The Shiralee

I first saw the Shiralee on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company) when it came out in 1987. It deeply moved me and has been my favourite movie since then. I have desperately wanted to see it again and found it at the video store, then to my disbelief, found that the entire plot had been edited out to fit it onto video. The Shiralee is about a man named Macaulay who travels around the country and shears sheep, brands cattle and boxes for a living. He has a wife and a daughter, named Buster, who he sends his earnings to. He returns to visit and finds his wife romanticising with the town bookie and his daughter asleep in bed after being fed alcohol. Macaulay is outraged and takes his daughter on the road with him. As they travel Macaulay and Buster both become very attached to each other and go through much together, including illness, separation and the mothers plea to get Buster back, for the mere purpose of hurting Macaulay. The Shiralee is a very emotional movie and Rebecca Smart and Bryan Brown are very convincing actors.

I saw this "movie" again about ten years ago on television. It had been turned into a two part series and had a different ending ! It was not a movie, but bar that I thought the whole lot was fabulous, Bryan Brown of course shines like the gorgeous Aussie actor he is and the rest of cast are wonderful in their short but important roles. Unfortunately, we do not see nearly enough of the wonderful part of South Australia where it was filmed. But like all good Aussie films, you could pick it out pretty quickly - the country homes, sheds, shearing sheds. It is a great pity that the film has been changed, but maybe Netflix did that !

I adored this from start to finish. It was like stepping back in time to be a fly-on-the-wall in the lives of Mac, Buster and everyone they cross paths with. Every actor in this was full of character and so natural, real life. It was charming with repeats throughout of Mac and Buster walking country roads, revisiting the same characters with the stories extending each time. The filmmakers did an amazing job with how this was shot. Honestly I shed a tear at remembering these kind of days before the Internet took over but I'm so grateful for it to because it brought me this gem I never would of seen without it!

A really great film, although often classified as a TV mini series as it was originally made to be shown in two parts on TV. A VHS video was released in Australia only, but was quite heavily cut (maybe to fit it on the tape). More recently, a D.V.D. has been released, also in Australia, which is the full "film" without anything cut out.

It's too long to watch in one sitting, but is great to watch over a couple of evenings. It's full of such genuine, human moments, juxtaposed by often poignant and sometimes witty writing.

It's all about relationships centering around the lonesome Macauley. He has a broken marriage, friends with problems, friends who help, a love interest and all the time Macauley's daughter is trying to keep up with him and his life on the road. `Dad` is too macho to express his feelings, his young daughter realising this, projects her feelings for him onto her teddy, that then acts as a go-between for her and her father. Strangely, this is the closest relationship he has!

This film offers an experience that is as close to that of reading a book as any that I have seen; not in the sense of it's accuracy of portrayal, but in the `whole experience`. If a book could have moving pictures and voices, it would be like this film.

My kids & I watched this movie on the Disney channel I believe about 16 or 17 years ago and we still talk about it today. Bryan Brown was excellent and so was the little girl who played his "shiralee". We love Australian movies (at least the ones we have seen) and would love to see this one again and again.