Swimming Upstream Themes

INTRODUCTION

Swimming Upstream is a 2003 Australian drama film directed by Russell Mulcahy. It shows the life of Fingleton from childhood to adulthood, and dealing with a loving family. Shine is a 1996 Australian drama film based on the life of David Helfgott, who suffered a mental breakdown and spent years in institutions. The screenplay was directed by Scott Hicks. These movies both involve characters, actions and themes to make the audience feel emotions throughout the Australian films.

CHARACTERS

Inside the movies they both contain protagonist and antagonist characters and both have a father and son relationship, the son being the protagonist and the father being antagonist. Harrold Fingleton the father from swimming upstream is an antagonist

Rivalry is also a theme used in this movie, for instance when Tony and john competed against each other in a race, they were trying to win their fathers love and affection, so they were rivalling against each other for it. Love is another major theme, the children of Harrold would do anything for their mother, Dora Fingleton, when their father was being abusive whilst drunk they would stuck up for Dora because their love for her was so strong. Shine touches on themes as diverse as the nature of genius, the triumph over adversity and the destructive power of love. There is an undeniable kindship and the extreme courage of an individual. Love is the major theme in shine. The movie shows two most extreme sides of love. The first is Peter’s obsessive and domineering love. Scott Hides defies us to label Peter as just another abusive father trying to live vicariously through a son, but at times he can be comforting and gentle and his feelings for David are genuine, but there are instances when violence and outbreaks has cruel results within the movie. The other face of love is the healing, undemanding one, as Gillian offers her strength and understanding to David, helping him rebuild his