High Ground

This film is quite disturbing to watch, given the story and its setting against a backdrop of a dark history. I feel so sorry for what happened in the film, I really feel for the victims.

This film was truly exceptional, though I think that to truly appreciate it you need to be, or have lived in Australia. A lot of beautiful shots and sound effects, felt like a documentary sometimes but this added to the film and didn't ruin the pacing. You always heard the sound of the wind and the birds, a lot of effort was put into this to make you feel like you were always out bush. Would highly recommend.

High Ground is one of those really good films that seemed to have got lost in the Covid Pandemic. Released last year to an open air audience in Perth Australia it's seems to have gone under the radar since . Which is a shame

In a bid to save the last of his family, Gutjuk, a young Aboriginal man, teams up with ex-soldier Travis to track down Baywara, the most dangerous warrior in the Territory, his uncle.

The first thing that hits you about the film is the setting and cinematography. Kadadu , Northern Territory looks absolutely stunning and a big credit must go to the Director Stephen Johnson and Cinematograper Andrew Commis.

The second is the acting . There are good performances all round but the stand outs are definitely Jacob Junior Nayinggul who plays Gutjuk and Simon Barker who plays Travis .

The story is about revenge but the problem is both sides want it .

You watch this and you release how the Australian police didn't care about aboriginal life at all and it's a real eye opener .

Recommended.

Inspired by real events.

The film is set in the 1930s, North Australia. High Ground follows two men who both have a past filled with pain and hurt. Travis (Simon Baker) is a gun for hire and a skilled bounty hunter. Daily, he is filled with guilt and is haunted by his dark past. He also seeks redemption for his wrongdoings. The second man is a young indigenous man named Gutjuk (Jacob Junior Nayinggul), whose past includes witnessing his own family get brutally murdered when he was just a young boy. From being a sole survivor as a child, Gutjukwas taken away from his village and put under the care of another. As Gutjuk becomes a young man, he receives word that his uncle, Baywara, is still alive and is currently a wanted man for crimes around the Northern Territory. Now, both Travis and Gutjuk will team up and work together to try to save the last of his family. The question is, can these two men work together, trust one another, and find peace from their dark past?

High Ground is a brutal film and a gritty revenge tale. I cannot deny the film can be unsettling at moments due to the dramatic themes and because its story is based on actual events. The action here is also quite violent and realistic. The visuals and filming style are a knockout. Filming styles, including close-ups and use of drones or overhead shots, have been used to show off Australian landscape and animals. The sound design and effects are brilliant. Sounds such as gunshots and other environmental noises (such as grass, wind, bees, birds) are all positives in the film. The sound effects here also help create added tension and suspense during critical moments.

Performances are solid, particularly from Jacob Junior Nayingul as Gutjak. Gutjak as a character is dealing with many challenges as a young man, along with having to make hard choices such as who can he trust and which side should he take. Other actors including Simon Baker, Jack Thompson, Aaron Pedersen and Callan Mulvey all bring something fresh, and I feel they were rather convincing on screen.

The film begins with a gruesome, heartbreaking first act, and a general plot is set up shortly after. The film's pace for me would best be described as a slow-burning revenge tale, and it is filled with unpredictable and tense moments. The pacing, while it is slow, never felt dull. I will admit there was a moment in the film that felt like a final climax, but to my surprise a final, second climax was yet to come. Some edits also seemed questionable as scenes ended and suddenly cut to a shot of birds flying. Moments like this felt out of place and abrupt. While images of animals certainly look real for most of the film, there was one moment, including flying birds which did make me question if it was CGI and not real.

Overall, this is a gruesome and gritty revenge tale which is based on actual events. The film's plot is engaging and unpredictable. Performances are stable, and the film's visuals along with all the use of sound effects are equally impressive. As the credits rolled, I was generally left feeling rather impressed and touched by what I had witnessed in my cinema. I was also surrounded by the silence of other viewers. While it is filled with unsettling moments, it's certainly an Australian film worth supporting on the big screen.

7.1/10 - Walkden Entertainment

High Ground is going to be inevitably compared to Jennifer Kent's The Nightingale, but both films are ultimately distinguishable. What's clear about High Ground is that it's no easy watch at all. It's a confronting look at post-colonial Australia, the inherent racism and corruption in the Australian law enforcement, and the atrocities committed against Aboriginal Australian tribes. It's important that we reflect on the horrors of our history to learn from our mistakes, so I'm glad that High Ground has a heightened focus on the Indigenous Australian perspective and received a wide release. It's a film that's certainly angry, but it also has important intentions and themes in mind, reminding us how violence begets violence and shows us the consequences of cultural division.

As such, High Ground strives with authenticity and grit. It has excellent acting from first-time performers Jacob Junior Nayinggul, Witiyana Marika and Esmerelda Marimowa, and it's great to see Indigenous Australian representation. There's also equally strong performances from Simon Baker, Callan Mulvey and Jack Thompson, and while Caren Pistorius and Ryan Corr do their best, they are given little material to shine. Andrew Commis's cinematography is spectacular, which highlights the beauty and harsh nature of the Northern Territory, and the decision to include a fully Aboriginal soundtrack is smart. From graceful direction to handsome production values, everyone involved in High Ground worked hard to create a strong representation of Aboriginal culture and it's what shines most in this film.

High Ground's themes were working well for me and I was invested in the buildup... until the last 20 minutes. That's where the tension fizzled out, as the writing lost track of logic, failed to utilise the importance of its character roles and muddled the film's thematic depths to the point that it rubbed me off the wrong way. While I'm starting to see the intentions behind the ending, its sense of incompleteness and narrowness just doesn't sit right and undermines the strengths of High Ground. It was where I realised how much I didn't care about the shallow supporting character work, it messed up the slow burn and there was also questionable editing. It's an ending I found to be so disappointing that it almost ruined the film. Don't get me wrong, High Ground is one of the better Australian films out there that has good intentions in mind and its authenticity and representation are enough to warrant a watch. It has enough to fuel some much-needed conversations in our Australian society, but these could've been driven greatly by a stronger impact, which High Ground doesn't fully reach.

Plot and Characters (5/10) Presentation and Direction (7/10) Acting (9/10) Script (4/10) Setting/Locations (9/10) Tone (8/10) Cinematography/Visuals (8/10) Sound/Music (9/10) Editing (5/10) Pacing/Length (6/10)

Score: 70/100.

LIKES: +Authentic portrayal of Aboriginal culture +Overall powerful presentation +Brilliant performances +Beautiful, harsh locations +Stunning cinematography +Realistic sound design, great music choices +Gritty, bleak tone that provokes the film's themes

DISLIKES: -Disappointing conclusion almost undoes everything -Abrupt, distracting editing -Some shallow character work