Hammers Over the Anvil

Beautiful, passionate rites of passage film. Ann Turner, the director, chose her actors well. Charlotte Rampling's cool femininity and Russell Crowe's intense masculinity created a special chemistry on screen. Ann Turner had some very delicate scenes to direct and used an subtle and artful touch. The opening scene was glorious and a joy to see an actor (or anyone) so comfortable in their own skin.

The young boy who played Alan Marshall (Alexander Outhred) was absolutely wonderful. There was a magical, childlike wonder and innocence about the love scene between East & Grace that Alan witnesses and another reason why this film is so good. I don't want to spoil this for anyone who is able to see it... I'll just say this could become one of my favorite films. It's possible that this will be released on VHS soon.

As this year's films slip into the annals of film history, joining all the other visual works of man, the collective aesthetic speaks its choice.

"Hammers Over The Anvil" is destined to be one of those classics that is cited again and again as defining the genre.

The film is depthful, heart-breaking and heart-warming -- a lush visual journey, timeless in its insights. "Coming to manhood" is an essential human theme, and this film portrays it honestly and memorably, leaving the viewer with much to think about, deeply moved.

While successful U.S.-distributed movies "borrowed" their themes and content from this film, eight years in the making, and undercut its distribution potential in the early 1990's, they can never diminish or replace its unique brilliance.

Had its original distribution not been botched, it is my opinion that American movie goers would even now be citing this film along with "Gone With The Wind", "The African Queen", and "It's A Wonderful Life".

Today's film-goers have an insatiable appetite for excellence, whetted by the substance-less salads offered as main entrées. They will find this classic and devour it, again and again.

Final words... gorgeous, warm, chilling, real, unforgettable. This one will not go away.

It's 1910 rural Australia. Alan Marshall is a boy crippled by polio who worships local hunky horse trainer East Driscoll (Russell Crowe). He is befriended by new English arrival Grace McAlister (Charlotte Rampling). She and her husband have brought ostriches from Africa. Alan is taken with her and then he catches her with East.

It's an Australian film based on a book. It's an old style tragic romance and coming-of-age. It's a bit pulpy and melodramatic. The production is better than TV but isn't quite epic enough to be cinematic. More than anything, Alan needs to be more. The young actor is not the most charismatic but even that could be fixed with a more compelling character. He is supposed to be crushing on Grace. He needs to be spying on her as much as possible. More can be done. The story is a bit slow. What it does have are two big time actors doing a smaller project. They do well but at the end of the day, this is Alan's story. He needs to be more. A more compelling move would be for him to have a crush on East. Either way, this kid may not be up to the task and his character should be better anyways.

I read over some of the comments written about this movie prior to actually seeing it myself and after seeing the movie I wonder if some of these people saw the same movie I did. I kept reading about the movie and hearing about the nudity and the sex scenes between Grace and East and about Russell Crowe never the main character himself. The movie is not about Russell Crowe's Character, East it is about Alan and the coming of age of a crippled boy and how he deals with his handicap, girls, maturity, family, friends and sex. East is his idol and actually plays a small role in this film. Personally I think this was a very well done film about Alan with Russell (East) and Charlotte (Grace) playing great supporting roles. I would recommend this movie to anyone interested in a very well done and at times humorous film about a boy coming of age. And for those people concerned about the brief skinny dipping scene in the beginning. You can not see everything on Russell Crowe and the one sex scene between Russell (East) and Charlotte (Grace) is nothing more than you would see on any of the daytime Soaps.

Alexander Outhred stars as a crippled boy in the Australian coming-of-age story Hammers Over the Anvil. He longs to have a normal adolescence, but girls don't pay much attention to him and he has trouble just walking around the countryside, let alone riding a horse like a pro. Naturally, he looks up to the incredibly rugged and capable Russell Crowe, a master horseman with confidence and every woman at his fingertips. To top it all off, Russell is kind to the boy. He appears to have no flaws, but as is the case in every coming-of-age story, the pedestal is bound to topple.

Usually in this genre, there's a bit of a harmless romance; for example, the young kid gets a crush on an adult and she breaks his heart by falling for his idol. I was surprised by the strong sexual content in this movie. If I had a teenaged or pre-teen son, I would be embarrassed to watch it with him. Movies generally warn you as to what you're getting yourself into, though, and the opening scene of Hammers Over the Anvil features a completely naked Russell Crowe frolicking in the water with a group of horses. I wouldn't dream of complaining, but it's just unusual for pre-teen stories to feature graphic sex scenes in them. Charlotte Rampling was drawn to the "beautiful" script, but perhaps she was just envisioning her bedroom scene with her hunky, younger costar. There's nothing "beautiful" about the story. In fact, it takes a very dark turn and becomes quite upsetting. If you want to see a cute, young, Crowe, check out For the Moment instead.

Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to sexual content, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.