THAT EYE THE SKY

Australia, 1994, 105 minutes, Colour.
Jamie Croft, Lisa Harrow, Peter Coyote, Mark Fairall, Amanda Douge, Alathea Mc Grath, Paul Sonkkila.
Directed by John Rouane.


1.Tim Winton and his reputation as a novelist, stage and screen adaptations of his work? The issues he raises, Australian, family, religious?

2.The location photography, the farm, the desert, the lake and the trees, the town? The score?

3.The special effects, especially for the aura over the house?

4.The title, Ort and his seeing the sky as the eye of God? Henry’s explanation of the stars, God up there? Ort and Henry, talking to God? The aura as the soul, or divine light?

5.The family, ordinary Australian battlers, living in the Outback? Alice and Sam and their background, hippies, leaving the city, wanting more, settling down? Sam and his job, the service station, fitting into the community? Alice and her being resigned, living in the country, supporting her family? Tegwyn and wanting to get away? Ort and his love for his family, the house, his life? Values and relationships? Religious or not?

6.Sam’s accident, its effect, the family concern, the hospital, in coma? Tegwyn unwilling to see her father and communicate with him? Ort and his demands from his comatose father? The consequences at home, Sam and his return to the house, the care, Alice and her devotion? Each of them contributing? The grandmother living at home? The routines, the bath, meals, talking to Sam, soothing him?

7.Ort as central to the story, his age, parents, with the other children, talking about going to high school, his pet chook and talking (and the chook later being killed)? His love for his father, his play, rowing and in the water?

8.Tegwyn and her age, teenage, bored, unwilling to stay, not caring for her father, her harsh talk, yet her kindness towards Ort, with her grandmother? Her concern about her changing body, the burn with the cigarette?

9.Alice and her hard work, a tough battling woman, her treatment of her children, getting upset, her angers? Her continued care for her husband?

10.Grandma, her age, her memories, care, the piano? Her death and the pathos?

11.The first appearance of Henry, watching the children at the water, arriving at the house, the stranger who intervenes in a family life and changes everyone?

12.Alice and her suspicions, Henry and his helping, bathing Sam, fixing the refrigerator? His friendship with Ort, the clashes with Tegwyn? The discussions with Alice about himself, about herself, the situation, patience, his instructing Ort, not to want revenge – but attacking Cherry?

13.Ort, the death of the chook, Cherry, and the nightmare of Sam?

14.Henry and his reaction, his talk about water, its power? Silences? His story? Mysterious at first, gradually revealing his story, his purpose for coming, his relationship with God, urging Ort to baptism? His being baptised?

15.The contrast with Tegwyn and Henry, her breasts, his meeting her, the sexual encounter, the effect, his acknowledging himself as a sinner and his struggles?

16.Sam and his consciousness, feeding him, sitting up, his collapse and returning to the hospital?

17.Tegwyn and Henry and their departing?

18.The visit to the church, Ort and his mother, a sense of God, the ritual? The cantankerous parishioners and some nasty reactions for silence? Alice and her weeping in the church?

19.Ort, Henry and his story of oil, anointing? The importance of the aura, the fact that Ort saw it? That Henry could empathise? Ort and his God talk, anointing his father, the eyes opening?

20.The question whether this experience was a dream or reality?

21.The open ending, issues of faith? The contribution to Australian cinema about values, God and religion?