeting the Bush man, getting his signature? The significance of his absence for the family?
9. Lara, on the balcony, the treatment by Gladwyn, Pearl being nasty, the contrast with Opal? Going to school, the hostility from Gowd, wanting the dollar, Pearl’s urging, the confrontations, Lara refusing, burying the dollar, Opal sharing secrets? Lara hiding the dollar in the towel, missing, Opal finding it, burying it again, their secret? Gladwyn urging Pearl and Lara to confront bullies?
10. The teacher, at school, aboriginal background, the history of the aboriginal people?
11. The continued work, Lara’s feelings, Gladwyn helping people to steer the car, Lara’s later driving to the hospital? Gladwyn and the injury to her leg, hospital? The children’s reactions? Going to the office for welfare, Lara overhearing Gladwyn’s comments about her not staying?
12. Lara, going to the cliffs, finding the dog, naming it, bonding with it?
13. Larry and his return, Lara feeling unwanted, packing? Out with the dog, Gowd and the confrontation, with the gun, Larry previously telling Gowd’s father about the gun? Gladwyn witnessing the confrontation?
14. Gladwyn, the story of her mother and her death, orphanages? Apologising to Lara? Lara staying? A happy future?
