Samson & Delilah

A really good film showing the grim realities of Aboriginal life through the 'love-story' of Samson and Delilah.

What really impressed me with the film was the fact that both lead roles were played by amateurs. Both played their characters incredibly and (hopefully) have long and successful acting careers ahead of them.

Sure, there was little dialogue between them (Samson only says one word in the whole film) but to be honest as the film went on I grew to like this. Yes, you could argue that more dialogue would have developed their characters more, but by the end I had become comfortable with it and was glad that the director had taken this approach.

The cinematography is superb and the topic both harrowing and sad.

I scored the film an 8 because the last 10 minutes is basically romantic nonsense. Really the film should have finished at the car accident, but after a film that had so little light and positiveness then I can understand that it needed the solace that the 'romantic' ending gave it.

Don't go by the fact, it's an Australian film made by a virtually unknown aboriginal writer-director-cinematographer Warwick Thornton on a shoestring budget with untrained first-time actors. "Samson and Delilah" is a movie Robert Bresson, Ingmar Bergman, Werner Herzog or Federico Fellini would have been proud of at the pinnacle of their glory. (And in the true Australian tradition, the next movie by Warwick Thornton may turn out to be a total dud – whatever happened to Stephan Elliott? – but I hope not.)

It's made in the austere style of minimalist emotions pioneered by Bresson in 1950s and 60s. There is no background music, other than a few recordings the two characters listen to on radio or tape; and hardly any dialogues (the two 14-year old aboriginal protagonists don't exchange a single word throughout the film).

Getting bored? Don't be. It's a profoundly touching and satisfying art film, the like of which we have not seen too many in the history of world cinema. It would easily be in my personal top-50 best movies of all times. However, if the best of Robert Bresson, Ingmar Bergman, Werner Herzog and Federico Fellini bore you, then please don't bother.

This movie is one that demands something from the movie goer. It needs to grow on you slowly. The pace is slow and if the audience is patient and prepared to give something back to the film it will affect you. I found it repetitive at first but rather than switching off I stayed with it and was glad I did. The acting is excellent. It is not a movie for the feint hearted and it is depressing. It should be. It is a film about hopelessness. Its hard to like Samson yet there are moments he smiles and your heart goes out to him. Della is superb as is the old woman and the drunken man who lets them share his home. Films like this should be made as there is an honesty you rarely see, the film is not dogged by political correctness. There is a danger people will not feel compassion for the characters as they are not glamorous likable people. The more you allow the film to touch you and you open your heart and your mind you will feel great compassion and love.

Saw this at Cinema Nova in Carlton this afternoon..There was a lineup of 100 deep to get into the cinema, something I have never experienced before at Cinema Nova..The movie started and there was silence..around us and in the movie! Words weren't needed..Things we have read, things we have been told about, we watch unfold in front our eyes..Unflinching in in it's portrayal of a culture and people abandoned and victimized by us Australians..The movie itself is brilliant, but what message will we take away from it? Go to work tomorrow and discuss with people how brilliant it is? Have lunch/dinner with friends and rave on about it's searing truth? We were ready to help the people affected by "Black Saturday" so generously, but what about these people who need such a huge helping hand and who have been truly abandoned by us even though they are the original bearers of this great land of ours? Such fantastic pictures we paint of Australia, mate! Sunny, beaches, seafood, Opera House, the Harbour bridge etc..but for these people the reality is painfully far from all that..

Deeply affecting for me, I hope that everyone at the cinema today felt the same..As a nation, we need to galvanize ourselves so that we may save this important heritage from becoming completely extinct..But I fear many of us will shy away at the magnitude of the task ahead..It's a race of people we have hardly ever understood and so different that we steer clear..Yes, I have been one of those people who have looked at them with suspicion in stores, in super-markets, in restaurants and cafés etc..I have learned a few things today and hope I can help in some way..

Watch this please, it's an important movie with huge social implications for our society and for us as Australians..Too beautiful for words, Samson and Delilah will take your breath away

OK, so I finally went out and watched this film and I really did not like it a great deal either. I am Aboriginal and from a small community and now live in the city and I am very familiar with a lot of what the film presents.

I think the acting was great and they both came across very real but I think the script or lack of was very unbelievable. I understand why Samson didn't speak, because sniffing petrol actually destroys the brain, but Delilah should have spoke at a lot of times. There is no reason for her not to speak, especially since she seemed at least a bit switched on. I understand her Nan just died and that affected her, but it is just not really real that she would have not have said anything to Samson ever. If she had enough frame of mind to go get paint and canvas and try to sell she would have definitely at least said something to somebody. I think the film maker was trying to be artistic and he sacrificed dialogue for it, and it was not believable to me. I also understand non-verbal communication is a very big part of my culture, but when we are with our own people we talk a lot. I know a lot of people dealing with similar things and they definitely speak. I had no problem with Samson not speaking because of the petrol, but I had a very big problem with Delilah not speaking.

Also, people keep saying they communicated through body language and looks, but for the most part they didn't do that either. They did it a little in the first few scenes at the town camp but after that they didn't really communicate at all, it was more like she was just following him around and he was too high off petrol to really care. By not allowing his characters to speak he did not allow them to express their frustrations and anger and this really was a let down.

I also did not believe it as a love story. The first scenes of courting made sense but she did not seem to take a shine to him at any part of the movie, it just seems like she stayed with him just because. I mean did she ever even smile at him? Aborginal people are very passionate and it makes no sense to me why they did not really interact with each other or what she liked about him.

I think a lot of people who like this film think it gives them a glimpse at remote Aboriginal life, but I think it does not offer any explanations and leaves too much open for interpretation and it seems to me most people interpret wrong. I also am not comfortable with the shoplifting thing and the lack of positive Aboriginal characters. There are never any good Aboriginal characters for our youth to aspire to be like on TV, all we got is sports and music, thats not good.

I think the praise this film is getting should have been given to Yolngu Boy ten years ago. That is a film that was criminally overlooked and still is.

regarding Samson and Delilah, I liked the portrayal of petrol sniffing but as an "optimistic love story" that it is presented as, I see no optimism in the film just hopelessness (which I personally don't feel reflects reality) and I did not believe it as a love story either.

I think it might have worked as a short film but as a feature film it is very underdeveloped and really does not allow people to connect with the characters or the story. I have no problem with people liking art type films, but when it is presented as being real and as a reflection of Aboriginal life in remote communities but it really is not real because it is trying to be artsy, I have a problem.