Rabbit Proof Fence

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To be human is to confront challenges and difficulties on life’s journey. Individuals may react to such changes in their lives with determination and courage. Determination can be a powerful and driving force; it can lead people to strive to where they want to be and what they want to do. Courage is the quality of mind and spirit that enables a person to endure difficulty, danger and pain. Courage allows a person to show great bravery. The Stolen Generation was a horrific period in history when the Australian Government were forcing the removal of Aboriginal and half caste children from their families and homes to live in white Christian settlements across Australia. The forced removal was official government policy from 1905 to 1971. Rabbit Proof Fence by Phillip Noyce allows the viewer to witness such challenges as they follow Molly on her long journey home to Jigalong in 1931 after she and her sister Daisy and her cousin Gracie are ‘stolen’ and put into a white English settlement, named Moore River, to ‘protect them from themselves’. A journey of 1,500 miles starts with a single step. Noyce illustrates their enormous, vast journey through the barren desert and how difficult it will be. The extreme close up of Molly looking at Olive crying in the shed after being punished for running away, it conveys to the viewer that if they get caught that’s what will happen to them, it makes the journey so much more intense. The cross-cutting between images of the girls fleeing and Moodoo the tracker setting off creates a sense of danger because we know the repercussions if they are caught, it emphasises how challenging their journey home will be trying not to get caught. Not only is this just a psychical journey, it is also an emotional and... ... middle of paper ... ...journey that is about to be taken, as they try to escape the discrimination caused by white authority. This is followed by a shot of them, running from inside the car, showing they will be outpaced and as a result, be taken away. The close up shot of the three girls in the back of the car allows the audience to see their expressions of lost hope. In the film Rabbit Proof Fence, Phillip Noyce uncovers the trauma, upheaval and journey of the victims of the Stolen Generation had to face and come to terms with, how most suffered poor treatment and mental distress. Noyce takes us on a journey through hardship and bravery, he lets us understand that a journey is not only physical but mental too. We see Aboriginals kinship to the land and how they are psychically and emotionally attached to it. One must have determination and courage to succeed through life’s hardships.

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