JEDDA

Australia, 1955, 101 minutes, Colour.
Ngarla (Rose) Kunoth, Robert Tudawali, Betty Sutter.
Directed by Charles Chauvel.

Jedda was the first film made by an Australian director in colour. It was made by Charles Chauvel with his wife Elsa, pioneer directors from the 20s with such films as Heritage, Sons of Matthew. Charles Chauvel died a few years after making Jedda.

The film starred Mary Rose Kunoth, who later became a nun and a political activist. The star was Robert Tudawali. In the 1980s, Steve Joddrell directed a feature film about Robert Tudawali starring Ernie Dingo. Frank Wilson portrayed Charles Chauvel. This film showed the tribal origins of Tudawali, the effect of filming Jedda, the aftermath and his drinking and his being used for political purposes in the Northern Territory.

Jedda is a classic tragic story – with more than a touch of the operatic about it, especially in the Northern Territory settings, the beautiful ochre-coloured backgrounds for the action. It shows Jedda living with a family, her being lured to walkabout by the attraction of the tribal man. They are pursued, the film ends melodramatically on a clifftop and in tragedy and death.

Jedda was not such a box office success on its first release, Australian audiences not being accustomed to watching films about Aboriginal issues (which was the case into the 70s and the box office failure of Fred Schepisi’s The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith). By the 1980s and 1990s, with many more films on these themes, the topic was acceptable. Bruce Beresford made The Fringe Dwellers in 1986, Philip Noyce, who had made the short feature Backroads with activist Gary Foley in 1977, made Rabbit-Proof? Fence which was a success in 2002. Other films on Aboriginal themes released that year included Black and White, The Tracker, Australian Rules, Beneath the Clouds.
1. Interesting, entertaining? Its impact in the '50s? Later? Its importance in the portrayal of aborigines in the Australian film industry?

2. The tradition of treatment of aborigines in films? Subordinate roles? The 'enemy'? The questions of comparisons of civilisation? Treatment since the '50s? During the '70s and '80s? The film as an important watershed in the portrayal of aborigines?

3. The work of Charles Chauvel? His nationalism? Sense of the history of Australia? His epic touch? The range of his interests? This film as a climax to his career? His contribution to Australian cinema?

4. The quality of the colour photography? The first colour film by an Australian company? The use of light, bright colours? Authentic location photography? The desert and its colours? The desert bush? The mountains, the rivers? The flora and fauna? The contrast between the cattle stations and the outback? The environment as a character - the living world of the aboriginal?

5. The importance of the landscape: its appearance, colour, life, environment, influence? Life and death? The relation to aboriginal myth, religion? Dreamtime?

6. The structure of the film in two parts: Jedda's birth and her upbringing as a white; the second part with her fascination by Marbuck and her abduction? The contrast between the two parts in presentation, dramatics, mood? The balance between the two different styles? Insight into Jedda’s experience?

7. The style of the screenplay, dialogue and bold characterisation and highlighting of situations? The operatic style of the film? Of the acting - gesture, camera shots, locations - the staging of larger-than-life events?

8. The opening in the Outback: the death of Jedda's mother, the death of Sarah McMann's child? The immediate highlighting of the white child and the black child? The dead white and the living black? The two mothers - the dead black and the living white? Grief, helplessness, help? Resentment and love? The dramatics of the situation? An image of the black and white encounters in Australia?

9. Sarah McMann?, her grief, the death of the child, reaction against the blacks, resentment and jealousy, attachment to Jedda, naming her after the bird? Her taking the place of her own child? Sarah's needs, treating Jedda as a white girl, education and culture, civilisation? Her a prior! ideas on education? Her patronising Jedda - without realising it? Refusing to let Jedda go to her own people? isolating her and not understanding her deep feelings? The worthiness and unworthiness of her motives? The eventual having to face reality? Her love for Jedda actually causing the ultimate tragedy? The portrait of an Australian outback wife? Relationship with her husband? Her managing of the household?

10. The character of Jedda: as a baby, the circumstances of her birth, growing up in a white household in a white style, the wealthy home, letters and learning, music and piano, civilised manners, English language and not learning her own traditions, heritage? Her yearnings the way these were visualised and communicated? The stirrings, passion,' the music, the language? The strain and tension in Jedda?

11. The narrative device about Jedda's growth, education, half of Jedda in two worlds? Her being in charge, work etc.?

12. The background of the Australian cattle station: details of work, the cattle, the white workers, the black?

13. The portrait of the aboriginals: their being domesticated, their domestic work around the house, the men working for the cattle? The presentation of the walkabout the shedding of clothes. the going out into the desert? White ignorance about the meaning of the walkabout, the religious significance? The arrival of Marbuck at the station and the repercussions for the aborigines? The whites?

14. The presentation of walkabout: the visuals, the significance, the comments, the women going on the walkabout, Jedda's desire to go on the walkabout?

15. Jedda and the fascination with Marbuck?, Looking at him, watching him, her imagination, her wandering the bush, her being taken by him, her willingness and unwillingness? The transition in the dramatic structure of the film in her association with Marbuck and her being abducted? Robert Tudawali's strength and presence as Marbuck? The silent aboriginal? The strong masculine type? A potential hero - or villain? The way that he was filmed, like an icon, statue? A passionate man? The symbol of aboriginal traditions?

16. The dramatics of the fire, the panic? The repercussions of the fire? The news about Marbuck, the assumption that he had abducted Jedda? The rounding up of the posse and the chase?

17. The flight and chase structure of the second part of the film: the antagonism between Marbuck and Jedda? Their inability to communicate by language, the communication by gesture? Jedda's fear? The range of terrain through which they passed, the desert, the sand, the river. the crocodiles and Marbuck's fight with the crocodile - a symbol of the heroics and the protection of Jedda? Marbuck's skill in eluding the posse? The arrival at the mountains, the climbing of the mountains? His ability to deceive his pursuers?

18. Marbuck's arrival amongst his tribe? His status? His reputation as a killer? The elders and their council? Disapproval of Marbuck? The men condemning him, the women and their disapproval? The pointing of the bone and its effect on Marbuck? The women and the violent attack on Jedda?

19. Jedda's fear. her being taken back into her traditional world? The fascination with Marbuck? Her having to rely on him? For survival? His ability to save her and give her sustenance in the desert? The condemnation by the tribe and its effect on her? The build-up to the sexual encounter? The sacredness as well as the violence in the sexual encounter? The impact for Jedda?

20. The counterpoint of the pursuit of the posse? The white men pursuing the black? Their antagonism towards him? Wanting to protect Jedda? Their being tricked by Marbuck? The growing closer and eventual arrival? Their discovery of the tragedy?

21. Marbuck gradually growing madder? The effect of the pointing of the bone? His inability to cope? Jedda as his victim? The operatic climax at the edge of the cliff, the tragic pair dying falling from the cliff?

22. The tragic elements in the story? Symbol of the interaction between black and white, the repercussions of the aboriginal girl trained in white ways and becoming the victim of the traditional black? How pessimistic the story and its message? Indications for relationships between black and white?